42: The Fruit of the Deadly Tree

Do you know where the love of the world first crept in to the heart of man? It was in the Garden of Eden.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6)¹

“Good for food” — lust of the flesh
“Pleasant to the eyes” — lust of the eyes
“Desirable to make on wise” — pride of life

Adam and Eve bought into the lie that God would withhold something good from them. For a moment they turned away from the love OF God for them. Not believing the love of God for us will lead us to love the world, and the result will aways be shame. Our eyes will be shut to His love, but opened to something else entirely.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Genesis 3:7-11)

What were Adam and Eve’s eyes opened to? The devil had told them that their eyes would be opened to being more like God; but tragically, their eyes were opened to their nakedness. All this time they had been without physical covering. Their covering was the far superior covering of the glory of God. When they ate the fruit of that tree, the all encompassing light of the glory of God left them, and their eyes were opened to their shame.

Consciousness of their sin produced condemnation which produced self-righteousness – fig leaves! When they were conscious of their sin, they hid from God. God said, “Adam, where are you?” And he came up with the great idea of covering himself with fig leaves. God never turned His back on Adam and Eve. God came looking for them. Even after they were banished from the garden, God continued to talk to man, but the intimacy of the garden that had existed between God and man was gone.

Adam and Eve had tried to be more like God by eating from the tree, but when they ate from the tree, they discovered how unlike God they actually were — they had lost their righteousness. They felt guilty and shameful and unworthy. This shows that they were created in the likeness of God, but not in the righteousness of God. They were created in their own righteousness. They were created without sin, perfect and righteous, but they didn’t have God’s eternal righteousness. That’s why when they ate from the tree, they fell and abandoned the glory of God.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

If they had been created in God’s perfect righteousness, they would not have been able to fall. This is an important point. God’s ultimate intent is that we become a NEW creation by receiving His perfect righteousness and relate to Him forever through that righteousness, which will keep us forever in Him throughout all eternity. Today our righteousness is not our own. It’s Christ’s righteousness²; therefore, it can never fail us. Our own righteousness would fall short of the glory of God on a daily basis, but His righteousness is a never-fading glory.

Today we can still “put on fig leaves,” though, by attempting to be more righteous. We take a list of “to do’s” to cleanse ourselves for the purpose of making ourselves “right with God” before we can “enter His presence.” We go through the steps of confession and repentance and praying for forgiveness so that we will be ready to approach God’s throne of grace. Yet this is an oxymoron! How can you make yourself deserving of God’s grace? This whole scheme reveals a complete ignorance of what grace is! You can’t earn grace. Grace is only for the undeserving!

(from pages 86-88 of Unveiling Jesus)

Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!

Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.

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¹All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
²1 Corinthians 1:30