The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil

Producing the right behavior does not necessarily glorify God.

Sept 5

Growing up and always trying to be a good girl, to do the right thing, and to say the right thing left most people thinking I was good. My testimony is not from living an obviously sinful life to doing good. I didn’t suddenly stop doing bad things. In some ways I think it is easier when your sin is blatant. My sin was much more subtle, even to me. I wasn’t prideful, or bitter. The only person I judged harshly was myself. One of my greatest sins was fear. Fear kept me very self sufficient. I worked really hard at doing good, being good. I worked really hard at trying to keep it all together. I loved God. I had given my life to Christ, but I had not been reliant on Him. I was depending on my own determination to be justified. I tried to keep the law, and failed. I tried to do the right things so I would be an acceptable christian. Fear was my Master. I knew I was a sinner, I just didn’t understand it, no one talked about my kind of sin. Years ago I started asking God to reveal it to me, and He did. How do you repent of what you do not know? So, I have understood this idea that producing the right behavior does not necessarily glorify God. Anything apart from dependence on Jesus Christ, whether good or bad is simply my flesh. My flesh can look good or it can look bad. If I do the right thing because I am afraid to do otherwise, it does not glorify God. It may look beautiful, but it is not. When I respond according to my nature, the way God wired me and it appears to be righteous, it is not. It is simply my flesh. It is only when I am dependent on Christ, and follow Him that my actions will glorify God.

These things I have known, but today at the Grace Life Conference God gave me a fuller picture of this truth. When Eve and then Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were desiring to be self sufficient, self reliant, and self centered. They wanted to be like God. They didn’t eat from the tree of good vs evil. Meaning good behavior, vs bad behavior, and knowing the difference. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and it leads to spiritual death because we are trying to do it on our own, independent of God. In the garden they thought they could be like God. Today as believers, too often we think we can do this apart from God. If I do good I will be good. The tree of life connects me to the source of life, Jesus Christ. Only when I am fully dependent and surrendered to God is my life worth anything. Only then are my actions praiseworthy. Not praise to me, but to the one who lives in me.