According to Genesis 2:9,”And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17)

The first and only commandment God gives to Adam was not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Later in the same chapter the Lord God creates for Adam a help mate named Eve since “no suitable helper was found for him” (Genesis 2:20).

You may know what happens next.  The serpent seduces Eve. Adam and Eve sin against God by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. These events depicted in Genesis chapter 2 and 3 are what is commonly referred to as “the Fall”, or mankind’s fall from Grace. Sin entered humanity and our relationship with God was severed.

Apart from the obvious and immediate repercussions of eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil -- What else did Adam and Eve experience?  The Bible says that their “eyes were opened and they knew they were naked”, and they both immediately covered themselves with fig leaves and hid from God. You could conclude they knew shame and they feared God. 

So how exactly does this affect our lives and marriages? After all, we were not there to prevent this, nor did we sin like Adam and Eve. So why should we have to suffer the consequences from their actions?  It just does not seem fair does it? In the epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul gives us a clue as to how and why this sin from the Garden affects our lives. Consider the following passages:

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. (Romans 5:12-14) (Emphasis added)

Our inheritance of their (Adam and Eve) sin is a matter of law – impartial, impersonal law. That is what Paul is explaining in the above passage. We will be hitting on the matter of law in more detail in the section entitled Spiritual Laws, but suffice it to say for now, sin entered into the human race the minute Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. And all of us their decedents actually inherited three things from our parents Adam and Eve:

1.) Death entered into us from their disobedient act.
2.) We inherited the knowledge of good and evil from the fruit of the tree.
3.) We also inherited their “hope” of what would be the outcome of eating the fruit.

After all, don’t you think they were hoping to be like God, able to distinguish between good and evil? Unfortunately, the knowledge of good and evil did not produce a godly life for them at all! The next turn of events in Genesis reveals Cain killing Abel. You see, sin defiles the sinner and the people around him, and it does so very quickly.

Let us back up now. I said earlier that this whole mess was passed down to you and I, and it is. Think of it as a kind of “spiritual DNA.” How do we recognize this in our lives? Well in us, we see it as an attitude of the heart that says, “When I grow up, I’m going to move so far away…” or “If I can just get that piece in my life in place and that other piece gone things will start getting better…” or “these people at this church are nuts, I am going to that other church across town” or “if I can just summon up enough will power, I’ll be able to break free of this thing …” Do any of these statements sound familiar? Ever hear one of your loved ones make statements like these? Have you ever made them yourself?

In other words the knowledge of good and evil says, “I know what’s good, and I know what’s bad”. Sadly, it never produces a line of thinking in us that is in accordance with God’s laws. It does not inform us “that from the heart flows the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23), or “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12). Instead, it leads us into deeper and deeper disillusionment with both God and man.

So we are indeed “dead in [our] transgressions”! (Ephesians 2:5) How will we ever “rule and reign with Christ” (Revelation 20:4)? The answer is for us to somehow get back to the Tree of Life. Now since we have just about as good of a chance of reaching the “Tree of Life” in the Garden of Eden as Adam and Eve did after they were expelled, we have to look for another route. The answer of course, is in The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. As you know, our Lord was crucified on a cross. Crosses are made of wood; and wood of course comes from trees. The Bible says that anyone hung on a tree was accursed of God (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). The Bible also says that Christ became our curse, nailing our sins to the Cross (Colossians 2:14). So in a sense, Christ could be considered to have been nailed to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, thus providing atonement for the sins of Adam and Eve (as well as our own of course), and providing a remedy for what was sewn into us by them through transformation by that very same cross, and opening the way again to the Tree of Life.

As you read the articles and case studies on this web site, you will notice certain scriptures that come up repeatedly. Many of these scriptures come from the letters of the Apostle Paul and talk about the believer being crucified with Christ. Through the writings on this website and the counseling that is available (should you choose to take advantage of it), we at MarriageMenders.Net are as passionate as Paul was in helping the Body of Christ reckon themselves dead through the Cross and get free from the knowledge of good and evil.