*[[Gen 2:9]] KJV* And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
*[[Joh 14:6]] KJV* Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
*[[Joh 14:23-26/KJV]]*
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
*[[Joh 15:5]] KJV* I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
My daughter came to my house not long ago very excited: she had bought a designer purse from a man for a unbelievably low price. My wife inspected her treasure and had to break the bad news to her. She had bought a knock off. To a casual glance it looked the same as an original, but with closer inspection the materials and workmanship were not right. The biggest sign was when you looked inside the liner lacked the true makers design image.
If we make this same mistake with something we buy we lose money; that sucks but it’s not going to change our life. However if we make this mistake with our soul, and buy into a counterfeit relationship with God, the results have eternal results.
Yashua (Jesus) did not tell us He came to teach us to be good, but instead that we might have life. His witness was that even the goodness seen in Him was not from Him but His Father in Him.
The death that Adam took into himself was a knowing (to be one with by experience) of both good and evil. Life is a very different issue than goodness. Jesus concluded that life was to know the Father; which He further described as being one with Him. YHWH’s (God) life is the only true life that exists. Anything that is separated from His shared life, as we became when Adam determined to be a self instead of one with YHWH through sin, is not alive but dead. By His mercy YHWH lets us continue to exist to the end that whosoever will can be saved and redeemed back to the shared life of the Father.
So what are the differences between a true redeemed life and a knock off?
Morality (what man decides is right) instead of righteousness (what emanates from who YHWH is)
Loyalty (to support another regardless of situation) instead of faithfulness (complete trust in YHWH’s sovereignty in any situation)
Charity (to give of one own excess to help another) instead of love (to hold nothing back of all one is or has from the need of another)
Empathy (to understand ones suffering) instead of compassion (to with all that is within you act to ease another’s suffering)
The list could go on but in short anything that could be done by the will of a man determined to be good is still death…life requires YHWH to live and will and move in us.
The fruit of the tree of knowledge is poison it separates us from YHWH and makes us a self. It fruit is not a sweet apple or a bitter lemon but a sweet and sour candy laced with arsenic.
The fruit of the tree of life is YHWH’s own life shared in us that we are one with Him.
