Your choice: Why the tree in the garden?

 






The gift of free will



Why didn’t God stop Adam and Eve the moment they put the apple to their lips?  Why didn’t he send a bolt of lightening down to remind them the consequences of disobedience? Better yet—why put the temptation there in the first place?  No tree?  No disobedience?   And, we would still all be naked running around a garden…hmmm.  


It all has to do with free will. It has to do with choice.


  1. Initial choice
    1. This is simple but complicated.  God made man in his image.  Three components of personhood are will, intellect, and emotion.  Adam and Eve were created with a will.  A will means there are options.  You can choose obedience and submission to God.  Or, you can choose disobedience and independence.
    2. You could reject Christ:  Matthew 21:42 (NLT) 42 Then Jesus asked them, “Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?‘The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.’
    3. But there are consequences of rejection: Luke 19:41-44 (NLT) 41 But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. 42 “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. 43 Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. 44 They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”  You miss God!  You miss grace!  You miss heaven!


  1. Continual choosing
    1. The road which the believer travels is a road of submission.  The more I submit the more of Christ I experience.
    2. Now I know theologically, I am complete in Christ.  The work has been completed.  I am without sin—because of the work of Christ.
    3. However my experiences, and what most know about me falls short on a day to day basis.
    4. So how do I get as close to Christ as Christ is to me?  I choose obedience I choose submission.



“This is a true martyr of love, annihilating his own will for the sake of the Divine”
Lord please help me to understand this

Grant me revelation.

Annihilation of my will.

My feelings.

My rights.

My votes.

My ego.

My way of thinking.

My wanting.

These are the things that keep me from being a martyr of love.

And a martyr of love is the one who lives in experiential union with you.

I choose obedience.

I choose submission.

The greater the surrender—the greater the presence.

The greater the surrender—the closer the union.


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