In his book, The Warrior Savior, Owen Strachan states in the very first three sentences in the first chapter the point of every page in the Bible: “It was a tree that damned us. It was a tree that redeemed us. And it will be a tree that heals us in the age to come—time beyond all time.”[1] I want to borrow and use Strachan’s opening statement in his book as the point of this sermon series. It is the big idea of the overall message of the seventeen sermons that will make up this series that I have titled, The Tree.
I assume that you already know this, but just in case you don’t, here it is: We are in a war! If you are a Christian as I am, then WE are at war. The war we are in is both spiritual and supernatural for we are warned: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).
We are told that there is a domain of darkness (Col. 1:13; 1 Pet. 2:9) over which a powerful malevolent being rules (John 8:44; Eph. 2:2). Before we look into how it is that the domain of darkness came into existence, let me read something for you, and see if what you hear sounds like a commentary on the kinds of things that seem to be more and more common:
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power... (2 Tim. 3:1-5)
So, how did we get here? Where are we going? What hope do we have that it will ever get better? To answer that question, we need to go to the beginning.
The Tree of Life and It’s Life-Giving Fruit
Like all stories, our story also has a beginning. Genesis 1:1 begins in the same way all good stories begin: “In the beginning...” What happened in the beginning? “God created the heavens and the earth” (v. 1). This is how we tell stories: “Once upon a time…” “A long, long time ago…” In a galaxy far, far away…” Like all other stories, our story begins in the mind of God. When, “And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (v. 2), God spoke into the emptiness and created out of nothing that which did not exist previously.
Out of the imagination of the mind of God came forth a world brimming with life and worship. On the first day God created the heavens and the earth; day and night. On the second day He divided the heavens from the earth. On the third day God created the land, sea, and vegetation. On the fourth day He created the sun, moon, and stars. On the fifth day, God created creatures great and small. On the sixth day, God created land animals and finally mankind. And, on the seventh day… God rested.
The crowning moment of creation was when God said, “Let us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness.... So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (vv. 26, 27). Humanity was born—not simply another creature, but a unique reflection of the Creator Himself. Among all living things, only human beings bear the image of God, set apart to represent Him in the world He created with design, beauty, and purpose. God blessed the man and his wife and commanded them to, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (v. 28).
Owen Strachan makes the point concerning Adam: “Adam, the first man, was a priest and a king onto God. He lived and ruled under the divine regency of his Maker.”[2] The woman, later to be called Eve in the story, came from Adam’s body and God brought her to Adam as his wife and helper to join him in the mission to exercise dominion on the earth and fill it with humans like themselves and so that they too would walk in obedience and love with their Creator.
When God created, He didn’t use special effects or any tricks; He spoke, and everything in the universe and beyond came into existence. When He had finished with creation, God declared it to be “very good” (v. 31). “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1) when he took the blank canvas of nothing and then painted the beauty of creation with the brush of His omnipotent Word.
Before Eve was brought to Adam as a helper, God gave Adam another command: “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.’” (2:15-17).
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and It’s Curse-Producing Fruit
Before God formed Adam from the dust, He had already created trees on the third day. Among all the trees He made, two were of great significance: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Both of these were placed at the center of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 1:11; 2:9). The fruit from the Tree of Life was available for Adam and Eve to freely enjoy, and by eating it, they could live forever (3:22). In contrast, eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would lead to death. In this way, God presented humanity with a choice in Eden: each day, Adam and Eve could choose life by lovingly obeying God, or they could choose death by turning away from Him in disobedience and rebellion.
Just as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit begins with the memorable line, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” introducing the humble yet unexpectedly heroic Bilbo Baggins, Genesis 3 ushers us into a pivotal moment with the arrival of a seemingly ordinary serpent. However, unlike Bilbo, whose heroism gradually unfolds, the serpent in Genesis 3 is far from harmless—he is revealed as the true antagonist of humanity’s story.
It’s important to remember Adam’s unique role in the garden: he was appointed by God to serve both as priest and king, entrusted to live and rule under God’s authority. The significance of Genesis 3:1 cannot be overstated, as it marks the moment when the serpent targets Eve, the wife of God’s chosen representative, with cunning intent. The serpent’s temptation comes in the form of a subtle question, challenging God’s word: “Did God really say...?” (v. 1). This question sets the stage for the unfolding drama of deception and a choice that will shape the course of human history.
The root of the temptation was to question the goodness of God because He withheld fruit from only one tree in the garden. In other words, Satan was tempting Eve to doubt the goodness of God. Thomas Watson once wrote concerning sin, “Sin first tempts and then damns. It is first a fox and then a lion.”[3] So Eve, “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate...” But she did not stop there, “...and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen. 3:6). Their innocence was violated by their rebellion, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waist coverings” (v. 7). Instead of choosing life, Adam and Eve chose death; they believed the lie of the serpent and thought that by eating the forbidden fruit that they would be God’s equal. They were wrong. They doubted the truthfulness of God’s word and His faithfulness to honor all of His promises and what they received was a curse instead of the blessing the serpent promised.
The serpent was much more than what Adam and Eve believed him to be. Jesus said of the serpent, that he, “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is not truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
Throughout the Bible, we learn that the serpent is also the Accuser (Rev. 12:10), the Adversary (1 Pet. 5:8), the Beast (Rev. 14:9-10), and Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24). He is the dragon (Rev. 12:9), the evil one (John 17:15), the father of lies (John 8:44), and the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4). The serpent is the lawless one (2 Thess. 2:8-10), the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:1-2), the ruler of demons (Luke 11:15), the tempter (Matt. 4:3), the thief (John 10:10), and the wicked one (Eph. 6:16). In every description, he is the embodiment of evil who “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). Yet, the serpent was, is, and always will be no more than a created being whose desire to be like God preceded his temptation of Adam and Eve to be like God.
The serpent’s motive in tempting Adam and Eve to sin was rooted in his deep-seated hatred for God and for humanity—God’s unique creation made in His own image. Yet, it was not the devil’s decision that caused Adam and Eve to fall; rather, it was their own deliberate choice to disobey God. By choosing to sin, Adam and Eve forfeited the life and relationship with God that He had originally designed for them. It was not the serpent who chose death over life for the couple, but Adam and Eve who chose death instead of life.
The Promise of Another Tree
In Genesis 3, it was the snake who spoke first out of his own deception that he would have the last word. Yet, it was not the serpent, but God who had the final word. The response of Adam and Eve was that of shame and hiding, yet it was God who came near and found them in their shame! Do not miss what happens next in the story and how God approached the couple.
We are told in Genesis 3:8, “...the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Then, we come to Genesis 3:9! “Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” God did not call to both Adam and Eve, but only to Adam. Why? Was it not Eve who gave the forbidden fruit to Adam; was she not also guilty of sinning against God? Though both Adam and Eve sinned, it was Adam who represented mankind as the first priest and king. He was made first and was placed in the created order as head over his wife. He had headship and also served as the representative on behalf of all mankind; this is the point of Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned...”
This is why God called to Adam and not to Eve. The couple could not hide from God; when God called Adam to account for his actions, he pointed his finger at his wife: “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me some of the fruit of the tree, and I ate” (v. 12). In other words, according to Adam, it was ultimately everyone else’s fault that he chose to sin. The truth is that Adam failed to protect his wife through obedience God. When Eve was asked what it was that she had done, she also shifted the blame but was more truthful than Adam, she admitted that she ate because she was deceived (v. 13).
God could have chosen to begin again. He was fully justified in withholding mercy and delivering only justice through His wrath. Yet, instead, He gave Adam and Eve what they did not deserve: which was mercy, love, and grace. God had the final word, and it was good news! Yes, death would spread to all mankind from one generation to the next because of Adam and Eve’s sin. Eve would experience great pain through giving birth to life, and Adam would experience great toil through bringing life from the earth (3:15-19). Suffering, pain, and thorns would serve as continual reminders of a world under the weight of the curse. Nevertheless, this is not how the story ends! God had the final word, and it came in the form of a promise that would lead to the destruction of the serpent and life for mankind:
“And I will make enemies
Of you and the woman,
And of your offspring and her Descendant;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise Him on the heel.” (3:15)
From Adam and Eve would come a Deliverer who would crush the head of the great serpent-like-dragon under His heal. Although Adam and Eve were not given all the details, God had already determined that the Deliverer would be His own Son who would obediently choose a different tree in another garden, that would then result in His cursing for our redemption (see Gal 3:13).
Although the consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin was expulsion from Eden and the presence of God, there was coming another Day when the Descendant would remove the curse of sin and make all things new. Although they were driven from Eden and forbidden to eat from the tree of life, God would make the forgiveness of sins and eternal life available through a different kind of tree, namely the cross of Christ.
Conclusion
We are told throughout the Bible that the choice of life over death is before mankind. Just before the Hebrew people were permitted to enter the land promised to them through Abraham, Moses said to the people:
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, so that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” (Deut. 30:19-20).
The question we must all answer remains unchanged from the one asked throughout Scripture: Will you choose life or death?
Permit me to leave you with six lessons from Genesis 1-3 in closing:
- Sin is always costly. Consider what Adam and Eve’s sin cost them; it cost them their intimacy with God, their intimacy with each other, and it robbed them of a joy that far exceeded what their sin could have delivered.
- Sin never delivers what it promises. Adam and Eve were told that if they sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit that they would be just like God, but what they received is pain and death.
- Sin destroys peace. Before the fall, Adam and Eve enjoyed peace in the garden. There was harmony and continuity in the garden, but their sin disturbed what they once enjoyed. Sin vandalizes the peace of God.
- Sin brings unwanted shame. The moment Adam and Eve sinned against God; their innocence was turned into shame. They once enjoyed each other’s company naked and unashamed, but their sin resulted in their need to cover up their shame by covering up their nakedness.
- Sin will rob you of genuine joy. Adam and Eve were made to enjoy, experience, and bring forth life, but their sin robbed them of life and delivered only death.
- No Sin is bigger than God’s mercy, love, and grace. Even though there were consequences to their sin, Adam and Eve experienced the overpowering grace of God over their sin.
[1] Owen Strachan, The Warrior Savior (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing; 2024), 1.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Thomas Watson. The Mischief of Sin (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications; 1994), p. 20.
