A Peek into the Garden

Open your Bible to Romans 7 and read it slowly. Here Paul is addressing those ‘who know the law” (verse 1). Verse 7 says, “I would not have known what sin was except through the law”. Paul continues, “through the commandment sin became utterly sinful” verse 13.

When God placed Adam and Eve in the Eden Garden, He told them not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In other words, God did not intend man to live by a rule book of ‘good and evil’, avoiding all that was evil and doing all that was good. God intended man to live by the Tree of Life – the Holy Spirit who would tell them what was pleasing to God and what was not. To live by the knowledge of good and evil is to live by the law. This would bring us into bondage.

It was never God’s intention that man should live by rule and regulations. The law was not given to man to lead man to life, but rather to show man’s impotency and to test his honesty. Therefore, after Jesus came, the Law was set aside and a new covenant was ushered in. it is written, “you …. died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to him who was raised from the dead, ……………..and have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. Romans 7.4-6 (ref Ezekiel 36:25-27, Romans 2:28-29)

For further reading and study: Romans 7-8, and Galatians 3-5