Eating the Forbidden Fruit and Sin
Let us now take a deeper look into just what it meant for Adam and Eve to have eaten of this forbidden fruit. Although it was quite permissible for them to look upon the tree, their downfall was in the partaking of it. Just as Israel could gaze upon the glory of God as it descended upon Mount Sinai, but was forbidden to come near the Mount upon sentence of death, even so God set boundaries about this tree. What is the difference therefore, between gazing upon the tree and eating of its fruit? To look upon the tree was to admire all that God is, to be in wonderment and awe of His glory. However, to reach out, take of the fruit, and to eat it, was to try and partake of what makes God “separate from sinners,” whose ways are “higher than the heavens.” As an allegory, we may gaze upon a beautiful sunset with our eyes; we may drink in the glorious colors and patterns of the sky as the sun goes slowly down; in our souls we are somehow made to feel at peace and rest as we view the handiwork of the awesome Creator of such wonderment. However, if someone were so vain as to think, and tell others, ‘This sunset is so glorious, I wish to become a part of it, and have others gaze upon me also as a part of its beauty; I will begin at once to build a spaceship that will carry me to the sun.’ Why, anyone hearing of such a proposition would immediately answer, ‘You fool, you will be burned up before you even get close to the sun.’ Even so, “our God is a consuming fire,” and if we attempt to be like Him, or approach Him in the wrong way, we too will be consumed by His holiness. No creature, be it beast, man, or angel, could ever, by its own efforts, be like God. Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Exo 19:9 And the LORD said unto
Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may
hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses
told the words of the people unto the LORD. Heb 7:26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. Psa 65:8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. Heb 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Isa 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah
died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,
and his train filled the temple. Adam and Eve walked with God in their innocence; they had no conception of the vast gulf between their goodness and God’s holiness; therefore, by the mercies of God, they were not condemned in the presence of God. However, by eating of this tree, they made the law a part of their being and lost that innocence. Just how then, may we say, does the eating of some fruit cause this to happen? We have already seen that the trees of the Garden represented all forms of knowledge. The Garden, as it were, was a great library of information that man could, with his mind, feed upon. The Scriptures often compare the reading of God’s Word to that of eating it. When we eat something, it is taken into our digestive system, processed, and then becomes a part of our body. The carbohydrates we derive from foods are the source of energy for living; the proteins, vitamins, and minerals of the foods we eat, are the building blocks of our cells; and they provide the necessary compounds that we need for the overall health and proper functioning of every organ in our body. Even so, when we take something into our minds, our thoughts process it, and it also becomes a part of our psychic, our soul, the inner man. Psa 119:103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Eze 2:7 And thou shalt speak my words
unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for
they are most rebellious.
Eze 3:1 Moreover he said unto me, Son
of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto
the house of Israel. Jesus said that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” We need intellectual food to sustain our inner well being, to grow as a person, for the proper health of our minds. Intellectual food is that which leads us to new ideas and accomplishments. Every man’s life is built upon that which is passed down to him, either from books, stories, songs, pictures, or any other media that can be processed by the mind. However, God is the original source of all knowledge, and that knowledge was in the Garden of Eden in its purity and completeness. Mankind has not evolved, or discovered on his own, the wonders of this universe. No one will ever be able to say, that they have discovered something entirely new, something that even God does not know. No person is a self-made or self-taught man in the truest sense; every person feeds upon the thoughts of others, and then processes and expands upon that knowledge to better himself and maybe the world. We have the sad evidence, that when some children have been locked into rooms with no outside stimulation, they grow up as mere animals. They are given food to sustain their bodies, but nothing to sustain their minds. Without any mental resources upon which to feed, they may have adult bodies, but they are intellectual babies. No one is born with a developed memory bank, but is dependant upon an outside source of mental nourishment; and the original source of that food was the trees of the Garden, planted there by God. Matt 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Gen 2:8 And the LORD God planted a
garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had
formed. How have most, if not all of man’s inventions come about? Has not man observed the wonderment of God’s creation—birds in flight, lightening in the sky, the growth of plants, the power of fire, wind, and water, just to name a few—to gain the insight and knowledge to make things better for himself. These things are all a part of the Garden that God designed and made for man’s good. Man can not bring something out of nothing, only God can. Man cannot create something that is entirely new, even to God. Only God has the ability to create new things, and yet nothing is ever new to the all-knowing God. Heb 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Ecc 1:9 The thing that hath been, it
is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall
be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Jesus, who is the Word made flesh, taught His disciples that they must consume Him, in order for them to have any spiritual life. He said of Himself, that He was the true mania from heaven, the Bread of God sent to give life unto the world. Now, we understand that Jesus was not talking about being a cannibal, which some people misinterpreted Him as saying; for He also said, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” What He taught was, that the words, concepts, and ideas He spoke, were to be taken into a man’s heart, digested, and made a part of that person’s being. Jesus warned that there were those who merely heard with their physical ears, and saw with their physical eyes, but did not understand with their heart; and therefore they were not converted—have a change of heart and life. In the parable of the wise man and the foolish man, the foolish man is the one who hears the Word, but does not make the Word a part of his life. The wise man is the one who not only hears the truths of God, but seeks to make those truths a part of his life. John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 6:30 They said therefore unto
him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee?
what dost thou work?
John 6:48 I am that bread of life. John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Matt 13:15 For this people's heart
is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes
they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart,
and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Matt 7:24 Therefore whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto
a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: In this Gospel Age we seek to make the truth a part of our being, and not just be spectators to what is being communicated; whereas in the Age of Innocence, in which the first couple lived, the opposite was true, but only regarding the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Thus we can see that it is possible to look upon something, but not take it in, or try to make it a part of our life. What Adam and Eve did, was attempt to assimilate this knowledge into their lives, pictured by the eating of the fruit. However, after they took the first bite, they realized that it was a much bigger piece of fruit than they wanted, and that it immediately made them sin-sick, because they could not digest it. However, once they took the first bite, there was no turning back because innocence was lost—“they knew that they were naked.” Moreover, the law demanded that they keep on eating, whether they wanted anymore or not; because the law requires complete and total obedience. It is not like some giant smorgasbord, where we go through the line, pick out what we want, and leave the rest. The law requires that we eat it all, and keep on eating, because the law is never satisfied by what we do. Furthermore, the law is totally unmerciful and unforgiving, and the penalty for noncompliance is no less than eternal death. God has eternal life within Himself because, although He does not give obedience to the eternal law, He always fulfills it. Adam could not fulfill the law, and therefore he died. Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is
enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. Rom 7:10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
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