Matthew 7:24
“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock."
I want to begin this look into Matthew 7:24 by first acknowledging that the New Testament witness tells us, "God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world for us to be holy and blameless before Him, in love." (Ephesians 1:4)
We need to understand that the nature of God is to be in community. He is community. And so, because he is in community by His nature, we need to make note that God, in the foundations of his creation, created an opportunity for us to be a part of a community relationship with him, in love.
Q: How did he accomplish that?
A: He created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
He did this, so that his creation would have an opportunity to choose his love. He predetermined that he would create the way for us, but he didn't predetermine that we'd choose him in love. He didn't simply create robots with no thoughts of their own. He created us to choose him. To hear his words and obey them. He created us free to choose His way, or not. Therefore, he MUST create the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He must create the opportunity for us to make the wrong decisions.
He built the foundations of His kingdom on holiness, and He has predestined that we would be holy with Him in that kingdom. That's a given, he's predetermined that we must be found blameless in order to find entry in his kingdom in love. That's the narrow gate. The gate that runs right through Jesus's cross, the unblemished holy Lamb of God. God did this before he even created anything temporal. That was his intent from before the beginning of our history, to create a community where we and he would know and live, together in love.
Earthly life was yet to begin. Our universe was not yet born into existence. And God determined that we would join his community, his chosen family, holy and perfect in Jesus Christ. That was his intent from before the beginning. And that was the foundation for his creation, which was built upon his Word.
The Word came first.
John 1:1-3
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
And the Word walked with his children in the garden. His words taught them. And from that beginning he wanted them to be holy and wise, to obey his words. He had not created automatons unable to think for themselves. He created them to know him and know all things, but for one thing. He didn't want them to know good and evil, but he left it up to them to choose. He simply warned them to now make the choice to disobey Him.
From the beginning, in the creation garden, two trees stood out. One was the Tree of Life, and the other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What made the Tree of Life special was its ability to give everlasting life to those who eat from it. So why didn't our first parents immediately take from it? It seems to me that it was probably unlikely that the pair even gave it a second thought. They didn't have context. Everlasting life? What's the alternative? You'd have to first understand death in order to appreciate everlasting life.
Now on the other hand, what makes the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil special is the Word's divine prohibition against its fruit: “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” (Genesis 2:16–17). The tree offers humans an option: either they can refuse its fruit, or they can eat its fruit. By refusing, they obey God. By eating, they disobey. But let's look at this choice a little deeper.
This isn't about filling our bellies with tasty food. At a deeper level, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil provides an opportunity to delight in love for God and the life he gives by obeying his words. The offer is to find satisfaction with his words, and to express our love by obeying those words. The offer then is that we not resist his words and it remains even now. That offer for community in God's kingdom remains contingent upon making that very same decision in regard to obedience to his words.
"Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them..."
Jesus said the words.
What words?
The words about the knowledge of good and evil.
It's a new creation moment. Afterall, he said he is making all things new.
We're all standing in the garden with him and being given the very same choice. We are given another opportunity to be in community with him. All that is required to gain access to this community is to sanctify our desires. To choose love over death. To be satisfied with love. To get a grip upon our desires. And now we have no excuse because we all know what our first parents didn't.
In the garden our inability to resist our desires caused our fall from grace, “The tree [is] good for food, and . . . a delight to the eyes, and . . . to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6). We wanted what it had to offer. The temptation was too much to resist. And it was a lie.
You could conclude from this that all of our desires are lies, but you'd be wrong. God created us and called his creation very good. Desires and all. The desire is not the sin. Desires can be good. You can desire good things. That tree was the knowledge of both evil and good. Good is a real thing, an achievable thing. Jesus did it.
What did he do?
He obeyed the word.
When nothing on earth satisfies, when everything about us is everything we hate, what do we do?
We look beyond creation. We look to God, which is precisely what God intended. He created us with desires so big that they can only be satisfied in him. The Word [Jesus] says our desires should draw us to Him. Drawn to something bigger than our own satisfaction. Drawn to his community of love.
Unfortunately, the first people, and every human since, but One, wanted more than what God's community had to offer. They, and we, orchestrated our own downfall. They and we do this when we don't obey His words, when we don't act upon them.
In summary:
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil doesn't give us life, but it does point the way to life. And death. It's a two-way street. It's a choice. Its fruit offers wisdom, and knowledge about good things and evil things. However, that wisdom is inert, without the inertia of our choices. We must act to activate the power, for good or bad. Same goes for the Tree of Life, you can't have eternal life unless you choose it. It has been said that all sin is ingratitude, and a lack of contentment in God's words. I agree.
Jesus said, to gain access to the community of God [the kingdom] we must act upon “These words of mine”.
He is The Word, the new tree of choosing.
“a shoot from the stump of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1)
The tree where our Savior redeems us from the sin of desiring a life apart from God — where the Son of God “bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).
Every day you are writing your own gospel in the choices you make...what does your gospel say about you?
God Bless Your Day and Bless You Every Day.