The story of Adam and Eve reveals the essence of what it means to walk with God. We might be tempted to think that what God wants most is for us to be good. He wants us to do good things and not do evil things. Yet, the story of the fall suggests something else. What God wants most for us is the Tree of Life. He wants us to have Christ. God is a God of relationship. All good things stem from relationship with His Son. All evil results when that tie is broken.

I do a bit of preaching at Thorncrown Chapel, and some seem to think it is my job to motivate people to do good things and discourage them from doing bad things. You have heard the old joke. A man comes home from church, and his wife asks what the preacher talked about. “Sin” is the man’s reply. She asks what the pastor said about it. The man says, “He was against it,” and that is the end of the conversation. Shouldn’t a good preacher entice his congregation to do good by showing the great rewards of right doing? Shouldn’t he also use a healthy dose of fear to keep people from evil?

It may surprise you that I disagree. God, Himself, used this very same method with His people in the Old Covenant. If you read about the conditions of the Old Covenant, you will see that God promised His people unimaginable riches if they would obey His commandments. He also threatened unspeakable suffering if they disobeyed. Did it work? If you know the story of Israel, you will see that this method was a dismal failure. Paul called this the weakness of the Law. If it did not work for God, why do we think it will work for us? (Actually, God's intent for the Law was not to make us acceptable, but to lead us to Christ. The Law never justified, it only condemed.  See Galatians 3:24)

I believe good teaching or preaching leads to Christ not just to ideas about good and evil. In fact, teaching that does not point to Christ can lead to all sorts of evil even though its intent is to get people to do good. Consider the teaching of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, and you will see how this is possible.

In the next few posts we will examine the topic of self-definition and the tree of life. We will see that we human beings do not find righteousness by going from evil to good. Righteousness is a Person, the Person of Jesus Christ. When Who He is and what He has done defines who we are, we have come to the Tree of Life.