The Hidden Mystery

The Mystery of the Two Trees:
Part Two

Applying the Lessons of the Two Trees

by Jim Rector of Cornerstone Publications

www.albores.net

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the historical background, the symbolic relationships, and the pertinent significance of the two trees that God planted in the midst of the Garden of Eden – the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This initial Old Testament story is so familiar to people, whether believers or not, that it is something of a challenge just to delve into the account of Genesis 2-4. The subject of the two trees, however, does have a certain intrigue to it, and hopefully the first article on this topic will prove to be both interesting and helpful to those who read it.

In that particular study, we compared the physical layout of the land of Eden and the garden within it to the design of the tabernacle and later temple in Jerusalem. The interesting thing is that wherever Yahweh has a dwelling place, the overall orientation and the various elements involved tend to remain the same. This is precisely the reason why when Moses met with the Almighty atop Mount Sinai, he was given a specific blueprint for designing and building the tabernacle. In like manner, when David desired to construct a permanent place to contain the ark of the covenant and dedicate a house of worship to God, he received direct plans from the Eternal Himself, which were then carefully communicated to Solomon, the actual builder of the temple. In both instances, the divine design was based on God's heavenly dwelling place.

When most think about where God has dwelled on earth in the past, the tabernacle may well immediately come to mind, but it was not the first location. In reality, the Garden of Eden itself has that distinction, and, not surprisingly, it too retains the same kind of blueprint as we find in the later places of worship.

In Part 1, entitled The Mystery of the Two Trees, we took a closer look at the land of Eden and the layout of the garden in particular. We took note of the fact that things were oriented toward the east. The garden itself was planted eastward in Eden. There was only one entrance into the garden, and that was on the east side. When Adam and Eve disobeyed and were driven out, they went eastward, and when Cain murdered his brother Abel, he departed from the presence of the Lord by being banished eastward into the land of Nod.

The direction of east on the compass is most significant with respect to the design of God's earthly dwelling places. The tabernacle faced the east, as did the later temple. There was only one entrance into the Holy Place and the Holy of holies, and that too was toward the east.

In addition, we also delved into the most likely geographic location of the land and Garden of Eden, concluding that the weight of evidence comes down on the side of the Promised Land and the mountains of Moriah in particular, the site of Abraham's offering of Isaac, and, of course, the temple itself. It is also in this same environment that we find the Mount of Olives to the east of Jerusalem, the place where the Messiah was crucified, from whence He ascended into heaven, and to which He will return at His Second Coming.

We then sought to identify the two trees themselves with respect to their symbolic meaning, using the Holy of holies pattern of the tabernacle. Our conclusion was that the tree of life is representative of salvation by grace through faith in the sacrifice of Yahshua. Obviously other aspects could be included, but these form the major substance. In this regard, the tree of life relates to Aaron's rod that budded, as well as to the seven-branched candlestick known as the menorah.

The forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was found to relate to the tablets of the law placed in the inner sanctum of the tabernacle. This conclusion, of course, in no way demeans the law of God, but the choice of the prohibited tree is not only disobedient to the instructions of the Almighty, but signifies the wrong way to receive salvation.

Adam and Eve chose to disobey, and put their trust in something other than Yahweh Himself and what only He could, through His grace, provide. Rather they chose the way of earning salvation by their works, and indeed work is precisely what they were condemned to do until the day they died! For four thousand years, God dealt with a human race that had descended from the tradition of that erroneous choice made millennia ago in the garden.

In the course of time, the Messiah made His appearance in this world, heralding the message contained in the original tree of life, and presenting Himself as that way to genuine eternal life. His sacrifice for the sins of mankind did not by any means do away with the law of God, just as choosing the tree of life in the very beginning would never have abrogated the divine commandments.

After the ministry of our Savior was completed, the apostles carried the gospel of the kingdom to the world, and this was especially so in the case of Paul, a man seemingly unfit in the human sense to be an apostle, but chosen of God to suffer for Christ, and to be the major one through whom the concept of the tree of life would be taught and promulgated. His writings comprise much of the New Testament record that we have in the canon of Scripture, and they are priceless, yet so often misunderstood and wrongly interpreted.

In the face of constant opposition from those with a long history of having chosen the forbidden tree, and thus the wrong pathway to salvation, he conducted his difficult ministry, having to withstand the deception, the lies, the false accusations, the numerous attempts to undermine all the good work being achieved through his tireless labor, and, of course, the outright plots to murder him.

Although successful in the end with regard to expressing the truth and having it incorporated into the Scriptures, Paul met with many setbacks and apparent failures as well. Many of the early believers fell by the wayside due to the propaganda and pressure of the Jewish teachers who constantly sought to publicly discredit Paul. But that was not the only negative situation that was afoot both during and after the apostolic era. The western segment of the ostensible church gained the ascendancy, and began to incorrectly interpret the New Testament writings, especially the letters of Paul. Instead of coming down on the conservative side with the Judaizers, under the sway of the emperor Constantine, they ultimately rejected all things Jewish, including many points of Torah. Watering down the way of life presented in the Bible served the false church officials well, drawing hordes of converts to Christianity, and within just a few hundred years, the Roman Catholic Church became the dominant force in the professing Christian world.

In the two opposing forces, that of the Jews, who clung to the law as the essential means of salvation, and the rising religion of Christianity, which neglected and even sought to change the law, while preaching a message about the person of Christ, lies the two extremes, both of which are born of men under the influence of Satan, and both of which are, of course, utterly in error. In this article, we will discuss both of these wrong approaches to God, His Son, and true salvation.

THE EFFECT OF ADAM'S SIN

Untold millions of otherwise sincere professing Christians have been convinced by their religious authorities that Adam and Eve somehow fell in the Garden of Eden. Now unless our first parents accidentally tripped over the forbidden tree, there is no evidence that they ever fell from anything! The so-called fall of man presumes that he was created in a different mental and spiritual shape than all of the human beings who subsequently descended from Adam and Eve. The Scriptures, however, do not support this erroneous notion conceived and taught primarily by the Roman Catholic Church.

The fact is that Adam and Eve were just like you and me. True enough, they were placed in the most perfect of physical surroundings, and enjoyed audiences with their Creator, and lived in an environment that had not yet become infected with the darkness of the human condition, but these were all advantages outside themselves, advantages that indeed should have worked in their favor, advantages we might wish that we had, but none of them speak to the issue of human carnality.

Adam and Eve were not spirit beings, but rather flesh and blood just like all their progeny after them. They did fine in their idyllic setting – which is to say they had not yet directly disobeyed the Almighty – until the day came when they encountered something or someone most unusual, and which changed their lives forever. They came in contact with the serpent! And it only took one such confrontation to absolutely shatter the foundation of the first human beings on earth! They came apart at the seams and did the unthinkable – they knowingly violated the prohibition against eating of the forbidden tree, bringing a curse upon themselves and all of mankind to follow.

Whatever outward appearance the serpent took in the Garden of Eden, we can rest assured that he was an enticing creature. He obviously was no slimy, slithering snake! We all know the story of how he cunningly deceived Eve, and of Adam's willingness to go along with his wife, even though the Scriptures later establish the fact that he was not caught up in the deception as was she.

Have you ever wondered why Adam and Eve were so easily and quickly taken in by Satan's subtle ways? They were unable to effectively resist even the first challenge they faced. In fact, there is no real evidence that they actually resisted at all! It appears from the brief account that they completely capitulated, forgetting who they were, where they were, and why they were – they even forgot Yahweh Himself, so totally did they come under the spell of the serpent.

After Adam and Eve had sinned, and God confronted the two embarrassed humans, filled with guilt and shame, yet still offering their excuses, an immediate step was taken that is most telling. We read about it in Genesis 3:

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, LEST HE put forth his hand and TAKE also of the TREE OF LIFE, and eat, and live forever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life (Gen. 3:22-24).

Why do you suppose that God was forced to take such drastic action against Adam and Eve? Why were they banished from the garden of Eden in such an extreme fashion? What was the urgency all of a sudden to get these two human beings out of the garden, and especially out of the midst of the garden, even to the extent of pressing into service the great cherubim to guard the way to one of the trees, and heretofore not a forbidden one either? Of course, the answer is staring us squarely in the face – Adam and Eve, it becomes quite clear, however long their tenure in the garden had been, had indeed fed themselves from many of the trees and plants available to them, but they had not, in all the time they were there, partaken of the one tree that God intended them to ingest – the tree of life!!

What an astounding revelation to realize this unspeakable omission on the part of our original parents. While their sin may have been in eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their negligence in not taking of the tree of life is almost unfathomable!! And, of course, God was not going to permit them to do so after their choice had been made to acquiesce to the serpent's enticing words.

Now we can better comprehend why Adam and Eve were unable and unwilling to resist the devil when they were tempted to disobey. Had they perceived the true intent of their Maker, chosen to receive salvation by trusting in His grace, and taken of the tree of life, they almost certainly would not have failed as they did when encountered by the deceptive serpent.

The powerful truth of the two trees in the garden of Eden is that the right understanding of what they symbolize is proof positive that the plan of the Eternal was set from the very beginning. It is so easy for us to either believe or assume that Adam and Eve were created in such a way that their sin came as a shock to God, or as a hitch in His plans, so that it was then necessary for Him to devise another way for man to receive salvation. Nothing, of course, could be farther from the truth! The very fact that the tree of life, representing salvation by grace through faith, was planted in the midst of the garden and freely offered to the first human beings, and that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, symbolizing the attempt to attain salvation through human performance, was forbidden them, is the most persuasive possible evidence that the offering of the Messiah for the sins of the world was not any sort of afterthought or plan B on God's part!

Yahweh created mankind, and therefore was fully aware before He ever even made him of his human nature, his human tendencies, his human weaknesses. The Scriptures are plain in speaking of this truth, for Paul states in Romans 8:

For the creature was MADE SUBJECT TO VANITY, not willingly, but by reason of Him who has subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the BONDAGE of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:20-21)

Adam and Eve chose not to eat of the tree of life, but rather to travel another path. The serpent convinced them that God was denying them something good, and that He was doing it for selfish reasons, because He did not want them to become as Himself. Satan was saying to the first human beings, God wants to keep you down, control and manipulate you, reduce you to mere slaves of His on the earth, which, of course, is precisely the very things the devil himself is guilty of doing. He knew that if he could persuade the first man and woman to believe such lies, then they would make the choice to try and get for themselves what they sensed God was forbidding them to have.

By comparing the midst of the garden to the Holy of holies, one simply being an earlier pattern of the other, and both based squarely on the heavenly blueprint created by God, we have conclusively determined that the tree of life is to be equated with Aaron's rod that budded, representative of the new eternal resurrection life through faith in the Messiah, and that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is related to the other major component of the inner sanctum of the tabernacle, namely, the tablets of the law, symbolic of the attempt to earn salvation through the accomplishment of good works. As was carefully and meticulously expressed in Part 1 of this study, God's prohibition against the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in no way should be interpreted to mean that He is against His own law. Of course not! What He opposes, however, is man's idea that eternal life is achievable by one's efforts to keep the law.

What Yahweh wanted from Adam and Eve was complete and total trust in HIM, not in the serpent, not in their own intellect, not in their own ability to perform. Yes, of course, the forbidden tree was indeed good for food, and its fruit much to be desired. Yes, there is no question that it had the power to make one both knowledgeable and wise. This, however, was not and is not the issue at stake! Those who denigrate the commandments of God, while espousing a belief in the Savior, commit as egregious an error as those who de-emphasize the Messiah's importance in favor of strict adherence to the law as the means of salvation. Both are equally as wrong, and neither will lead to eternal life!

What is at stake, however, is the correct significance and placement of all the elements contained in the Holy of holies, and especially as they relate to the inner sanctum of the Garden of Eden. The ark of the covenant topped by the mercy seat is representative of the Shekinah presence of the Almighty Himself in the midst of the garden. The pot of manna pictures the Messiah, the true bread of life that comes down from heaven. Aaron's rod that budded is symbolic of the tree of crucifixion that is become the tree of life for all who believe and accept the grace of God through His sacrificial Son. And the tablets of the law, designed, not to grant eternal life, but rather to define right and wrong for human kind, is equated in the garden to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which the Eternal forbade Adam and Eve to partake of, lest they embrace a way to salvation that would prove futile and ultimately deadly.

Man's initial sin needs to be viewed and understood, not nearly so much in the fact that Adam and Eve made a mistake, but much more in that they chose to put their trust in something other than the Almighty. They chose to pursue by their own acquisitive efforts what can only be obtained through the grace of God by faith. They personify, therefore, the carnal mind-set that, knowingly or unknowingly, acts from an underlying belief that a human being has to qualify for salvation by measuring up to a standard of works, something which God, from the very beginning, sought to discourage man from pursuing.

The Adversary always wants and seeks to appear good. He always wants and seeks to sound good. He always wants and seeks to be perceived by others as being good. He loves to polish the outside of the cup, while the inside is full of corruption. He prides himself on how much he has accomplished, and measures his status by the things he has achieved. Knowledge is power for someone of his ilk. Becoming wise is a tool for deception by the likes of Satan. These false virtues he has imparted to man through his cunning and subtlety.

As stated briefly in the conclusion to Part 1 of this study, for nearly 4,000 long years, Yahweh dealt with human kind on the basis of the wrong choice made by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Of course, along the way there were exceptions, certain individuals who were offered and who accepted the grace of God through faith. There were not all that many. For the most part, humanity has gone down the wrong pathway.

When the world began to slip dangerously close to destruction, Enoch was raised up to prophesy against the evil rulers of the earth, and to call the pre-Flood world to repentance. When they refused, God raised up Noah and saved him through the great Deluge. Abraham was a lonely convert called out of ancient Babylon, and the chosen line of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, walked in his righteous footsteps. Moses and Joshua were men out of step with the rest of society, both within and outside Israel. David, Elijah, Elisha and the prophets were usually lone voices in the wilderness crying for a people bound to the way of the forbidden tree!

God's desire always was to graciously give salvation to His human creation. We often think of grace as a New Testament concept, but, of course, this is not correct at all. It was present from the beginning, because Yahweh is a God of grace. He didn't just suddenly become that way at the time of Christ! He was, is, and always will be the God of grace, for He has never changed.

One of those lone voices during that ancient period was the patriarch Job, a man to whom God's grace was mercifully extended, a man whose life so perfectly exemplifies a person who was bound to the way of the forbidden tree, but whom Yahweh graciously rescued, converting him to the tree of life. Although his story is so very familiar, the lesson for us is profound! Indeed, perhaps no Old Testament character experienced quite the spiritual transformation as did this greatest man in the east!

Job is described in the Scriptures in terms like unto no other human being save the Messiah Himself. Not only is no personal sin ever mentioned, just the opposite is true. God Himself says of Job:

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was PERFECT and UPRIGHT, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil...Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan...Have you considered My servant Job, that there is NONE LIKE HIM IN THE EARTH, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and eschews evil? (Job 1:1, 8)

What if the Almighty actually said this of you or me? Admittedly, for most of us it is hard to imagine, but this was not the case with Job. The thing we have to determine is precisely what God meant by His use of the words perfect and upright. Is it possible that the man Job never ever committed a single sin in his life? This is highly unlikely, given the fact that the Bible clearly states that All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23)

In spite of this fact, however, God still states that there was none like him in all the earth – a truly incredible remark! Job clearly was a very righteous man, a very obedient man, a very dedicated, sincere man. He was, shall we say, legally perfect. Indeed, he was one of those most rare of human beings, someone who was given by God to understand and observe all the technicalities of the law, at least to the extent of his knowledge of such things.

Was Job's heart sincere? I don't have any doubt that it was. He was a devout man, a serious-minded man, a focused man. He not only was obedient, he worked hard at it. Of course, one thing is very obvious about Job – He was very well aware of his righteousness. He knew he obeyed in all points of the law. He kept tabs on his obedience, and could easily recite what good things he had done, what great things he had accomplished. He was, in a manner of speaking, quite proud of his law-keeping, and, from a human perspective, we might agree that Job, of all people, may have had a right to such an opinion of himself. After all, even the Almighty gave him awfully high marks in the obedience department!

If, therefore, Job was a perfect man, someone who did not trespass in any aspect of the law, what was his incredible experience at the hand of Satan all about? It is quite clear that God really sets Job up by approaching the devil and calling direct attention to His servant. At first, it appears as though the challenge is really toward the Adversary, almost as though Yahweh is daring Satan to take a crack at Job. Then Job's three companions attempt to pin the blame on him, concluding that if he was indeed as righteous as he claimed to be, that God would not be punishing him in this way. In all of his suffering, Job did two things – he did not accuse God in the matter, and he never stopped maintaining his own righteousness and innocence.

In spite of Job's obvious personal success at keeping the tenets of the law, there was a problem involved. But how can a perfectly righteous man even have a problem? A perfect SPIRITUAL MAN would not, but a perfect NATURAL MAN could and, in this particular case, certainly did! If indeed there was no such trouble, then the book would be written in an entirely different manner than it is. If there was no predicament involved, God would have brought Job's testing to a good conclusion, and praised him, but this, as we know, did not happen. Instead, after Job has been sternly lectured by the young man Elihu, we have, in the 38th chapter, God suddenly bursting into the scene, not with accolades toward Job, but with perhaps the most overwhelming divine response to a human situation ever recorded! Beginning in verse 1, we read:

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now your loins like a man: for I will demand of you, and you will answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. Who has laid the measures thereof, if you know? Or who has stretched the line upon it? (Job 38:1-5)

Over the next four chapters, God poses no less than seventy-four specific questions to Job, not a one of them receiving an answer, nor is one expected or required. These questions, coming as they do in rapid-fire succession pale into virtual insignificance Job and his much righteousness and many accomplishments. By comparison, he appears puny and well out of his element. Indeed, Yahweh literally overwhelms Job and dwarfs him with dramatic contrasts between Himself and the little man that Job is revealed to be.

It is doubtful that any of us can even begin to imagine what it would be like to be in Job's place on such an auspicious occasion! It must have been devastating in more ways than one. As God's hammer comes down again and again, something is being driven home in Job's mind and heart. His eyes are painfully being opened. He is beginning see what was absolutely invisible at any other point in his life. He is being transformed by the very hand of the Almighty from a man of the forbidden tree to a partaker of the tree of life – the most profound alteration any human being can undergo!

When God finishes His oration, Job's reaction is recorded for us in the final chapter of the book, and it is utterly classic! You will note that there is uttered nary a word about Job's personal righteousness, or Job's great good works. He offers no defense of himself, as he had been doing throughout his period of suffering. His former statements regarding himself have now faded away into nothingness, and he stands naked and broken before the Creator of the universe! For all of Job's righteousness, his obedience to the law, his perfect standing, his personal uprightness – which God indeed appreciated – he is now a totally changed man! And his words confirm the depth of such change. We ought to hang onto each and every one of them, for in a few short verses is conveyed the most profound of truths, expressing perhaps as well as any ever recorded the difference between the ways of the two trees! Beginning in verse one of chapter forty-two, we read the following admission from Job:

Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that You can do everything, and that no thought can be withheld from You. Who is he that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech You, and I will speak: I will demand of You, and declare You unto me. I HAVE HEARD OF YOU BY THE HEARING OF THE EAR: BUT NOW MY EYE SEES YOU. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job. 42:1-6)

This is one of the most remarkable passages in all of Scripture. When Job declares, I have HEARD of You, he is confessing that, in spite of all his former achievements and success in keeping the law, he now perceives that it was as only hearing when compared with the ability to see. And when he states, but now my eye SEES You, he is admitting that sight is infinitely greater than sound, that he has been raised by God to a new and higher level, that he has been moved from the natural plane to the supernatural, from the letter of the law, which brings death, to the spirit of the law, which produces life, indeed that he has now crossed over from the broad avenue of the forbidden tree to that narrow, but ever so much greater, pathway of the tree of life!!

Had not God intervened in Job's life, he undoubtedly would have continued to walk the same road as before. He would assuredly still have been considered a righteous man, but there is more than one kind of righteous man. For years I resisted agreeing with those who claimed that Job was self-righteous, but I now realize that this is precisely what he was, but perhaps not quite in the same way as many people might assume. When we think of the term self-righteous, what usually comes to mind is a person who is smugly convinced of his own righteousness, but who, in reality, is really not right with God, but this is not quite the situation that existed in Job's case. He was indeed self-righteous, and yet so were the Pharisees of the first century, and there is a huge difference between these two. The Jewish religious leaders were never considered by God to be perfect and upright, as was Job. Job's self-righteousness was just what the term says – his righteousness was produced by his own human efforts! It belonged to HIM, it was HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!! And that righteousness was good, at least as far as it went, but something significant was missing. Job had not received what the Scriptures call the righteousness of God, the righteousness that comes only from the Almighty, rather he had earned his righteousness by dint of hard work, indeed an admirable human quality, but entirely unable to generate within his heart what only God could possibly accomplish. This is why the Bible speaks time and again about the righteousness of faith (Rom. 3:22). Paul writes perhaps the ultimate passage of Scripture on this issue, saying:

But now the righteousness of God WITHOUT THE LAW is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is EXCLUDED. By what law? Of works? No: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified [made righteous] by faith WITHOUT THE DEEDS OF THE LAW...Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we ESTABLISH THE LAW (Rom. 3:21-31)

Do you see Job in these verses? You should, for Paul is speaking to the issue at stake. Job's was a righteousness with or by the law; Paul is discussing the righteousness WITHOUT THE LAW, and the difference is powerful! Job's righteousness was of and within himself. It represented his very best and most sincere effort; but Paul is referring to the righteousness of the Messiah! Why? Verse 26 clearly states:

To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus [Yahshua].

You see, true righteousness is all about GOD and the MESSIAH, and NOT about US!! Self-righteousness puts the focus on the person, on the law, on things other than the righteousness of God which is by faith in the Messiah. That righteousness is not earned by any human being, rather it is conferred, it is attributed, it is deposited by God into a believer's spiritual account, as it were. He is therefore MADE RIGHTEOUS as opposed to his making himself righteous.

When one possesses the righteousness of God by faith, there is no BOASTING. It is EXCLUDED! If you read the book of Job, you will see clearly that Job had the kind of righteousness of which he could and did BOAST!

And how interesting it is that Romans 3 ends with the following question and answer. After all the discussion on the righteousness of faith over and against the righteousness of works, Paul writes:

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law (Rom. 3:31)

This final statement requires some serious thought. What is Paul meaning to convey? First of all, the righteousness that comes from God and that is attributed to a believer in the Messiah does NOT make VOID the LAW! Therefore, no one should become upset or nervous or suspicious, because the emphasis in this teaching is not being placed on the law.

Secondly, Paul says that it is through FAITH that the LAW itself is ESTABLISHED!! Think about these words. The law is established by faith, not by works. This is precisely opposite from the assumption that most people make in this regard. When Paul uses the word establish, he means to make stand. Faith, therefore, holds up or supports the law. It gives the law legs on which to stand and to move and to have real meaning in one's life! This is simply nothing short of a miraculous and thrilling revelation!

The righteousness of faith is part of the fruit produced by the tree of life Self-righteousness, no matter how good, is a part of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And this is the transformation through which Job passed during his long period of suffering and his classic confrontation with Yahweh, and the difference between the then and the now in his life, as it were, became virtually unfathomable!

In a single, simple, straightforward verse, Paul explains the classic difference between the two kinds of righteousness. It is found in Philippians 3:9. Verse 8 introduces the thought as follows:

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having MY own RIGHTEOUSNESS, which is by the LAW, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the RIGHTEOUSNESS which is of GOD BY FAITH.

Through Job's extraordinary experience, his level of spiritual awareness was elevated light years beyond his former perspective. You see, in spite of the personal goodness of Job, his meticulous observance of the law, his letter-perfect righteousness, it becomes clear during his often long-winded defense of himself that the physicality of his law-keeping was really a burden to him. I know that this is not the usual conclusion to draw with respect to Job, but it is simply the way it really was. It was something that constantly occupied his mind, that controlled his focus, that, when confronted, he cannot rest, but must actively justify himself. Indeed, he must not only think about his righteousness, he must also talk about it; he must make certain that everyone knows the facts concerning it. In other words, Job was, in a sense, living a life of bondage, and doing a bang-up job of it!

If the term bondage sounds too severe, it need not be, for, although this word normally carries an extremely negative connotation, to be in bondage can be as simple as being bound to something. When one's life is bound ONLY to the letter of the law, a form of bondage does indeed exist. Once again, when correctly understood, this kind of statement does no violation whatsoever to the commandments, for the Scriptures themselves assure us that the law is essentially spiritual in nature, and while the letter certainly is a reality, it requires the spiritual aspect to give it real life. This truth is evident in both the Old and New Testaments, and is the very reason for God making the following statement of determination:

Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, says the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the Lord, I will put My law in their INWARD PARTS, and write it in their HEARTS; and will be their God, and they shall be My people...for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Lord: for I will FORGIVE INIQUITY, and I will remember their SIN NO MORE (Jer. 31:31-34)

This new covenant that Yahweh promises to make with the re-united house of Israel reveals several key points with respect to the subject we are discussing in this study. First of all, the writing of the law upon the hearts of the people is simply another way of saying that, under this coming covenant, the Holy Spirit will be poured out, and through it true spiritual discernment, thought, intent, and action will be produced. In addition, when God states that under this new covenant, He will both forgive and forget their sins, the clear implication is that this will be accomplished on their behalf through the sacrifice of the Messiah, for it is written:

For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause, He [Messiah] is the mediator of the NEW COVENANT, that by means of [His] DEATH, for the redemption of TRANSGRESSIONS that were UNDER the FIRST COVENANT, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator (Heb. 9:13-16)

The inclusion of the sacrifice of Christ and the Holy Spirit accomplish many things, but certainly one of them is the granting of true liberty. The first covenant made with ancient Israel was primarily a physical agreement, based on the letter of the law. The spirit of the law was, of course, in existence, but generally speaking, not present under the so-called Old Covenant. This is made abundantly clear by the passage we just read. If this were not so, there would be no need for another covenant, nor would there be any need to write the law in the hearts of the people, since that is where it would have been in the first place, were the Spirit intimately involved under those circumstances. Indeed, it could accurately be said that from the time Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden tree until the day of Pentecost, 30 A.D. and the coming of the Holy Spirit, virtually everyone in the world was dealt with by Yahweh on the basis of the wrong choice made in the Garden of Eden.

This is precisely what Paul means in his letter to the Romans, when writes:

Know you not, brethren...how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is BOUND by the law to her husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is FREE from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law [as being over us, as the controlling factor], that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter (Rom. 7:5-6)

And Paul confirms the meaning of this passage in Galatians 4, where he states with regard to the two covenants:

Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a BONDWOMAN, the other by a FREEWOMAN. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the FLESH [works]; but he of the freewoman was by PROMISE [grace through faith]. Which things are an allegory: for these are TWO COVENANTS; the one from the MOUNT SINAI [first covenant], which genders to BONDAGE, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in BONDAGE with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is FREE, which is the mother of us all...Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what says the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman [those who choose the way of the tree of good and evil] and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we [who partake of the tree of life] are not children of the bondwoman, but of the FREE (Gal. 4:21-31)

The new covenant that God has made through the blood of Messiah is one that removes the bondage aspect from the law. Those who participate in this testament are no longer, as Paul is fond of putting it, under the law. This statement in no way means that a believer in and follower of Yahshua is simply free to disobey. Rather it is telling us that we are no more in bondage to the law, as was Israel under the first covenant, but rather we are free unto Christ! If one wishes to simply look at this truth from the perspective of being bound, we could say that, as believers in the Messiah and recipients of the Holy Spirit, the law no longer binds us, but rather we are now bound unto Yahshua. This does not abrogate the law, but it puts it in its rightful place in God's spiritual scheme of things.

Perhaps without the evil influence of Satanic forces, man might indeed be more accepting of God's way of salvation. You would think that since He is the only one who has this gift, and the only one who can grant this gift, that we, as undeserving recipients, would allow Him to dictate the way in which He desires to work. But nooooooo, we humans will tend to choose one extreme or the other, in our attempt to somehow achieve what only God can and will do in His own precise way.

Although, as mentioned earlier, the concept of grace existed from the beginning, and has always been the way by which eternal life and salvation comes to man, most of the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament, as it is commonly known, deals much more with the law than it does with grace. Why should this be? The answer goes right back to the wrong choice made in the Garden of Eden, and the subsequent adherence to that way by human beings. Since access to the tree of life was denied man after his disobedience, God dealt with humanity from the standpoint of the choice that was made anciently.

When He set the children of Israel free from Egyptian bondage, He immediately took them to Mount Sinai where He personally gave Moses a codified set of laws to be strictly administered among the people. Virtually all of His subsequent dealings with the Israelites were conducted on the basis of whether or not they had obeyed or disobeyed the established laws, statutes, ordinances, and rituals which He had prescribed.

This, of course, is merely an obvious observation, and it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the law itself, which clearly is good. It is simply that, in terms of the issue which the New Testament refers to as law and grace, clearly God dealt with ancient Israel on the basis of law, and not primarily grace. This was necessary, due to the choice made in the Garden of Eden. Once the way to the tree of life had been denied to mankind, a process of restoration was instituted in which Yahweh would purposely set the stage for re-opening the guarded gate, which His Son, the Messiah, would accomplish at His first advent into the world.

Part of what God wanted written down with respect to the period prior to the Messiah's birth and subsequent ministry was the painful record of Israel's absolute failure to faithfully walk the pathway anciently chosen by Adam and Eve in the garden, for their decision was really the choice to achieve salvation on their own. They left the Almighty out. This meant they did not have His Spirit in their minds and hearts. It meant that their lives were, to a great extent, in bondage. Because man essentially had rejected the grace of God with respect to salvation, the physical laws, physical rituals, physical efforts, were required. When it came to the sins of the people, God dealt with them through a sacrificial system that involved the messy business of butchering all kinds of animals, performing certain rites with their blood, carefully transporting their carcases to a specific area, and disposing of them in a particular manner. And none of these physical machinations did anything to actually remove sin, for it is written:

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then they would have ceased to be offered, because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when He comes into the world, He says, Sacrifice and offering You would not, but a body have You prepared Me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had no pleasure...Then said He, Lo, I come to do Your will, O God. He takes away the first, that He may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb. 10:1-10)

Due to Israel's repeated failure to be faithful, God raised up and sent judge after judge, and prophet after prophet to warn the leadership and rally the people to repentance. Sometimes they responded favorably, often, however, they suffered punishment, including defeat at the hands of their enemies, enslavement in forced captivity, and the slaughter of countless thousands of Israelite citizens.

RE-OPENING THE GATE

By the time of the Messiah's advent into the world, what had started in Eden had become a full-blown religion. Indeed, the law had become the idol of the people, and the law enforcers had become spiritual dictators. Over the years since their return from Babylonian captivity, the Jewish religious leaders had added so many restrictions to the already existing law that the people were virtually gasping for breath! Everything was measured in terms of the law which, of course, no one was truly fulfilling.

Yahshua came and presented Himself to a people in bondage, not just to Rome, not just to Herod, not even just to the Jewish religious leaders, but a nation in the spiritual chains of legalism – in a condition the apostle Paul termed under the law. To the self-righteous religious leaders of first-century Judea, the Messiah declared:

The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not you after their works: for they, and do not. For they bind HEAVY BURDENS and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers...Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in...For you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves (Matt. 23:2-4, 13, 15)

And unto the oppressed common people of His day, Yahshua said:

I thank You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes...Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light (Matt. 11:25, 28-30)

When the Savior looked out upon the multitudes of people, the Scriptures tell us that He was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd (Mk. 6:34). Four thousand years of blindly following the path of the forbidden tree had produced generation after generation of spiritually imprisoned, spiritually stunted, spiritually bereft, people in desperate need of what only He could provide – access to the TREE OF LIFE!!

Claiming Abraham as their father, Moses as their lawgiver, and Elijah as their miracle working prophet, clinging dearly to the Torah, the Temple, and the priesthood, the self-righteous Jews, surrounded as they were with all the physical appurtenances and trappings of religion, prided themselves on being God's chosen people, seeing themselves as superior to other races. Haughty, shameless, unforgiving, hard-hearted, hyper-critical hypocrites, they followed the Messiah about with suspicious minds and evil tongues, seeking to trip Him up, cause Him to sin, prove Him wrong, and undermine His ministry. They publicly discredited Him, spun vicious lies about Him, and cast aspersions on His perfect character. In time, human nature, aided by the diabolical influence of Satan the devil, finally took its full course, and the nefarious plot to murder the Son of God was soon afoot in the hushed conspiratorial exchanges amid the back rooms of Jerusalem!

No, the first-century champions of the forbidden tree did not appreciate the great protagonist of the tree of life! To read in the gospel accounts the classic confrontation between Yahshua and the religious leaders of His day is to observe the great battle between the divergent ways personified by the two trees in the midst of the garden! Those who, due to their own efforts, proudly and confidently considered themselves righteous enough to be God's elect, stood in stark opposition to the only One in the entire universe who could grant them salvation and entrance into the Kingdom of God.

Not only were the Jewish religious leaders, and by extension, many of the first-century Jewish people who followed them, prideful, boastful, and uncaring with respect to their converts, according to the Messiah Himself, their conduct and teaching served the dual function of keeping both the proselytes and themselves from entering the Kingdom! Without access to the tree of life, all the law-keeping and all the religious accouterments in the world simply were unable to gain anyone entrance into the Kingdom of God. Never lose clear sight of the overwhelming fact that those who put the Savior of the world to death were defenders and teachers of the Law, proving conclusively that merely attempting to execute the technicalities of the Torah gives no assurance whatsoever of true righteousness! The righteousness that appeals to the Almighty is the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH, so plainly and openly exemplified by Yahshua, and taught and practiced by the apostles. This was what He wanted from the start, this was what He offered Adam and Eve, and, like their progeny thousands of years later, this is precisely what they refused to accept! Those who do not believe this most important truth will simply be as good as their human effort can make them, and, of course, it will never, ever be good enough, and will always, always, always end in utter failure!

Earlier we read some of the Savior's strongly worded comments regarding the scribes and Pharisees. In the same discourse, Yahshua clearly delineated the two-tree concept. Note the following from Matthew 23:

Woe unto you, you blind guides, who say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! You fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty [bound, a debtor]. You fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, swears by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, swears by it, and by him that dwells therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by Him that sits thereon (Matt. 23:16-22)

My friend and brother in the faith, Richard Davis of Texarkana, AR, a teacher who correctly understands the relationship of the two-tree concept, stated recently with respect to this passage in Matthew 23:

Here the Messiah has used the temple/gold, altar/gift symbolism to now show how they represent the right configuration of the spiritual reality that should exist in all of us in order to have the correct glory [Holy Spirit, life, love = tree of life], and the sacrifice that is laid thereon [the law = tree of the knowledge of good and evil], thus putting the proper emphasis to reflect the true righteousness of Yahweh and His Son. He now shows the Pharisees how the error concerning this is the cause of their evil.

When the law receives the primary glory, it is elevated to a level above the LAWGIVER, and God will not approve or ultimately permit this to be. The scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and other Jewish sects were the first-century descendants of all those who had chosen the way of the forbidden tree. In them, we see where this wrong pathway really leads, what this erroneous choice really all comes to in the end.

In Yahweh's correct understanding of how things work, if a human can and will submit himself fully to God, love Him, honor Him, put Him first, make Him his temple (tree of life), then the gold (tree of the knowledge of good and evil - the law) thereof has value. If man will make the Almighty his altar (tree of life), then the gift (tree of the knowledge of good and evil - the law) that is offered upon it will be sanctified. The law, without God and His Son put first and foremost, is useless for mankind with regard to ultimate salvation. It only gains its true and lasting significance when it is put in its proper place, and utilized in its divinely appointed manner. Otherwise, it leads to the following, as described by the Messiah in Matthew 23:

The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat...but ALL THEIR WORKS they do for to be SEEN OF MEN: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi (Matt. 23:2, 5-7)

This is precisely what choosing the pathway of the forbidden tree produces – the measuring of oneself by one's own achievements, and the gauging of others by the entirely wrong yardstick. Once one becomes deeply engaged in this way, it is humanly impossible not to fall into the error of doing in order to be seen, in order to make personal gain, in order to be perceived by others as righteous, special, favored, and worthy.

Yahshua continues and indeed goes much farther with His diatribe against the self-righteous hypocrites, saying:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. You blind Pharisee, cleanse FIRST that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore you be witnesses unto yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill you up then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? (Matt. 23:25-33)

The Messiah leaves absolutely no doubt, not only as to the guilt of these Jewish religious leaders and their followers, but also that of their forefathers, their precursors who themselves had chosen the way of the forbidden tree. This wrong choice became a way of life, and was taught and passed down from generation to generation. Observing it from afar would be to watch human beings attempting to handle with their own filthy hands and their own efforts and their own ingenuity, the sanctified things of God, falsely assuming that their spiritual status was insured and their spiritual house was in perfect order!

This passage contains perhaps the strongest, most barbed series of statements in all the Scriptures, indeed, considering the conclusion reached by Christ, in all of written literature, and it had better serve as the sternest possible warning to we who believe today never to take for granted the horrendous destination to which the pathway of the forbidden tree will come! It produces a religious sham, a humanly constructed house that looks for all the world like the best, the most perfect, the most righteous, the most godly, of all possible buildings, but is made of mere cards – a house that will come crashing down when the storms of testing bear down on it.

On the other hand, Yahshua speaks to His disciples regarding the way of the tree of life. In contrast to His previous statement with respect to the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:5-7, He says:

But be not you called Rabbi: for ONE is your MASTER, even Christ; and all YOU ARE BRETHREN. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, who is in heaven. Neither be you called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is GREATEST among you shall be your SERVANT. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted (Matt. 23:8-12)

What a difference a few words can make! What an entirely opposite concept and approach! Here is the way of the tree of life in operation. One God-Yahweh, one Master-the Messiah, and all of the rest are one Body-brethren, and the greatest among them is the servant! Where then does the law fit in this pattern? The law (tree of the knowledge of good and evil) is the perfect sacrifice that is offered upon the perfect altar, which is that built upon the tree of life. It is only as it properly fits into the grace of God, the sacrifice of the Messiah, and the Holy Spirit, that the law finds its correct place and function. The law is not something to be worshiped, although it is to be loved, appreciated, respected, and obeyed. It does not give eternal life, but it is the evidence of a life headed toward eternity!

In addition, the law itself, according to the apostle Paul in Romans 7:14, is primarily designed to be spiritual in nature. Here is a completely separate issue with regard to the divergent pathways symbolized by the two trees. Again, in the Matthew 23 passage, the Messiah pointedly addresses this issue with the scribes and Pharisees, saying:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the WEIGHTIER matters of the LAW, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone. You blind guides, who strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel (Matt. 23:23-24)

Note carefully the distinction which Yahshua draws in this passage of Scripture. Remember that He is addressing those who pride themselves on strict adherence to the law, and yet their utter lack of both the full spiritual understanding and proper application of the law is so painfully obvious. Judgment, mercy, faith – these are essentially spiritual elements, and require the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to consistently and genuinely be produced in a human life. The Jewish religious leaders whom the Messiah derided did not even try to be just in their dealings; they did not even attempt to show mercy, or truly operate in faith. Had they actually been doing these things, then their careful tithing would have had value, for they would, in effect, have been placing their sacrifice upon the already sanctified altar. Judgment, mercy, and faith are all part of the tree of life, the essential missing ingredient in first-century Judaism, as well, of course, as in most of the rest of the world.

A simple, yet profound example showing the distinguishing characteristics of the two trees can also be observed in the attitude and conduct of Yahshua's friends, Mary and Martha who, along with their brother Lazarus, formed part of the special close-knit family unit that helped the Messiah during His ministry. Both of these women were indeed sincere, and both were loved by the Savior, but the spiritually-based difference between them is absolutely classic, and is demonstrated to perfection in the account of Luke 10:

Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also SAT AT JESUS' FEET, and HEARD HIS WORD. But Martha was ENCUMBERED about much SERVING, and said, Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and MARY HAS CHOSEN THAT GOOD PART, which shall not be taken away from her (Lk. 10:38-42)

With respect to the concept of the two trees, there simply is no more clear delineation between them than in this short, but powerful, passage of Scripture. Note the difference in the description of the two women. Both Mary and Martha are undoubtedly good and sincere believers, and greatly loved by the Messiah, but while Martha busies herself with physical work, Mary sits attentively at Yahshua's feet, hanging on His every word. One is a physical servant (tree of the knowledge of good and evil), the other a spiritual disciple (tree of life) of the Messiah. Notice what is most important to Martha – not necessarily that she is working, for she loves to work, is habitually involved in working, and prides herself on her labor and her good works. No, what matters most to Martha is that her sister is getting away with attracting the Master's attention. Since Martha, therefore, like those who tend toward the pathway of the forbidden tree, seeks the attention of the Savior and is not receiving it for her much work (another classic forbidden tree attribute), she is compelled to breach the accepted protocol of the day and bring her plight directly to Him, something which He quickly perceives and quite deftly handles.

Yahshua's remarks to Martha are particularly telling when He states that Mary has CHOSEN that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Note that He emphasizes the choice Mary has made. Like most of the first-century Jews, she could easily have been encumbered with much serving, that is to say, measuring oneself by one's works, but Mary was different. She is operating on a spiritual level. She has made the choice that Adam and Eve did not. She has chosen that good part – the tree of life – and was seated at the feet of its greatest representative being taught by the Messiah Himself.

Martha, on the other hand, knows and believes in the Savior, admitting this outright to Him in John 11:27, but she obviously exhibits a life that, while sincere, is based on choosing the wrong tree. Of course, Martha, nor anyone else for that matter, is by no means condemned because of an incorrect choice, but genuine, substantive change is mandatory. One gets the sense that Martha eventually also chooses that good part, as it were, and, like her sister Mary, it would never be taken away!

Remember, God warned Adam and Eve in the beginning that eating of the forbidden tree would produce not life, but rather death. In His summation to the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23, the Savior articulates precisely the truth of God's ancient words in the Garden of Eden. Speaking to the chief representatives of the forbidden tree, He declares:

Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Verily, I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation (Matt. 23:34-36)

And so, the self-righteous guardians of the forbidden tree, not only fulfilled the words of Yahshua with respect to prophets, wise men, and scribes sent by God to call them to repentance, they also brought upon themselves the most righteous blood of all – that of the Son of God, the Messiah. The tree of life was Himself hung upon the tree of death, but thanks be to the Almighty, the tree of death has now become the tree of life for all who believe and accept Him as their Savior, and commit themselves to trusting in the grace of God the Father! Praise His holy name!

TAKING THE TREE OF LIFE TO THE WORLD

The challenge of taking the fact of Yahshua's Messiahship and His message revealing the essence of the tree of life to the world continued on after His death, resurrection, and ascension. The confrontation between the great opposing forces of the two trees concept did not lessen after the Messianic era, but rather increased greatly. In fact, the true Godly pathway expressed in the tree of life was assaulted from virtually every possible source during the apostolic time-span. From both the left and the right, the liberal and the conservative, the Jewish and the pagan, came powerful opposition to the struggling collection of believers and their attempts to speak the Word.

We see it first, of course, in the opening chapters of the book of Acts, which recounts certain highlights of the early post-Messianic Church. Due not only to their memory and experience of Yahshua&39s very recent miraculous ministry and the unusual aspects of His death and reported resurrection, but also to the immediate success of His followers in Jerusalem, the Jewish religious leaders and their cohorts pursued a vigorous program of persecution against the early converts, censuring the apostles and disciples, hauling them before the Sanhedrin, beating and imprisoning them, indeed according to the very predictions of Christ.

While the early adherents to the faith, as promulgated by the Messiah, unquestionably taught the virtues of the law and obedience to it, they had also learned well the part the law actually plays and where it properly fits in the true plan of God. Their strict Jewish opponents knew only one way, and that was to wield the law like a club, beating people over the head with it, and condemning anyone who did not meet their requirements. Even with respect to the law, however, they did not possess the real Spirit that must be involved in rightly living by the divine commandments. And thus, when confronted by someone as schooled in the law as the apostle Paul, a rabbinically-trained Pharisee taught at the feet of no less than the esteemed Gamaliel the Elder, grandson of Hillel himself, the adherents of the forbidden tree were simply unable to grasp the true theology of the tree of life. They could not discern between the letter and the spirit of the law itself, and thus when Paul speaks to them of spiritual things within the law, they misunderstand and twist his words to the destruction of many.

As strongly as the Jerusalem apostles were opposed by the Jewish religious and political leadership, it is in the ministry of Paul that we observe up close and personal the conflict that existed between the followers of the forbidden tree and those of the tree of life. Why do we suppose that this particular preacher of the gospel seems so different from those with whom he was forced to deal? He sounds as though he is teaching a new message, an alien message, prompting even Peter to later comment:

Wherefore, beloved...account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things HARD TO BE UNDERSTOOD, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction (II Pet. 3:15-16)

Indeed Paul's words are constantly being taken out of context, misinterpreted, misapplied, or summarily dismissed, and yet this man is a fanatical law-keeper. Having been arrested by the Jewish elders and hauled before the Roman governor of Judea, Felix Antonius, accused of sedition and profanation of the temple, Paul testifies:

But this I confess unto you, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing ALL THINGS which are written in the LAW, and in the prophets...And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men (Acts 24:14, 16)

He reiterates his contention a little later when he is brought before Porcius Festus, the successor to Felix. On this occasion, he states:

Neither against the LAW of the Jews, neither against the TEMPLE, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all (Acts 25:8)

And when Herod Agrippa comes to Caesarea and is made aware of Paul's incarceration and the charges brought against him by the Jews, he requests of Festus that the prisoner be brought before him for interrogation, whereupon the apostle again defends himself most eloquently, saying:

I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before you touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews: especially because I know you to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews...My manner of life from my youth...know all the Jews...that after the most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee...having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying NONE OTHER things than those which the prophets and MOSES [the Torah] did say should come (Acts 26:2-5, 22)

Even though a strict Jew, a man who freely admits that he is a meticulous Torah-observer, his legalistic Jewish opponents just cannot seem to get his message. Why should this be, if indeed he is not guilty of violating the law or the customs? Simply because He is preaching a spiritual message, a message of the tree of life, that way which the Israelites, along with their predecessors Adam and Eve, had anciently rejected! And the difference could not possibly be any greater, as stark as night and day!

Saul of Tarsus was one of the most remarkable men of all time, not only because of his successful preaching, but with respect to his character and to his specialized training. Although perhaps a seemingly unlikely candidate for taking the gospel message to the Gentile peoples of the world, God knew precisely how to utilize this man and his abilities to the fullest.

His dramatic conversion experience on the Damascus Road was among the most exceptional divine callings ever given a human being. Although convicted of the Messiahship of Yahshua, and in spite of his spirited preaching in the synagogues of Damascus, Paul was not readily accepted by the Jerusalem disciples. After all, he was a notorious persecutor of the early converts, including being a participant in the martyrdom of Stephen. Thanks, however, to Barnabus, the son of encouragement, he was finally introduced and received by the apostles. It wasn't long, however, before the apostle Paul was stirring up Jews and Greeks alike, and literally creating a major uproar among the people, so much so that they set about to kill him. It was at this juncture that he retreated back to his home in Tarsus, where, although continuing to preach locally, he remained in relative obscurity for a number of years.

His first missionary journey takes him throughout southern Galatia, and he, along with Barnabus, establish many local assemblies in the faith. Early on, in Antioch Pisidia, Paul experiences his initial encounter with those who will oppose him throughout his ministry. After preaching a powerful message in the synagogue, with a number of both Jews and Gentiles showing much interest, we read the following:

But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming...the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabus, and expelled them out of their coasts (Acts 13:45, 50)

They moved on to Iconium, where the unbelieving Jews aroused the Gentiles in the area, forcing them to flee unto Lystra, and, although well received at first, the same evil pattern repeated itself, as we read in Acts 14:19-20:

And there came certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposed he had been dead. Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabus to Derbe.

After returning to Antioch in Syria, Paul's home base, the problem he has just been facing resurfaces, and precipitates the famous Jerusalem Conference in about 49 A.D. We read in Acts 15:

And certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren, and said, Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you CANNOT BE SAVED. When therefore Paul and Barnabus had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabus, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question...And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church...But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses (Acts 15:1-2, 4-5)

Now the confrontation is out in the open among the Jerusalem apostles themselves. The two mind-sets, one of the tree of life, the other of the forbidden tree, are diametrically opposed, and in dramatic fashion are brought before James and the other apostles. This argument has to be settled and settled quickly, or it has the real potential of shattering the early unity of the believers, and destroying the foundational work already laid by the disciples of Yahshua.

The issue in this case should not be in doubt by anyone. It is the classic argument of the forbidden tree proponents, and it is stated precisely in verse 1 with the operative words YOU CANNOT BE SAVED. On this phrase hinges the entire critical issue. The original apostles were with the Messiah for several years of intense training and other unique experiences. He was the chief representative of the tree of life. Indeed, some might even go so far as to say He was the tree of life! So there can be no question with regard to His understanding of the two trees concept and controversy. After all, He was forced to contend with the opposing camp His entire life, and as Hebrews 12:3 states:

For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.

Is there even the trace of a possibility that Yahshua would not have taught His disciples the truth of the two trees? Not on your life! They were clearly instructed in this truth, and witnessed their Master successfully go up against the best the other side had to offer. The point is that the so-called Jerusalem apostles, Peter, John, and the others, were not deficient in their understanding of this crucial issue. We may tend to think only of Paul having the correct grasp of this principle, since he writes so much about it, but the Acts 15 conference demonstrates that there was indeed unity on this point, and a joint resolution was generated at the conclusion of the meeting.

With respect to the proceedings themselves, we are given a brief insight into the inner workings of the conference. James, the brother of Yahshua, is the preeminent figure in all of Judea, whether of the believing or non-believing Jews. He is known, not only for his intimate family association with the Messiah, but for his own depth of conversion, his wisdom, and especially his piousness. There is evidence that James may have held a high position in the Sanhedrin. Above all, however, he is the unchallenged leader of the Judean believers, and of Jerusalem in particular. Although the final decision reached will be a group effort, including the involvement of the assembly itself, it is apparent from the Acts 15 account that James takes the predominant role at the conference.

After a rousing debate, Peter rises and addresses the conferees. Recounting how that the Gentiles received the gospel first through his own preaching, he exhibits something of a unique understanding of the delicate situation that exists between them and the Jews. We usually think of Paul being the one apostle among the early disciples who grasped the difficulties involved in this unusual relationship, but clearly Peter possessed this same perception. Now, note very carefully what he tells the group:

Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, who knows the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, PURIFYING THEIR HEARTS BY FAITH. Now therefore why tempt you God, to put a YOKE upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the GRACE of the Lord Jesus Christ WE SHALL BE SAVED, even as they (Acts 15:7-11)

These words, coming as they do from the apostle Peter, one whom many people tend to place in opposition to the apostle Paul, are powerful and convincing, and we need to pay careful attention to them. Remember that the Jewish faction demanding the subjugation of the Gentile believers to the regulations of the law of Moses were insisting on this as THE MEANS OF SALVATION! Peter, the very one through whom the Gentiles had first received the gospel and believed, is in the best possible position to effectively combat the erroneous contention of the Jews. He was intimately acquainted with both sides of the issue at stake. After all, for virtually all of his life he had been an unquestioning follower of the forbidden tree. Now, after his experience with the Messiah, he was a full-fledged convert to the tree of life, and thus he was able to convey to the brethren that salvation comes to the Gentiles in the exact manner as it does to the Jews, not by the keeping of laws, but by the GRACE of God through FAITH in the Savior. He pointedly contrasts this one and only correct approach to eternal life with the opposing notion by asking the definitive question:

Now therefore why tempt you God to put a YOKE upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

On the one hand, he presents salvation by grace through faith, and that, as Paul later says, not of our own selves, but rather the gift of God (Eph. 4:8-9); and on the other hand, he calls the approach of the Jews a salvation by force, that is to say, by the imposition of a yoke designed to control the believers and thus earn for them the salvation they desired! Coming from Peter, this constitutes a major policy statement on the part of the Jerusalem apostles, an official departure from the old way of the forbidden tree, and a complete embrace of the tree of life concept as propounded by the Messiah. This must be viewed as a landmark speech, and a turning point in the relationship between the Jewish believers and the Gentiles.

I fully realize that some will have difficulty accepting the fact that the apostle Peter calls the legal system of ancient Israel a yoke. Many may be highly tempted to limit his meaning to only the sacrificial instructions, or perhaps the regulations that had been added by the Jewish religious leaders, but this cannot be the object of his reference. A yoke is basically a wooden frame for harnessing together work animals. In this manner, control can be exerted, the animals can be guided and regulated, thus making their labor more efficient. Because Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan's lie regarding what God had said about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God chose to deal with ancient Israel on the basis of the way of the forbidden tree. He created a system with numerous features, a long list of DOs and DON'Ts, a program that literally dominated the lives of the people. Decisions with regard to worship were, in most instances, made for them. Enforced limitations were put in place. Precise things had to be done, and at specified times and intervals, often accompanied by an exact type of clothing, with various oblations and ablutions involved.

Beyond the burdensome rituals was the fact that the Israelites were considered by Yahweh as being under the law. The apostle Paul states that believers and followers of the Messiah are no longer under the law. This term has been interpreted in different ways through the years, depending upon the particular theological slant of the individual or church. For most professing Christians, the notion of not being under the law means that the law is either done away with or not necessary any longer. All sorts of explanations abound with respect to this interpretation, most of them unscriptural and unconvincing. For others, not being under the law is viewed as not under the penalty of the law. And while this is perhaps a somewhat more plausible theory, it still is not altogether satisfactory and does not answer all the questions raised by the phrase, so let's think in terms of just what it states, and see if we can come to a better understanding of these words.

If one is under something, there is a strong implication that something else is above. The Bible contrasts being under the law with being under grace. These are obviously two different entities. Now, to be under the law does not dispense with God's grace, any more than being under grace abrogates His law. Both law and grace are divine realities, and within the context of the Almighty's purpose, they are not enemies.

That being said, however, which of the two does God prefer that His people be under. Should the law be the yoke or should grace? It is clearly not the law, for that yoke, according to Peter, was hard to bear. On the other hand, the Messiah, as we have already noted, tells us that His yoke, which corresponds to grace, is easy. Please ponder the difference that is so evident in this matter. With respect to the first covenant, the law was over and thus the controlling factor in the lives of the people, and grace, while certainly present, was necessarily secondary. Under the new covenant, grace is over and therefore the dominant element in the lives of Messianic believers, whereas the law now takes its proper place in the divine scheme of things by no longer controlling the individual, but rather becoming the heartfelt spiritual expression of his life. No longer is a person to be measured by how accurately he keeps the law, but by his faith in the grace of God, the sacrifice of Yahshua, the indwelling of the Spirit, and the effectual development of the mind/character of the Messiah.

The conclusion to the conference in Jerusalem is quite revealing, in that the apostles and disciples, those who had actually walked and talked with the Messiah, did not argue against Paul and Barnabus, but rather came into agreement with them over this issue of the law with respect to salvation, and the law with respect to its controlling agency in a believer's life. When Peter stands up and says, Now therefore why tempt you God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? (Acts 15:10), he is expressing the very same thing that the apostle Paul states throughout his writings, namely, that the coming of Yahshua and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit has removed the believer from being under the law. That system was a burden to the Israelites from the time of Moses to the time of Yahshua, and it was intended to be so, because, once again, God was intentionally operating with ancient Israel on the basis of the wrong choice in the Garden of Eden – the partaking of the forbidden tree. Please note that the burden was necessary for the good of the people, because the people were UNLAWFUL! They refused to obey, and thus had to be controlled. The entire legal system, including even the sacrifices and rituals, was a good thing, and completely appropriate under the existing circumstances. The burdensome aspect, however, is no longer necessary for those who possess and utilize the Spirit.

The Acts 15 Conference wraps up with James expressing the will of the disciples that the Jewish group insisting upon Gentiles to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses or forfeit their salvation is in error, and that they will sanction no such thing. They write a letter to this effect, which is then sent to the assemblies in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Paul and Barnabus then return to Antioch. A short while later, Peter comes to visit, and that story is related by Paul in the second chapter of Galatians. Although it is not necessary that we spend a lot of time on this episode, it is quite interesting, and indicates the transitional period the early Jewish disciples experience as they move from the way of the forbidden tree to the tree of life.

When Peter arrives in Antioch, his conduct becomes very telling. Beginning in Galatians 2:11, we read:

But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabus also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If you, being a Jew, live after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compel you the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is NOT JUSTIFIED by the WORKS of the LAW, but by the FAITH of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified (Gal. 2:11-16)

The apostle Peter was a man of high standing in the early Church. One of the original Twelve, he is seen as the most outspoken of the group, and a natural leader among the disciples. Not only was he entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the preaching of the gospel to the Jews, he was the first to take the good news to the Gentiles as well. But Peter, like most of the believers centered in Judea, had to go through a certain period of adjustment with regard to the relationship between the Jews and Gentiles. After all, the Jews did not look favorably toward the non-Israelite peoples. This attitude had formed a part of their culture for centuries, and it did not change overnight for the early Jewish believers. Here, in Peter, we have such an example.

To follow the pathway mapped out by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is tantamount to walking in the flesh, that is to say, by one's own effort. Clearly the ancient Israelites provide the striking example of this way of life. The laws they were given were not bad, nor were they bad for them, but life was simply not contained therein. They controlled the outward behavior of the people, but without the Holy Spirit, Israel could not even keep the letter, much less the spirit, of the law. Their lives were being governed by not the actual indwelling power of God, but by the law which was over them. Of course, it was always better for the Israelites when they were obedient, not only because they did not receive punishment, but also because there is great benefit accrued to anyone who observes the commandments. No amount of law-keeping, however, could ever be a workable substitute for what was missing under the first covenant, namely the Holy Spirit, and thus the spiritual fulfillment of the law as well. No amount of obeying the physical aspects of the legal system could ever, of itself, produce eternal life, since the law has no such power.

To travel the way of the tree of life, on the other hand, is to walk in the Spirit, and Paul states:

There is therefore no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the LAW COULD NOT DO, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:1-3)

Those who have the law, yet do not possess the actual indwelling presence of God's Spirit, are by definition under the law. It is a yoke, a harness, a burden (the degree to which is determined by those who administer the law). The law becomes the controlling factor in life. With the Holy Spirit at work within, however, the law no longer controls, because Christ now fulfils that role for true believers. He becomes the controlling element. Now ask yourself, had you rather be controlled by the law or by the living Messiah within you? Your answer will determine where you stand with regard to the critical issue of law and grace, and of the approaches to salvation represented by the two trees.

THE DIFFICULT LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

Paul's letter to the Galatians is one of the most significant, yet confusing parts of the Scripture. I say confusing, because so many people appear to be confused about what is actually being said. The Galatian churches, including those in Antioch Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, had been established by Paul during his first missionary journey. The letter he writes to them is one of the earliest of his epistles, and was sent to this area to counter a major problem that had arisen during Paul's absence.

As proved to often be the case, certain strict Jewish teachers, sometimes called by the term Judaizers or the circumcision party, had come into these relatively new assemblies, and begun teaching the brethren that they must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. Such a contention enraged the apostle Paul, since he immediately grasped the crux of the matter, namely, that the atoning sacrifice of the Messiah was being considered insufficient for salvation! Remember that this is one of the major characteristics of those who tend to follow the path of the forbidden tree. It has a powerful effect upon people who are not truly led by the Spirit, and either rejection or de-emphasis of Yahshua as Savior is very often a tell-tale sign of someone who is either following or being strongly influenced by the philosophy of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In addition, you may also notice that people who are traveling down this other pathway will tend also to denigrate the validity of the New Testament, possibly arguing that, since our earliest complete copies are in Greek, then the text cannot be trusted, or that, when it is convenient for their purposes, they will claim that the translation is in error or that the words have been tampered with. These facts need to be kept clearly in mind by all believers, and our sensitivity to them when encountered needs to be acute! While these characteristics may not always indicate someone who is of this particular mind-set, it often does.

Attributing to the Messiah a secondary role in any way ought to provoke strong resistence from true believers. The apostle Paul responded more quickly and more strongly to this kind of error than any other problem or negative situation that he faced during his ministry. As to the legitimacy of the Greek New Testament, there are admittedly certain problems, and viewing the various writings through Hebraic eyes can often be of immense value in producing the full understanding of any given passage. Most of the more egregious translational errors within the New Testament are generally known today, and should not pose a major problem for anyone skilled in the Scriptures. And the notion that the gospel accounts or the apostolic letters are somehow not up to the level of importance attributed to the Hebrew Scriptures is faulty thinking, since the Almighty is responsible for the entire Biblical record, and clearly the early apostles understood that the writings of James, Peter, John, Matthew, Jude, and Paul were indeed to be considered as the inspired Word of God. Therefore, I would urge everyone to be very careful when it comes to judging the validity of the New Testament books. While there are mistakes involved, and the original Hebrew in some, if not many, cases would be preferable to the Greek manuscripts, the essential information that God intended for us to have is present in the text which we have in our possession at this time.

Paul commences his letter to the Galatians churches by exclaiming:

I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the GRACE of Christ unto ANOTHER GOSPEL: which is not another; but there be SOME that TROUBLE YOU, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed (Gal. 1:6-8)

Note that the issue here involves grace, which is the very essence of the tree of life. Note also that the grace granted unto these Gentile believers was in jeopardy of being rejected due to certain individuals who were seeking to turn the Galatians from the grace of God unto another gospel, meaning ANOTHER WAY TO SALVATION!! The situation that had developed among these churches was a classic battle between the forces of the two trees!

Paul, a thoroughly trained doctor of the law, had become a converted believer, not only in Yahshua as the genuine Messiah, but also in eternal salvation by grace through faith, not a salvation that is earned by works. He was, therefore, a complete follower of the pathway symbolized by the tree of life. Those individuals of whom he says in verse 7, but there be some that trouble you, had entered into the various assemblies, and begun promulgating a different message of salvation, outlining a different pathway to eternal life.

There were two trees in the midst of the garden, not many, and there are two approaches to salvation. Only one is legitimate and certified by Yahweh as leading to eternal life. The other one produces a cleansing of the outer cup, but can do nothing to perfect that which is inside, thus it leads ultimately to death. Paul was a preacher of the tree of life. Those who opposed him were proponents of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Two different mind-sets, two different pathways, two different destinations!

These false teachers were not only attempting to subvert the gospel message preached by Paul to the Galatians, but also to undermine his own credibility as a genuine apostle. After all, they knew that he was not one of the Twelve, and therefore felt that they could call his apostolic office into serious question. The purpose was to demean him in the eyes of the local assemblies, a problem that followed Paul throughout his career. He is, therefore, compelled to defend himself, which he does, beginning in Galatians 1:11, running through the end of the chapter 2, and concluding with the following powerful statement regarding the overall subject of the letter:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. I do not FRUSTRATE the GRACE of God: for if RIGHTEOUSNESS come BY THE LAW, then CHRIST is DEAD IN VAIN (Gal. 2:20-21)

What a marvelous encapsulation of Paul's stand on this sensitive issue. Clearly he is implying that those who oppose him with their teaching of a salvation by works are guilty of frustrating God's grace, for eternal life is the free gift of God. It cannot be earned, it cannot be purchased, it cannot be achieved on one's own, no matter how much law-keeping may be involved. Indeed, if righteousness comes by the law, then our Savior died for no reason! This is how important this subject really is for all who claim belief in Yahshua!

Once into chapter 3 of this epistle, we begin to get into the heart of the matter for Paul – delineating the divergent pathways symbolized by the two trees. He begins by asking a question

This only would I learn of you, Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? (Gal. 3:2)

In other words, he asks the Galatians, do you think God gave you the Holy Spirit because you proved yourself to him by doing works, or did you not rather receive the Spirit as a free gift of God through faith? And this remains one of the definitive questions for believers even to this day! The answer would appear to be obvious, so Paul takes it for granted that they answer correctly, and proceeds to ask the next appropriate question, saying:

Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? (Gal. 3:3)

Remember the problem in Galatia. False teachers have come in and have convinced the brethren that righteousness and salvation are the result of keeping the law, not of the grace of God through faith in the sacrifice of Christ. His first question is almost rhetorical in nature, since the answer is obviously that the believers received the Holy Spirit, not by works, but by faith. Having thus built a sure foundation that cannot possibly be gainsaid, he leads them to the only sane conclusion possible – If you began this calling in the Spirit by faith, how is it that you expect perfection to come through the law by the flesh?

As amazing as it is, many human beings have great difficulty accepting what God freely gives. It's almost as if they don't personally acquire salvation, they will miss out, as though they simply cannot believe God for something that big, that important, that permanent. And this really is the crux of the matter – faith in the unseen God, not in terms of His existence, but in terms of His free gift of salvation to undeserving human beings. If we base what He offers on our own ability to earn it, how can we possibly ever expect to achieve it? Do we actually think we can become righteous enough to deserve eternal life? Should we not rather be grateful beyond words that this all depends upon a beneficent, almighty Creator God, who knows precisely how to accomplish such purposes? Indeed, if it depends upon our own works, we are doomed to utter failure before we even get out of the starting gate!!

Paul goes on in chapter three of Galatians to eloquently express a number of thoughts with regard to this central issue. He explains how that Abraham believed and his faith was imputed to him for righteousness. He is emphatically not saying what many assume, that is, that because Abraham believed, he therefore was at liberty to violate the will of God! Of course not. What he is emphasizing, however, is the true righteousness of faith, that is to say, the right standing in the eyes of God that is attributed to those of true faith. Such faith then equips the believer to effectively walk in God's way, for we read in Hebrews 11 of this same man Abraham:

BY FAITH Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, OBEYED; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. BY FAITH he sojourned in the land of promise...for he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God...BY FAITH Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son (Heb. 11:8-10, 17)

In fact, the entire eleventh chapter of Hebrews is filled with the examples of men and women who, by faith, obeyed and served the Almighty, some achieving great things, experiencing mighty deliverance, and the working of miracles; others withstanding evil to their own detriment, willingly suffering deprivation, destitution, homelessness, poverty, persecutions, cruel scourgings, imprisonment, and brutal death, of whom, state the Scriptures, the world was not worthy! Amen! Read this entire chapter and rejoice before God!

Continuing, Paul states in verse 7 that they which are of faith [as opposed to the law, which is his subject], the same are the children of Abraham. This is a key point, because Abraham is considered to be the father of us all (Rom. 4:16). Remember that the covenant made with Abraham was the greatest of all the ancient concordats, and that to him the promises were given, including the Messiah and Savior Yahshua. Indeed, Paul takes this concept even further in this same third chapter of Galatians by saying:

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be CHRIST'S, then ARE YOU ABRAHAM'S SEED, and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:27-29)

This is, of course, one of the major truths of the Bible. Those who are of the Spirit and of the tree of life have put on Messiah, and become children of Abraham. Note that in Hebrews 2:16, it is even said of Yahshua Himself:

For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.

Interestingly, the writer is inspired to say that the Messiah took upon Himself the nature of the seed of Abraham. Christ is reckoned as the seed of Abraham, not Adam, signaling a primary differentiation between the physical and the spiritual, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Paul tells the Galatians that the Abrahamic Covenant is greater than and supercedes the later Mosaic Covenant made at Mount Sinai. This, of course, flies directly in the face of the false teachers who had been claiming just the opposite. This is no Pauline putdown of the law, but simply a statement of fact within God's arrangement of things. And keep in mind that Paul is writing this entire letter primarily to counter false teachers who are putting the law above the Messiah as the means of salvation. If the Galatians are not corrected in this matter, they stand to lose eternal life, since they will be placing themselves under that which cannot possibly grant them salvation. Therefore, Paul says:

And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ [the Abrahamic Covenant], the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise (Gal. 3:17-18)

As you read the book of Galatians, it is mandatory that you ask yourself, why does Paul say this? In the case at hand, he makes the statement because the people were being convinced that the Mosaic Covenant, which was given some 430 years after the Abrahamic agreement, had made the promise of a Savior as the means of salvation of no effect. In other words, the law is the way to eternal life. This was a terrible error and had to be set right for their sake.

In discussing this sensitive issue with the Galatians, Paul is careful to explain the exact position the law occupies when viewed from the divine perspective. Verse 19 is an especially controversial passage with a lot of people, and, generally speaking, most of the interpretations are unsatisfactory. Here’s the quotation:

Wherefore then serves the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.

As usual, the immediate Protestant Christian reaction is that this is yet another proof that the old law was in effect way back when, but now, in Christ, it is done away. This, of course, is pathetically wrong. On the other hand, we have those from a legalistic background who, in their attempt to rescue the law from oblivion, try to make verse 19 refer only to the Mosaic rituals, and thus not applicable to the whole law. Although perhaps well-intentioned, this conclusion too is in error, because it just doesn't agree with the rest of the letter. When Paul speaks of the law in Galatians 3:19, he is talking about the very same law that he has been discussing throughout the entire epistle, and this certainly is not limited to the sacrificial system of ancient Israel. He has to mean to the entire codified legal system put into effect under the leadership of Moses at Mount Sinai. In light of this fact, let's take a brief look at what we know about that law.

First of all, we can easily demonstrate that the basic tenets of the Ten Commandments were in existence from the beginning. This only stands to reason, since the Bible itself defines sin as transgression of the law (I Jn. 3:4). Sin was introduced in the Garden of Eden, and violation of the laws that were later termed the Ten Commandments was obviously a sin long prior to the Mosaic era.

Secondly, there were sacrifices and rituals prior to the Sinaitic Covenant as well, although they may have been on a voluntary basis. One gets the sense, however, that, in the case of Cain and Abel, they brought their offerings to the altar at a divinely prescribed point in time (Gen. 4:3). It would appear, therefore, that from the beginning God instructed Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and the descendants of Seth in some form of sacrificial system, the precise nature of which we probably don't have enough information to determine.

We also recall, from God's statement to Isaac in Genesis 26:5 that Abraham:

Obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.

If, therefore, commandments, statutes, and laws existed in the Abrahamic era, and some kind of sacrificial system was in place, what does Paul mean when he states in Galatians 3:19 that the law was added because of transgressions? The answer needs to line up with the rest of the book, therefore, he is saying that because the Israelites were a carnal-minded, disobedient people, God put together an involved legal system, including commandments, statutes, ordinances, regulations, rituals, etc., and forced the Israelites to come under its control. Since they did not have open, ready access to the tree of life, they had to operate under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, they came under the law. It became their schoolmaster, as Paul goes on to explain, and which we will cover later. This is emphatically NOT the function of the law for those who believe in and accept Yahshua as Savior, repent of their sins, and who receive the Holy Spirit. And this is confirmed by the latter part of verse 19, where Paul says that the imposition of the legal system put upon the Israelites was designed to continue as the controlling agent, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, referring, of course, to the Messiah. Now, for believers, Christ has become the controlling factor by His indwelling presence and influence upon the heart and mind. Obedience to the commandments is now the supernatural outcome of the spiritual reality within, expressing a fullness that was always intended by God, but impossible without the Holy Spirit. The followers of the tree of life are now able to rightly incorporate the essence of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and do so in a way that leads them to walk pleasingly before God and to glorify Him from the heart.

Next, in order to bring the discussion back to a centered position, Paul asks the requisite question at this point:

Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have granted life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before the faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto faith, which should afterwards be revealed (Gal. 3:21-23)

We are now entering into a portion of the epistle where things begin to become more difficult for many people to grasp. Let's carefully consider what is being said. First of all, the law is not against the promises of God, so that false notion can be summarily dispensed. Next, however, it is made plain that no law has been given that could grant eternal life, thus salvation must come through faith in Yahshua the Messiah. Until that faith was made available, the law played a certain role in that it was put over or above the people – in other words, they were under the law. This position effectively shut out the kind of saving faith to which Paul is referring.

Remember that Yahweh dealt with ancient Israel through particular legal means, because the way to the tree of life was not yet open to them. He is operating with them on the basis of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, the law is a key player, not just as a yardstick of right and wrong, but as a controlling agent, consistently demonstrating the ineffectiveness of the forbidden tree to produce spirit life. Of course, all of this is part of an unfolding divine plan that will culminate in the revelation of the true Messiah, and the outpouring of God's grace leading to eternal life.

Paul next characterizes the part played by the law under the Mosaic Covenant as being like a schoolmaster whose purpose is to ultimately lead the people to the Messiah who was to come. Since the Israelites did not at that time have direct access to the Savior, the law was inserted as the operative factor in God's work with the nation. Paul then states in verses 25-26:

But after that faith is come, we are no longer UNDER a schoolmaster. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

In this one statement alone, millions of well-intentioned people simply throw out the law of God, which, in fact, is not even remotely implied in these verses. What is said is that one who has come in faith to Yahshua no longer is in the same situation as an Israelite under the Mosaic Covenant, therefore, of necessity, the law no longer plays the same kind of part that it did earlier. No longer is there a need for the law to perform as a schoolmaster. No longer is there a need for the law to be over the people. It's position and even it's function to a certain extent now changes. In no way can this fact be construed as a basis for abrogating the law. After all, when one graduates from school, is the schoolmaster put to death? No, of course not! Once one grows, graduates, and matures, however, the role of the schoolmaster is no longer required. The graduate has no need to be under the control and supervision of his teacher. What about the things he has been taught by the schoolmaster? Are they summarily discarded? Was it all for nothing? Does he throw away his education? Not if he has good sense, he doesn't! Neither are the good things of the law discarded once one comes to faith in Messiah. It's role, however, is certainly not the same as before. Hopefully the foregoing expansion on this point has helped make it more clear.

As we move into the fourth chapter of Galatians, things do not necessarily get any easier for many readers. This part of the letter, however, may not be as difficult to understand if we grasp the foundation that Paul has already laid, especially in chapter three, and realize that he is simply building on it as he proceeds through the epistle. What we will now cover cannot and will not be in disagreement with the information we have derived from the first three chapters.

Certain passages in chapter four have convinced a number of Torah-observant believers today that the reason for Paul's writing the Galatians has to do with a return to their former pagan ways, worshiping false gods, and observing idolatrous practices. While it is correct that these Gentiles were at one time pagans (Acts 14:8-18), it is clear from the whole text of the epistle that this is indeed not the problem at hand. Rather, it is precisely the kind of situation so often faced by Paul, whereby he is opposed by Jewish forces bent on forcing the Gentiles to come under their control by the imposition of the law as a requirement for salvation. The Galatians accept these Jewish teachers as readily as they did Paul, and naturally, since they are the experts on the law, the people submit to their rule. In this way, they not only establish control of the people themselves, but also of their money, which was number one on their priority list!

Chapter four opens with Paul comparing a believer's former, unconverted state with being a child who is in subjection to the elements of the world (Gal. 4:3). The Greek word translated elements in verse 3 is stoicheion, and means ‘a first principle, any first things from which others in a series or a composite whole take their rise.’ With regard to Paul's subject in Galatians, this would be a reference to the rudimentary things of religion, whether Jewish or Gentile. In the case of the Gentile Galatians, this would have been a reference to their pagan origins, which at that time were the controlling factor in their lives, putting them into a form of bondage. For the Jews, such as Paul himself, the phrase would pertain to the first covenant background, wherein the people were required to do service unto the law as the controlling agent, and thus placing them in a form of bondage as well.

You will note in verse 3 that Paul utilizes the plural we, saying:

Even so WE, when we were children, were in BONDAGE under the elements of the world.

Either or both of these types (Jewish or Gentile pagan) of the elements of the world were at times presented to various groups of believers as superior to the redeeming work of the Savior and the individual's faith in that redemption. To insure that his readers will clearly understand the point he is making, Paul further clarifies the issue by saying:

But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made UNDER THE LAW, to redeem them that were UNDER THE LAW, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father (Gal. 4:4-6)

It should become increasingly apparent that Paul is lumping together all of the previous religious background experience, both of the Jews and the Gentiles, in this epistle under the heading of the elements of the world, or as he puts it in verse 9, the weak and beggarly elements. We can easily determine from the passage quoted above that he is speaking in this regard to the Jews, whom he characterizes as being under or in bondage to the law. Now in verse 8, he specifically includes the former pagan ways of the Galatian Gentiles by stating:

Howbeit then, when you knew not God, you did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

Then in verse 9, he confronts the issue at stake in the Galatian assemblies, saying:

But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire again to be in BONDAGE. You OBSERVE days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain (Gal. 4:9-11)

Is Paul meaning to say in this passage that the Galatian believers had reverted back to outright idolatry and false worship? No, this cannot be his point, since it is in total disagreement with the rest of the letter. We should not be afraid of calling a spade a spade, and admitting that he is referring to the false teaching of the Judaizers who had come into the area during his absence, and were seeking to put the people back under a form of bondage, which Paul simply categorizes as the elements of the world. It is not the case that they were returning to rank paganism, but to a Jewish yoke.

We must take note of the word observe in verse 10. Paul uses it in this passage to refer to religious holydays. There is no need for anyone to assume that he means pagan days of worship, since that is decidedly not the issue under scrutiny in this particular epistle. These were the festivals commanded in Leviticus 23, but the occasions themselves are not the real problem in this matter. That is to be found in the meaning of the word observe. It is translated from the Greek term paratereo, and it is defined as follows:

To note insidiously, to observe, especially with SINISTER INTENT...This verb also means to watch closely, observe narrowly, used in Gal. 4:10, where the middle voice suggests that their [Galatian] religious observance of days, etc. was NOT from disinterested motives, but with a view to their OWN ADVANTAGE (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible).

Clearly, the reference in Galatians 4 to days, months, times, and years, is not intended to denigrate the Torah-instituted holydays, but is speaking to the motives of the people in their observance of these special religious occasions. They were doing it, under sway of the false Jewish intruders, from a wrong heart, viewing their worship as a means to gain some kind of personal advantage. What advantage could this possibly have been? From the context of the whole letter, it seems apparent that the advantage they were seeking in converting over to the wishes of the Judaizers was salvation, eternal life. They had become persuaded that by assiduously adhering to the various religious holydays, they would ensure their salvation – a concept that is totally opposed to eternal life being a free gift of God's grace through faith in His Son. Therefore, the apostle Paul, as was his practice, immediately counters this erroneous doctrine, leading into the final portion of chapter four and a most interesting Old Testament analogy.

Beginning in verse 21, Paul challenges the people on the issue at stake in Galatia. Please note carefully his first question, and the content of his answer. There really should be no doubt as to what he is meaning to convey.

Tell me, you that desire to be UNDER THE LAW, do you not hear the law? (Gal. 4:21)

If Paul were dealing with the problem of a reversion to paganism among the Galatians, why in the world would he ask such a question? Obviously, the point is not a return to their pagan past, but to another form of bondage introduced by the false Jewish teachers, something that God desires they be freed from. Paul now continues to expound by saying:

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons; the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the BONDWOMAN was born after the FLESH [salvation by works of the law]; but he of the FREEWOMAN was by PROMISE [salvation by grace through faith]. Which things are an allegory: for these are the TWO COVENANTS, the one from the MOUNT SINAI, which engenders to BONDAGE, which is Hagar. For this Hagar [and her son Ishmael] is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in BONDAGE with her children. But Jerusalem [corresponding to Sarah and her son Isaac] which is above is FREE, which is the mother of us all (Gal. 4:22-26)

Take note of the emphasis placed on bond and free in this passage. Why? Because this is the subject of Paul's writing. The Galatians were being brought back into a state of spiritual bondage by the false Jewish teachers who sought to impose the law over them in place of the Messiah and the grace of God.

Paul, a Torah-observant Jew, a Pharisee, a doctor of the law, still uses the language of bondage in describing the first covenant made by Yahweh with Israel at Mount Sinai. Hagar was not a freewoman like Abraham's lawful wife Sarah. She was actually Sarah's bondmaid, a slave of sorts. When Abraham could wait no longer for God to perform that which He had promised with regard to an heir, he took the advice of his wife, and had a son by Hagar. Paul calls Ishmael as being born after the flesh. By way of contrast, Isaac is described as being born by promise. The difference couldn't be any more plain.

Paul uses the term flesh to represent the fact that Ishmael was produced by Abraham taking matters into his own hands and going in unto a bondwoman to achieve what God intended to give him. Therefore, no substantive faith was actually involved, and no grace was present. In other words, all the necessary factors for eternal life were missing in the union between Abraham and Hagar and the offspring that union yielded.

On the other hand, however, we have Isaac. So different was his birth that God Himself deemed him Abraham's only son (Gen. 22:2), totally disregarding his firstborn, Ishmael. This is extremely significant, since Paul now compares the Sinaitic Covenant to the son of the bondwoman! In other words, the use of the Mosaic arrangement, meaning the entire package – laws, commandments, statutes, ordinances, rituals, sacrifices, etc. – is viewed by Paul in Galatians 4 in the same manner as God looked at Ishmael. And the reason has altogether to do with the fact that it was a covenant primarily of the FLESH, not the SPIRIT, it was one of BONDAGE, not FREEDOM, it was one of WORKS, not FAITH, it was one of LAW, not GRACE, and therefore it was TEMPORARY, not PERMANENT, it was a SHADOW, not the REALITY, it was the sacrifice of mere ANIMALS, not the blood of YAHSHUA THE SAVIOR, it led to DEATH, and not ETERNAL LIFE!!

Surely no one can doubt Paul's stand on this issue, yet in none of his powerful discourse does he denigrate the law itself, nor is he meaning to state or imply that the law is abrogated. Clearly, the first covenant is intended to be replaced by the second. Clearly, God is far more concerned with the spiritual than the physical. Clearly it is the intention of God to write His law upon the hearts of His people. Clearly, it is God's plan that salvation be a gift, freely given out of His love and grace, based upon our acceptance in faith of the sacrifice of His Son for sin, and not the product of any law, any works, or any price paid by the recipients.

Paul concludes this part of his epistle by saying:

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh [Ishmael, Mount Sinai, Mosaic Covenant, Israel, the Jews, Jerusalem] persecuted him that was born after the Spirit [Isaac, Mount Zion, New Covenant, converted believers in Yahshua, New Jerusalem], even so it is now. Nevertheless what says the Scripture? CAST OUT the BONDWOMAN and her SON, for the son of the bondwoman shall NOT BE HEIR with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the BONDWOMAN [Mosaic Covenant, under the law, in bondage], but of the FREE [New Covenant, under grace, full liberty in Messiah - not to disobey, but to serve in newness of spirit] (Gal. 4:28-31)

Upon consideration, this analogy, used only by the apostle Paul with which to equate the two covenants, and indeed the TWO TREES, is quite remarkable. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was never created to give salvation, for the law has no such power or place in God's configuration of things. Only the aptly-named tree of life offers the chance for human beings to live forever. The two trees can be most favorably compared to the analogy utilized by Paul in his letter to the Galatians. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden, because God did not want man to pursue salvation by the works of the law. Remember that the law itself is good, but it cannot produce and grant eternal life. Only the Almighty can and will do this through His Son the Messiah. Salvation, therefore, must be a matter of promise, grace, and faith.

Essentially, the Mosaic Covenant was not about eternal salvation; it was not truly spiritual in nature, and thus it had inherent limitations with respect to God's plan. Therefore, at the appropriate time, it was cast out, even as were Hagar and Ishmael, not because the law is bad, but simply because as long as one is under the law, he is subjugated in bondage, and cannot be free to pursue a life of promise, grace, and faith. To be under the law is to be under a taskmaster, to be subject to a school teacher. It means that life is dictated, controlled, ruled, and measured by physical efforts and works. It means, in essence, that one is not under Christ, not under grace, not in the Spirit!! The New Covenant encompasses the essential ingredient missing from the ancient Israelites under the Mosaic Covenant, namely, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Laws written on tablets of stone served their purpose for the time and circumstances that existed in the era previous to the coming of Messiah, but clearly God wants more for His people, and thankfully provision has been made for His wishes to come to pass.

Galatians 5 commences with Paul's comments on circumcision. This issue was supposedly settled at the Jerusalem Conference as recorded in Acts 15, but obviously the Judaizers were not abiding by the apostolic decision that was made, for they were still going through the Gentile areas insisting that circumcision be enforced upon the believers in order that they might be saved. Paul reacts just as adamantly on this occasion as he had some years earlier.

In verse 2, he tells the Galatians that if they go along with the false Jewish teachers and become circumcised as they require, then they are, in essence, rejected the efficacy of Yahshua in the matter of salvation. He states that Christ shall profit you nothing. In verse 3, he writes the following words, and they are very significant:

For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are JUSTIFIED BY THE LAW ARE FALLEN FROM GRACE (Gal. 5:3-4)

This is strong language from Paul, and we need to understand precisely where he is coming from, or we will totally misinterpret what he is getting at in this passage. He is not condemning the act of circumcision. He is, however, stringently opposed to the reason why the Galatian brethren would undergo this rite, for they are not being persuaded by the Jewish intruders to do this for any truly righteous purpose, but to assure themselves of salvation, something with which physical circumcision has utterly nothing to do.

He warns the people that if they go along with this heretical teaching, they will be putting themselves under the law, and thus they will be accountable for keeping every nuance of the ancient Israelite legal system, but that is not all. The Messiah, the only way to salvation and eternal life, will be of no effect to them. They will have moved from being justified by faith in Yahshua to being justified by the law and whatever human effort they can muster, and therein lies the rub, for there is NO JUSTIFICATION POSSIBLE BY THE LAW!! Notice once again the previously cited passage from Romans 3:

All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being JUSTIFIED FREELY BY HIS GRACE, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus [Messiah Yahshua]: whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through FAITH in His blood, to declare HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God: to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that HE might be just, and the JUSTIFIER of him who believes in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay: but by the LAW OF FAITH. Therefore we conclude that a man is JUSTIFIED BY FAITH WITHOUT THE DEEDS OF THE LAW (Rom. 3:23-28)

Do you see that it is Yahweh Himself who desires to be the JUSTIFIER of those who believe, therefore the LAW cannot and will never be the means of justification? The law is not greater than the Lawgiver! It cannot replace Him, and that is, in effect, what yielding to the Jewish teachers in Galatia would accomplish! Depending on the law for salvation makes the work of our Savior on the cross meaningless! Choosing to obey the law to achieve salvation pushes the Messiah out of the picture, it crowds out the grace of God, and it renders faith powerless and useless!

It is not difficult to appreciate Paul's determined resistence to this critical situation among the Galatian churches. For him, no one or no thing supercedes the grace of God and the sacrifice of Yahshua. Nothing else can accomplish true forgiveness and removal of sin; nothing else can provide the Holy Spirit and the transformation of the heart; and nothing else can grant eternal life. Therefore this issue is absolutely crucial to salvation itself, and its importance cannot possible be overstated.

The remainder of chapter five covers the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit, and chapter six concludes the letter. Paul's closing remarks are worth quoting in this study. Beginning with verse 12, we read:

As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a NEW CREATURE (Gal. 6:12-15)

It is clear that not only were the false Jewish teachers conveying a wrong message to the Galatians, they were doing it for wrong reasons as well. Paul exposes their evil motives, showing that they were far more interested in an outward show, in gaining power over the people, and in avoiding any persecution on behalf of the Savior and His cause. This attitude, as reprehensible as it is, still remains with us to this day. When you encounter it or a modern variation thereof, remember the lesson of Galatians, remember Paul's words of warning, and steadfastly resist it in the Spirit. Even as the bondwoman and her son were cast out, so the Messiah has come and cast out the first covenant that He might become the mediator of a new and better compact, written not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with His own blood shed for the remission of sins, a new and better testament designed to function on a spiritual level with Holy Spirit power, a new and better arrangement based on greater promises and eternal rewards. This is the covenant that we, as true believers in Yahshua today, have embraced. Do not therefore ever allow anyone or anything to lure you away from the grace of God and the preeminence of the Messiah as Savior and as the only means to salvation!

THE OTHER DITCH!

In scientific circles, it is well known that in the natural universe, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. It appears that this maxim holds true in the human approach to the Scriptures as well. We have spent many pages discussing the wrong usage of the law with respect to salvation. The Bible is crystal clear that eternal life comes by the grace of the Almighty and through the Messiah and faith in His sacrifice for sin, not any laws, commandments, statutes, judgments, ordinances, rituals, or any other thing or combination of things of any kind, no matter how good it may be.

Adam and Eve made a critical choice in the Garden of Eden, one that affected the entire human race. In that ancient time, they were offered access to the tree of life, but they refused to put their faith in God's grace. Rather they listened to the enticing lies of the Adversary, and decided to travel down the one path which was forbidden to them – the way symbolized by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In effect, they chose to earn their salvation, and much of mankind has been making that same erroneous choice ever since. The choice made by Adam and Eve signifies man's reckoning the increasing acquisition of knowledge as the stepladder to eternal life. This essentially is a salvation by works. We see this approach, not only in the original human beings succumbing to the Satanic lie, but also in such varied religions or philosophies as Rabbinic Judaism, Greek Hellenism, 2nd and 3rd century Gnosticism, later Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, Islam, and many others simply too numerous to mention at this time.

We have taken a look at the opposition the apostle Paul faced from the right-wing conservative Judaizers of the first-century. Their approach was that salvation must be earned by the doing of many required things, chiefly among them, the physical circumcision of all males, and strict obedience to the law of Moses (Acts 15:1, 5). Paul resisted such efforts to pervert the gospel of the Messiah, which bases the reception of eternal life upon the grace of God and faith in Yahshua as Savior. In taking such a stand, Paul never once rejected the law, nor did he ever denigrate it. Rather he judged it to be holy, just, and good (Rom. 7:12), stating further in Romans 7:

For I DELIGHT in the LAW of God after the inward man...So with the mind I myself SERVE THE LAW of God (Rom. 7:22, 25)

In Paul's many discussions of the law, he is continually having to show the brethren what part it plays in God's configuration of things in the plan of salvation. The wrong use of the law, he teaches, leads, not to eternal life, but, in fact, to death, even as the forbidden tree in the very beginning carried with it a death curse. When adherence to the law is made a prerequisite for salvation, a completely bizarre and corrupt order of things is produced, a situation in which the creation is exalted, worshiped, and served above the Creator, something which Yahweh vigorously opposes!

Paul and the early apostles also, however, faced opposition from the other side of the religious and philosophical spectrum. For instance, Jude describes this left-wing situation in the following terms:

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the GRACE of God into LASCIVIOUSNESS, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ...These are spots in your love feasts...feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, The Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds...These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own LUSTS; and their mouth speaking great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage (Jude 3-4, 12-16)

There is a significant difference in what Jude is reporting in his short epistle, and what we read, for instance, in Acts 15 or Galatians 3-4. The certain men to Jude refers are not the conservative Judaizers who constantly plagued Paul, but rather much more liberal false teachers with a different approach and agenda. Unlike the Jewish interlopers who did not hide who they were and what they represented, these men crept in unawares as Jude puts it, worming their way into the various fellowships and assemblies, pretending to be something that they were not. Their agenda was not to force the law upon the people for salvation purposes, but rather to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, and thus in effect denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Yahshua Messiah.

The crime of which these deceptive, duplicitous individuals were guilty was not opposition to the grace of God and a wrong use of the law, but much more an opposition to the law, and a wrong use of grace, indeed, as Jude states, seeking to turn God's grace into a license to commit sin, a free ticket to a world of iniquity, camouflaged by a patina of religion. The difference is quite clear, and yet the effect is the same, in that both philosophies are enticing, false, in disagreement with the Scriptures, and lead to death rather than eternal life.

Peter also was quite aware of the liberalization beginning to encroach upon the various local assemblies established by the early apostles. In his second epistle, notice how he conveys the warning against this wave of lawlessness:

But there were false prophets also among the people [in previous times among the Israelites], even as there shall be false teachers among you, who PRIVILY [secretly, deceptively] shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious [Gk. lascivious, licentious] ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make MERCHANDISE of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation does not slumber...Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: a heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: which have FORSAKEN the RIGHT WAY, and are GONE ASTRAY, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness...These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest: to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them LIBERTY, they themselves are the servants of corruption (II Pet. 2:1-3, 14-15, 17-19)

Peter is speaking of the same class of false teachers as Jude. In fact, the sections in each of their letters dealing with these individuals have many similarities, as you will readily note in reading the passages. These men, like the Judaizers, were seeking to gain control over the people, and both groups were strongly motivated by the extraction of money from the brethren. Peter accuses the liberal party with following the way of Balaam, who was paid by Balak, king of the Moabites, to entice Israel to commit sin, equating it with their insatiable desire to make merchandise of the believers.

Clearly, the early Church was bombarded on every side by those who saw a golden opportunity to take advantage of a rather naive group of people, people who had come out of a life of sin and accepted Yahshua as Messiah and Savior, people who were declared innocent and righteous before the Almighty, people whose lives were now open and sincere and looking for guidance. As you can see, many of them were easily influenced and quickly dissuaded by evil forces teaching falsehoods from the left and from the right.

Paul was certainly not unaware of this liberal philosophy that was becoming prominent in the mid-latter first century. Rather than using the law as a club, they were intent on weakening the law, indeed seeking to abrogate it. Paul utilizes the Greek term anomia in describing the condition of these intruders into the faith. This particular word is often translated into the English word iniquity, and it means ‘against the law, without Torah’, and was a direct onslaught against things that were perceived to be too Jewish, particularly such easily identifying practices as keeping the weekly Sabbath and the annual holydays, refraining from unclean foods, and utilizing the sacred calendar. This eventually led to a rejection of the Torah, and a strong de-emphasis on the Hebrew Scriptures, or what we usually call the Old Testament.

Paul writes about this problem in the book of II Thessalonians, where he refers to the situation in the following language:

Now we beseech you, brethren...that you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, not by letter from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that MAN OF SIN be revealed, the son of perdition...for the MYSTERY OF INIQUITY does already work...and then that Wicked One be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness (II Thess. 2:1-3, 7-12)

Here, as you will immediately recognize, Paul is speaking of the so-called Antichrist or Man of Sin who comes upon the world spreading what is termed the MYSTERY OF INIQUITY! The Greek word for iniquity in this passage is anomia, so Paul's description could just as correctly be stated as the MYSTERY OF ANOMIA or LAWLESSNESS! In other words, the Man of Sin will promulgate a kind of Christianity that will be opposed to the law of God. And, even though he is speaking primarily of the end-time in II Thessalonians 2, he clearly stipulates that this Mystery of Lawlessness was already at work in his own day, as indeed it was, for if we follow its course of development over the first several centuries of the Common Era, we see that this liberal philosophy led directly to the formation of the Roman Catholic Church, and the amalgamation of the ancient Babylonian mysteries into the ostensible Christian religion, creating one of the most despicable religious admixtures ever foisted off on an unsuspecting world – one that began centuries and centuries ago, but that has today become full-blown, and which will ultimately bring about the near destruction of the whole world leading up to and culminating in the Second Coming of the Messiah!

Both of these sinful false philosophies – that of misusing the law as the means to salvation, thus diminishing grace and faith, and that of diminishing the law, and misusing grace and faith as the way to eternal life – are of Satan the devil, and can be viewed as being different components or aspects of the pathway symbolized by the forbidden tree.

The former approach, the one taken by the Judaizers of the first century, has infected many, if not most, of the more conservative branches of Christianity, especially many of the Sabbath-keeping groups. The latter of the two philosophies, that of liberalization, has, of course, become the dominant force throughout the ostensible Christian world today. The Roman Catholic Church, along with her Protestant descendants, including many of the so-called Evangelical churches as well, have all succumbed to this left-wing, anti-Semitic approach to Christianity, especially the teaching of the Old Testament.

In both instances, the effect is the same in that the emphasis is always in the wrong place. There is no salvation contained within the law itself. Paul and the other New Testament writers are crystal clear on this point, and to insist that unless one is physically circumcised after the manner of Moses, and keeps the law, he cannot be saved (Acts 15:1, 5) is inherently wrong and demonstrates a salvation by works. In like manner, there is no salvation in turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness (Jude 4).

When one knowingly or unwittingly chooses the pathway symbolized by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it is an obvious revelation that he or she has lost sight of the correct order of things in God's plan of salvation. His way is not one of either law or grace, but rather the right amalgamation of the two.

Once again, let us not forget that the forbidden tree did not contain bad fruit. Remember that it was good for food, pleasant to the eye, and able to make one wise. The Hebrew word rendered wise in Genesis 3:6 is sakal, and it means ‘to understand, be circumspect, act prudently, have good success, be skillful.’ This word is used 63 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and it always is presented in a positive light. Therefore, we must consider the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to indeed be good. After all, God is not against His own law! He devised it, He sanctified it, He gave it, and He expects it to be obeyed.

On the other hand, although it may be very tempting to believe that salvation comes by the works of the law, just the most cursory consideration of this notion should tells us that this is an absolute impossibility, for what human being is capable of perfectly keeping the law? All have sinned, we are told, and have fallen short of the glory of God. Man must be redeemed, he must be forgiven, he must be granted eternal life, for he does not possess the ability to achieve any of the necessary things on his own. As stated earlier in our study, if salvation is left up to us to accomplish, we are doomed before we even get started! The law defines what is right thought and conduct and what is wrong. By the law comes the knowledge of sin. Therefore, the law has altogether to do with how we comport ourselves, how we live our lives, and its place in the divine order of things should be as the supernatural expression of God's Spirit working within a believer's mind and heart. The law is the roadmap for a successful relationship with Yahweh and His Son, and for right and Godly living among human beings. It is to love the Almighty with all one's heart, and one's neighbor as oneself.

The grace of God is, of course, an indispensable part of His love poured out upon mankind. Even the ungodly in the world are blessed by grace. Grace, in fact, overarches all of humanity from the cradle to the grave. If it were not present, we simply would not be! By God's grace Adam and Eve were created, given life, and granted a meaningful purpose to their existence. By grace God made them coats of skins to cover their nakedness, and a way was made for all their descendants to find forgiveness of sin, removal of sin, and eternal salvation, in that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16).

In three short verses contained in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we are given the right parts played by law and grace. In chapter 2, beginning in verse 8, we read:

For by GRACE are you SAVED through FAITH, and [even] that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto GOOD WORKS, which God has before ordained that we should WALK IN THEM (Eph. 2:8-10).

We all have read and heard this short passage many times in the past. It should be our guiding light in the matter of salvation. Note that there are three key words in these verses, and that they are in a certain, precise order – GRACE, FAITH, and WORKS. By putting these words into a sentence, a concise statement of the right pathway of salvation is created, and that sentence reads: BY GRACE, FAITH WORKS! Some years ago, I gave a message which took these three operative words and put them into the following formula based upon a spiritual journey:

1) GRACE = The gate - the sacrifice of the Savior - forgiveness of sin - justification - the beginning of the journey.

2) FAITH = The path - the acceptance of the sacrifice - the indwelling of the Savior - sanctification - the daily walk of the journey.

3) WORKS = The destination - the right effect of the law - the life of Christ manifested - glorification - the conclusion of the journey.

Although quite simplistic, these three words – grace, faith, and works – show the correct order when the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil are given their rightful place in God's plan of salvation. The divine pathway should lead us from receiving God's grace, to living by faith, to the fruit of good works.

Within the context of the Holy of holies, the formula presented above is as follows:

1) AARON'S ROD - Grace of God, Faith in Messiah.

2) TABLETS OF THE LAW - Good works.

3) POT OF MANNA - Presence of Yahshua the Messiah.

4) ARK OF COVENANT & MERCY SEAT - Presence of Yahweh the Father.

If Adam and Eve had put their trust in the Father, and not in the lies of the Adversary, they would have partaken of the tree of life, indicating a right understanding of God's plan and purpose, and a willingness to submit themselves to His grace. Then by faith they would have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And finally, by walking according to the law they would have produced good works, for faith without works is dead. In so doing they would have obeyed, honored, and pleased the Almighty, and been brought into His divine presence for all eternity! This is the only way the plan of salvation will work.

Each of us needs to examine ourselves, our hearts and our attitudes toward God's grace, toward our faith in Messiah, and toward His law and the living of His way of life. All three of these elements are of the utmost importance to our eternal salvation. Let us make certain that we stand in accordance with God's Word and His will on each of these issues, and that we rightly apply the lesson of the Two Trees!

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