Monthly Archives: August 2023

THE TRIAL OF YOUR FAITH

Christian Life, ,

THE TRIAL OF YOUR FAITH

“And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So, when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honour on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”

1 Peter 1:5-7 NLT

Have you wondered, as I have often done, why life is so full of hardships? We no sooner get through one struggle than we are into another. Why can’t we just get on with the business of living instead of having to navigate one difficulty after another?

When we left our old life of selfishness and sin behind and experienced the wonder of God’s grace and forgiveness, we thought that life would be plain sailing. Why has it become tougher and more complicated than ever?

The more I think about it, the more I realise that God has introduced something into our lives that is more precious than gold… faith. He gave us faith in Him by His grace when we heard about His gift of salvation through Jesus.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV

This gift of faith came to us in seed form. It was enough to believe in Jesus, but it needs cultivation to grow into fully-formed faith that sustains us through life’s hardships.

So, we ask the question, “How do we grow our faith?” The answer is simple… by trusting God in tough times!

My journey with Jesus over many years has taught me that God values our faith in Him above everything. He is constantly testing us through hardships of one kind or another to see whether we will trust Him in our darkest days. Every difficulty we face is a test. If we believe in God’s sovereignty, then we must acknowledge that God either sets up or permits these challenges to test our trust in Him. Nothing happens by chance.

Peter realised this fact and summed it up in our opening quote. Our faith is of greater value than gold. If gold must be purified by melting it in the furnace to release impurities, how much more must our faith be put through fiery testing. Gold will perish with the old-world system when Jesus returns but not our faith. Our faith in God’s promises is the only guarantee that we will endure until Jesus comes.

… “But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

Luke 18:8 NLT

Faith is the golden thread that connects us earthly beings to the unseen realm where God lives and reigns. To believe in and trust God through thick and thin releases God’s power to intervene in our circumstances. We receive grace to overcome fear and anxiety and God’s mercy to help us when we call on His name.

‘So, let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”

Hebrews 4:16 NLT

The more often we experience God’s gracious intervention when we call on His name, the more convinced we become that He is always reliable, trustworthy, and faithful to His promises. The more we trust Him in the dark, the more we experience His supernatural peace that has no explanation in the natural.

This peace, Jesus said, is His peace which has a powerful role to play in our troubled lives. Paul called God’s peace “a referee” which acts in our lives like a referee in a sports game. The referee stops the game to correct an error so that the game can continue according to the rules.

When we fail to believe God’s promises in any situation in the game of life, we lose God’s peace and feel a disturbance in our hearts. We have exchanged the truth for a lie by believing our fears instead of His Word. Our “referee” has stopped the game to correct the error. When we return to the truth of God’s Word, our peace is restored, and we can continue by trusting in God’s faithfulness in every situation.

We grow our faith until we are no longer troubled by trials and hardships because we are learning, by trusting God in any and every difficulty, to stay in the Word. We sail the tempestuous sea of life with Jesus at the helm.

Is there any point on this journey when God no longer needs to apply this rigorous training? When I look at the lives of some of God’s great saints in the Bible, I am inclined to believe that it is true. God eases off the pressure because it is no longer necessary.

Two characters among many, come to mind, one from the Old and one from the New Testament.

Abraham’s life was a journey into faith. He began as a wobbly pagan with many doubts and failures. He grew in faith until he reached the final test, to offer his son as a sacrifice in obedience to God’s instruction. Abraham obeyed without question, a powerful demonstration of his implicit trust in God.

“It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.”

Hebrews 11:17-19 NLT

God’s word to him when he was about to plunge the knife into the heart of his son was, “Now I know that you fear God…” He passed the final test with flying colours. How do we know that?

In the chapters after this test until his death, there is no record of God testing Abraham again. He remarried and had more children but… nothing seemed to go wrong.

And what of the Apostle Paul? In his writings, Paul hints at his state of mind in his journey of faith. Yes, God called him to suffer and suffer he did. He records some of the many hardships he endured as the greatest of all the Apostles, but he also wrote things like… “I have learned…”, “I am persuaded…”, “And we know…” These all point to one thing. Paul trusted God implicitly in every situation.

As tough as the hardships were that he was called to endure, his faith was rock-solid. He could encourage others because his faith had been tested and brought out of the fire as pure as molten gold.

So, what do we conclude, then?

1. Your faith will be tested and retested until God can say of you, “Now I know that you fear God…”

2. Tests come in many forms and disguises. We will continue to fail until we recognise the source as God, not the devil, and learn to submit and obey without question.

3. When the calm finally comes, don’t be suspicious of God or anticipate an impending disaster. Live in the moment and celebrate God’s goodness in bringing you through the storms to a haven in Him.

4. Keep resting on that promise that brought you through to a place of security and peace and trust your peace to keep you travelling with Jesus to your destination in the Father’s house.

THE THINGS GOD HAS PREPARED

Christian Life, ,

THE THINGS GOD HAS PREPARED

“For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!”

Isaiah 64:4 NLT

“That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.”

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 NLT

A few weeks ago, I was meditating on 1 Cor 2:9, when something caught my attention. I recognised something familiar about the words, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard…” Where have I read those words elsewhere in the Bible?

Then it came to me. It was a verse I had recently sent to a friend…  “For since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you…” Isaiah 64:4

When I reread those two verses side by side, I discovered something amazing. Paul was quoting Isaiah 64:4! That sent me on a search for the meaning behind those words.

If these two Scriptures are pointing towards the same thing, what are they saying?

The word in Hebrew for “wait” in Is. 64 can have the meaning “to pierce”. Where does the idea of “pierce” appear in Scripture?

“But suppose your servant says, ‘I will not leave you,’ because he loves you and your family, and he has done well with you. In that case, take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door. After that, he will be your servant for life. And do the same for your female servants.”

Deuteronomy 15:16-17 NLT

A pierced earlobe was a sign of belonging. Although still a slave, the person with a pierced ear could not be bought or sold because, by having his ear pierced, he was forever the possession of the master he loved.

So, Is. 64:4 might be saying that God works for those who belong to Him by virtue of a pierced ear.

Where else does the idea of piercing appear in Scripture?

“But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.”

John 19:33-34 NLT

Can there be a connection between the pierced earlobe of the slave and the pierced side of Jesus?

As we have said, piercing the ear of a slave completed the slave’s belongingness. No matter what he did, he could never be sold to another slave-owner.

Isaiah tells us that…

“… He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.”

Isaiah 53:5 NLT

Jesus was pierced for us that we might belong to Him forever.

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT

“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”

1 Peter 2:9 NLT

In what way was Jesus pierced for us? Just as the slave, under the old covenant, submitted to being pierced because of his love for his master, so Jesus, for His love for the Father, submitted to being pierced in obedience to Him.

Likewise, we, who are united to Jesus by faith in His finished work, share in His piercing and, therefore, become eligible for all the benefits of belonging to our Master.

Notice that Paul did not say, “…those that He loves…” but “… those who love Him.” Just as the slave’s love for his master was a response to the master’s goodness to him, so “we love Him because He first loved us.” Loving Him prompts our obedience which is our response to His goodness towards us.

Having established our “forever belonging-ness” to Jesus because He was pierced for us, both Isaiah and Paul assert that the God who works for those who belong to Him is unique and different from any other god since He is the only true God.

Now let’s examine what these writers mean by “work” and “the things God has prepared” for those who have been pierced to secure their belongingness.

“Work” in Hebrew can also mean “accomplish” or “bring forth…” What did God accomplish or bring forth? In Isaiah’s writings, the Messianic expectation is fleshed out by many prophecies describing His person, His life, and His work.

What was God going to accomplish through the Messiah? God promised a package of blessings which Jesus would bring forth when He came to do the Father’s will.

So, Isaiah looks forward to what God’s Messiah would do for His people when He came to earth. He would do away with sin and open the way for His people to have a new status and standing before the Father.

He would declare the old system of rituals and sacrifices obsolete by perfectly fulfilling every facet of “the Law” and by giving Himself, once-for-all, as the perfect sacrifice for sin. He would open the way to eternal life for all those who believe in His finished work.

Paul takes up Isaiah’s theme by completing the expectation of what God has prepared for those who belong to Him through Jesus’ piercing. Where Isaiah’s expectation relates to what the Messiah would do to reconcile people to Himself in this life, Paul also looks beyond to the life to come.

Since we have no experience of eternal life in the presence of God on the other side of the grave, our imagination has nothing to connect us to that inexpressibly glorious hope. No matter how far we allow our imagination to run, we will never know what God has prepared for those who love Him.

Therefore, although we cannot conjure up pictures of what it will be, the reliability of God’s promises encourages us to let our future, although indescribably greater than we can imagine, pull us towards its fulfilment.

“You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.”

1 Peter 1:8-9 NLT

Where God’s blessings in the Old Covenant were largely physical and material, the New Covenant opens the way for us to participate in spiritual blessings which the Holy Spirit reveals to us as we live in the faith dimension of union with Jesus.

“But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.”

1 Corinthians 2:10 NLT

God promised the Israelites their own land and the blessings of prosperity and fruitfulness if they obeyed the terms of His covenant. Since they were incapable of obeying Him fully because of Adam’s nature, rebellion, in them, God promised that He would forgive their sin and change their hearts through His Messiah who would come.

That promise came into effect through Jesus and the New Covenant when He became God’s perfect sacrifice for sin. His death opened the way for believers to enter the spiritual dimension of the New Covenant.

God made these spiritual blessings available to us through His promises.

To us who believe in Jesus, God has given the promise of participating in the divine nature. In other words, He is restoring His image in us by conforming us to the image of Jesus.

The process of restoration is a partnership between God, the Holy Spirit, and us as we learn to live our ordinary lives in the awareness of Jesus’ presence as He promised.

THE PURPOSE OF THE SEASONS

Christian Life, ,

THE PURPOSE OF THE SEASONS

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1 NLT

Here in South Africa, we are entering a new season, spring! All the evidences of winter are passing away. Trees and plants, that appeared lifeless during the winter months, are now showing the signs of the life that has been in them all the while.

Spring is the season for planting. The environment is preparing the soil for seeds to grow and flourish – warm sunshine and spring rains are an invitation to beautify our gardens again.

We love the spring. The dark days of winter are slowly giving way to longer days, shorter nights, and the anticipation of new and better things to come. There is a buoyancy in the human spirit that always hopes that winter will give way to spring, in our hearts and in our circumstances.

Spring brings vigorous growth and preparation for fruitfulness. Summer is the pinnacle of the seasons, the slow ripening of the fruit that continues to nourish us for life. Autumn begins the new cycle by draining the strength of the plants and trees from their leaves, dropping the leaves and settling down for the winter rest.

Why the seasons? Imagine if we lived in perpetual summer or never-ending winter!  The purpose of the seasons is to produce the fruit of the soil that nourishes our bodies and keeps us alive.

We need the ever-changing seasons, not only in nature but also in our spiritual lives, to keep us moving on, through times of rest and times of growth, towards our purpose in God to be ever more conformed to the likeness of Jesus. 

God uses every circumstance in our lives as part of the process of transforming us into the image of Jesus. How can we fall in line with what God is doing within us?

Jesus gives us the way to becoming like Him, bearing the fruit of the Spirit which is the replica of His character.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:5 NLT

The purpose of the vine is to bear fruit. It has no other function. The branches are the extensions of the vine that carry the fruit. There is no separation or differentiation between the vine and its branches. When they are one, the sap of the vine flows freely to the branches, nourishing the sweet grapes that are the product of the cycle of that season.

Within the fruit are the seeds that perpetuate the life of the vine to infinity. If the fruit did not cradle seeds, the blueprint for perpetuating the life of the vine, that vine would die in the first generation.

So it is with the believers in Jesus. He is the Vine; we are the branches. So intimate is our union with Him that, as we remain in communion with Him, the Holy Spirit, Christ in us, His life flowing into us, produces the fruit that replicates His character in us and the seeds that perpetuate its life in others.

The seeds of His fruit are in us to continue His life in others, as we witness to Jesus by our lives and words.

What is the spiritual seed that we sow into others?

“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God…. And this is the word that was preached to you.”

1 Peter 1:23, 25 NIV

As we feed on the Vine and nourish our spirits with its sap, the seeds of God’s word take root in us in readiness to speak the truth into the lives of others. Not only does the sap of the Vine produce fruit in us but it also produces fruit in the lives of others as the seed of God’s word begins to grow in them.

Our seasons in life may not follow in sequence as do the seasons of the natural world. They may not follow our chronological age or be as long or short as the geographical position of each region. Our seasons are determined by our responsiveness to the work of the divine Gardener who knows what we need to become increasingly fruitful.

As I meditate on this Word, it seems to me that it is possible to have all four seasons at work in our lives at the same time. What if this is God’s intention? What if His work in our lives is so vigorous and our response to Him so spontaneous that He is able, simultaneously, to grow us in grace and the knowledge of Jesus and, at the same time, to produce the fruit of the Spirit and give us rest in preparation for the new season by drawing strength from what we have learned and experienced?

We need to discern the season we are in to gain the most benefit from its time. Instead of fighting against what may be unpleasant or uncertain, the autumn of pruning or the winter of rest, God wants us to embrace our season. We gain from its work in us and move on to the spring of new life and the summer of greater fruitfulness.

“So, you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son, and with the Father. And, in this fellowship, we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.”

1 John 2:24-25 NLT

THE POWER TO TRANSFORM

Christian Life, ,

THE POWER TO TRANSFORM

“Here is a simple rule of thumb for behaviour: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.'” Luke 6:31-34 (The Message).

31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. Luke 6:31-34

Jesus was brilliant!

What an amazingly simple, yet powerfully effective prescription for creating harmony in the world! But it takes far more than the disposition of ordinary humans to do that.

We humans have far more inclination to destroy that to build and to sustain. Watching television is enough to convince us of that. How many TV programmes and movies and books and news stories are about destruction? And we thrive on them all! Watching or reading about everyday stuff is tame and boring. We like murder and war and bloodshed.

Jesus challenged His hearers, and He challenges us today. Try living this way for a  month and see what it does to your depression; your stress; even your anxieties and fears. How many of the issues you have with others will melt away? How much suspicion, mistrust, dislike, offenses will dissipate? How much peace will you experience in the place of inner turmoil?

Just imagine how far the ripples will go out from the pebble you drop in the pond! You have issues with your husband? Try doing for him what you are always nagging him to do for you. Your wife refuses to be your servant? Try lovingly serving her without expecting any reward. The outcome beggars imagination. Homes would be transformed from war zones to havens.

Jesus put His finger on the nerve centre of our problems — selfishness! What if we dethroned ourselves, just for a month, put Him back on the throne of our lives where He belongs, let God be the centre of the universe, not us, and practised these simple ways to create harmony, not chaos, around us? Jesus said our behaviour would be as visible as a candle in a dark room.

None of these things are difficult to do, but we have strong resistance from inside because they are foreign to our natural disposition. That is the reason why we need a supernatural solution to our problem of selfishness. It may take sheer grit and will power to do what we are not disposed to doing, but it will not last. We will soon be back to our old ways because every kind thought or act would be cutting across our real selves.

What Jesus was describing is “kingdom” living and He said that it takes a “birth” from above to understand and live the way God does. This kind of “power” makes no sense to the person who is used to living by the sword. Is that why the disciples switched off when Jesus spoke about His death? It made no sense to them then that the way to overcome the world system of power through force was to absorb the evil without retaliation until that power could do no more to Him.

Nothing about God’s kingdom make sense to the person who is still dark inside. The disposition of darkness only understands the power that pushes others around. Jesus was advocating a new kind of power, the power to subdue one’s own heart to the advantage of others. The power of love. What the world calls “power”, He called weakness. What He called “power”, the world called weakness, foolishness, but it turned out to be the most powerful event in the history of the world — the cross!

The cross changes things for the better like nothing else can. Force can change the world — for the worse. But the cross changes lives.

Has it changed yours?

THE MYSTERY OF THE TREES

Apologetics, ,

THE MYSTERY OF THE TREES

I have often puzzled over the account of the Fall in Genesis 3. It’s a weird story if we take it literally. It’s no wonder sceptics question the truth of Scripture and read the story as a myth. Some of us simply ignore ordinary good common sense and believe the details as though they actually happened.

There is much in Scripture that is figurative, symbolic and makes no sense if taken literally.

Is this practice of interpreting everything literally a valid way of understanding the Bible? If so, then we must read every parable Jesus told as a literal story, and miss the deeper spiritual truths He was teaching.

One of His purposes for teaching in parables was to separate the casual hearer who had no intention of responding from the earnest listener who desired to have more of the truth. 

“He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,  and ever hearing but never understanding;  otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’  … “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more.  Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

Mark 4:11-12, 24-25 NIV

Hebrew people interpreted according to function, not form: for example, God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock and covered him with His hand. However, God is Spirit. He does not have hands, wings, feathers etc., according to the descriptions of Him in the Bible. To take this action of God literally would contradict who He is.

So, how do we interpret these details? Hebrews would ask the question, “What does a hand do? “, not,” What does a hand look like?”

What if the fruit trees in the Garden of Eden were not literal trees but something else with far bigger implications? What if they are symbolic of a theme that runs through the whole Bible?

“Fruit” in Scripture is often used of the consequences of words and actions, e.g.,

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives.”

Proverbs 11:30 NIV

“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

Proverbs 18:21 NIV

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…”

Galatians 5:22 NIV

God often used word pictures that people could understand to illustrate the deeper truths of His dealings with people.

Take, for example, Daniel’s prophetic visions about beasts representing kingdoms. God actually identified them as kingdoms in His explanation of the visions.

“I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. I approached one of those standing there and asked him the meaning of all this. “So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things:… “He gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it.”

Daniel 7:15-16, 23 NIV

Is it possible that the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” in the Garden of Eden also represented a kingdom – the one over which Satan had control?

“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes: “‘Who can be compared with you in majesty?  Consider Assyria, once a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches overshadowing the forest; it towered on high, its top above the thick foliage…. “‘Which of the trees of Eden can be compared with you in splendour and majesty? Yet you, too, will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth below; you will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword. “‘This is Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the Sovereign Lord.’ ”

Ezekiel 31:2-3, 18 NIV

Ezekiel 31 is an interesting chapter about God’s judgement of the “trees” of Assyria and Egypt. Here, trees obviously represent the kingdoms of Assyria and Egypt.

THE WAR OF THE KINGDOMS

One of the great themes of the Bible is the war between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan which began in heaven.

Satan and his fallen angels rebelled against God, God’s angels made war in heaven against them, overpowered them and banished them to the earth.

“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”

Revelation 12:4, 7-9 NIV

What is the difference between these two kingdoms?

God’s rule is about relationships and is governed by love. In His kingdom, the governing principle is “God in the centre” and “others before self”. This makes for unity and harmony in every relationship. God’s Kingdom is unified because it governs every believer from within by His Spirit. His kingdom is about power to rule over self.

Satan’s rule is dominated by “me in the centre” and “self before others” no matter how much damage it does to relationships. Satan rules over “kingdoms” because his principle of self first operates in every system or “kingdom” that controls the world. His kingdom is about power to rule over others.

There is a close parallel between Adam’s temptation in the Garden and Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.

In the Garden, where Adam and Eve enjoyed all the benefits and blessings of life under God’s rule (they “ate the fruit” of living in the kingdom of God), Satan intruded and lured them by deception into believing that it was better to live under his rule in his kingdom.

Adam chose rebellion against God, chose to eat of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”…and to be part of the kingdoms of Satan where he ( Adam, thought) he could make his own rules. Of course, Satan didn’t reveal the small print in this deal. He works by deception. Once Adam had made his choice, there was no turning back. Adam became the devil’s slave and could only do what Satan demanded in his kingdom.

… and the whole human race is still eating the fruit of that choice.

So, Adam DID die, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

The prize in this war would always be people. God wanted a family of sons and daughters just like Jesus, who would live together forever under His loving rule in peace and harmony. They would manage the earth for God under His direction so that His nature of ECHAD, unity in diversity, would be reflected in the whole universe.

For the devil, the prize was also people, not to bless but to destroy.

Satan tried the same tactic with Jesus.

Satan actually offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship because he wanted to wrest control of the universe from God and control of all the people through deception. If Jesus accepted his offer, He would lose His title and role as Lord.

Jesus never fell for Satan’s lies for one simple reason. He had been sent by the Father to fulfil the law and to die as a law breaker so that He could reconcile fallen man to God. What was the law He came to fulfil?

“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”   “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:28-31 NIV

Put very simply, God in the centre, others above self. And Jesus lived it perfectly.

Now, let’s go back to the garden.

If my interpretation is accurate according to the whole scope of Scripture, the story in Genesis is a vividly symbolic picture of Satan’s battle to get control of what was most precious to God – man.

The tree of life represents the kingdom of God where the life of God, expressed through His love, keeps everything functioning in perfect harmony (good = functional), creating an environment for His human family to live in all the blessing He had for them.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil (functional versus dysfunctional) represents Satan’s kingdom, where everyone, enslaved by selfishness and greed, does his own thing, creating chaos, ruin, and death. Satan’s plan was to gain control by enslaving the whole human race so that God’s plan of a family like Himself would come to nothing.

What would be the outcome of this war? God predicted it in the Garden.

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Genesis 3:15 NIV

His plan involved sacrificing the dearest treasure He had to offer, His Son. God literally put all His eggs in one basket to achieve His goal.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

Isaiah 9:6-7 NIV

“The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”

Revelation 11:15 NIV

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”

Revelation 22:1-2 NIV

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.”

Revelation 22:14 NIV

“And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.”

Revelation 22:19 NIV

In the end, because God is God, the “tree of life” overcomes “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. Through the seed of the woman, God’s kingdom is established forever.

“But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Luke 1:30-33 NIV

So, what happened in the garden, Adam’s foolish choice to change allegiance and move from God’s kingdom of light and life to Satan’s” dominion of darkness”, was reversed by Jesus’ obedience, sacrificial death, and resurrection. The “tree of life” has once again become the kingdom and dwelling place of redeemed mankind.