Knowledge of good and evil in the Garden

Have you ever asked yourself this? If God is omniscient, if he already knew in advance that Adam and Eve would eat from the forbidden fruit, then why did he place the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden? Wouldn't it have been easier to simply not create that tree? That would have prevented sin, avoided the fall, suffering, and all the other problems that entered the world. Without a doubt, that is an extremely important question. And in this video, I'm going to show you that when we look at Scripture, the answer not only makes sense, but actually reveals something grand about who God is and what his plan is for us.

Before anything else, we need to clear up a misunderstanding. Some people imagine that there was a good tree, the tree of life, and another evil tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But if you read Genesis carefully, you'll notice that the book never says that. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not an evil tree. It didn't have poison. It wasn't a cursed plant. There was nothing magical about its fruit. God does not create evil things. If he created evil things, he himself would be evil.

And I know that at this point, some may remember Isaiah 45, 7, where God says, "I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil." At first glance, it might seem like the Bible is saying that God is the creator of sin. But in reality, the Hebrew word used for evil does not refer only to moral evil, but also to disaster, calamity, or judgment. What the text teaches is that God can raise up kingdoms and bring them down, send judgment, or bring peace. This does not mean that he is the author of sin, but that nothing escapes his control. So when Isaiah says that God creates evil, he is speaking of calamities and judgments as instruments of discipline, never of sin itself.

Furthermore, the Bible says, "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." In other words, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was good in and of itself. The problem was not in the tree, but in the act of disobedience. God could have placed any other test: do not cross this river, do not climb this mountain. But why specifically that tree? Why not some other prohibition? The answer lies in the specific nature of the tree. It was not just the tree of knowledge; it represented a specific kind of knowledge, the knowledge of good and evil.

Adam and Eve already knew good. Everything around them was good. They lived in a perfect world, in harmony with God and with one another. They also already knew about the existence of evil, because God had warned them, "for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." What they did not yet know was evil by experience. God knew what evil was without practicing it. He is infinite, holy, and perfect, and can know even possibilities that will never come to pass. But Adam and Eve were finite. For them to experience evil would mean entering a reality of pain, suffering, and death. And when they ate from the fruit, they came to know evil from within. And that is when sin contaminated all of humanity. The problem was not intellectual knowledge. The problem was experiential knowledge.

And this leads us to the central point. The tree existed to guarantee that Adam and Eve had a real choice. Without choice, there is no such thing as true love. If God had created Adam and Eve incapable of disobeying, they would have been like robots programmed to obey. Programmed obedience is not obedience. And love without freedom is not love. Every true relationship involves choice:

A friend chooses to be with another friend.

A spouse chooses to love their partner every day.

You cannot say that a car or any other machine is obedient or loving. You only use those words for a being that is capable of choice. In the same way, God wanted human beings to love him freely. That is why the tree was there, so that Adam and Eve could express, through a concrete decision, whether they would trust their creator or seek autonomy.

And here arises another big question. If God already knew they would disobey, why didn't he stop them? Wouldn't that make God guilty? The answer is that knowing is not the same as causing. Yes, God knew that Adam and Eve would fall. But the choice was theirs. He did not program them to sin. He merely created them with real freedom.

A human example helps us understand this better. Imagine a father who gives a serious warning to his daughter. The father knows that there is a possibility she will disobey. But that does not mean the father forced her hand into the fire. In the same way, God did not cause sin. But he knew that through the misuse of freedom, the fall would happen.

Another essential point. God's command was not arbitrary. He

did not say, "do not eat" merely to assert his authority. On the contrary, it was a loving warning. God was caring for Adam and Eve. He made the consequences clear. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. That expression in Hebrew is

 extremely strong. Dying, thou shalt die. It was not only future physical death, but immediate spiritual death. Separation from God, existential emptiness, loss of purpose. God was not depriving them of pleasure. He was protecting them from evil.

Reformed theologians understand this command as a covenant of works. It was like a pact established between two parties. On one side, God, the sovereign creator. On the other, man, made in his image. The condition was clear. To love God through obedience. The promise was also wonderful. Full life, perfect communion with the Lord, and everything the creator himself had prepared for mankind. But along with the promise came the penalty. If man chose to disobey, the result would be death in every possible dimension: physical, spiritual, and eternal.

Adam did not represent only himself, but all humanity. His obedience would have preserved the life of all. But his fall brought death to all his descendants. That is exactly what Paul sums up in Romans 5. By one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Do you see it? The tree was not just a prohibition. It carried an implied promise. As long as they did not eat from it, they would not die. If Adam and Eve remained obedient, they would enjoy full and abundant life. What was at stake was not merely biological existence, but life in communion with God. Experiencing the true life that Christ would later reveal in all its fullness. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

The tree therefore pointed to an eternal principle. True life exists only when we trust and obey the creator. It is interesting to note that God did not desire sin, nor did he cause sin. But he used the fall to reveal something Adam and Eve would never have known otherwise: the depth of his grace. Without sin, we would never know forgiveness. Without the fall, we would never know redemption. Without death, we would never know resurrection. Of course, that does not mean sin was good. But it means that God is so sovereign that even evil does not escape his plan. The Apostle Paul summarizes it this way: Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

So what does all of this mean for our lives today?

Love is a choice, not a feeling. From Eden onward, God placed Adam and Eve before a choice: to obey or not to obey his command. The same happens with us daily. To love God means choosing obedience even when the heart wants to go the other way. It means giving up shortcuts, momentary pleasures, and easier paths in order to remain firm in the will of the Lord. Every small decision, whether forgiving someone, speaking the truth, or resisting temptation, is a practical opportunity to love God with our choices.

Sin promises experience, but delivers slavery. The serpent convinced Adam and Eve that eating the fruit would give them something they lacked, as if God were withholding a greater good from them. But what seemed like progress brought only downfall: shame, separation, and death. This is the pattern of sin to this day. It offers the illusion of freedom. Do whatever you want, follow your heart. But the result is bondage, addiction, and emptiness. Anyone who has fallen into temptation knows the promise never matches reality. Sin never delivers what it promises, but always charges more than we imagined.

Obedience is the path of life. Adam and Eve failed to trust that true life is found in depending on God. They chose to follow their own understanding, and that brought death. But Jesus showed the opposite path. He obeyed perfectly, even unto the death of the cross. Therefore, full life is not found in living our own way, but in being led by the Lord. Obedience may seem like restriction, but in reality it is protection. It is like the guardrails on a road. They do not stop us from moving forward. They ensure that we reach the destination safely. The abundant life Jesus promised begins when we trust God more than ourselves.

The cross is the final answer. The story of Eden does not end in defeat. Where Adam fell, Christ prevailed. The first couple opened the door to the curse, but Jesus opened the door to redemption. On the cross, he took upon himself the consequence of human disobedience and reversed the sentence of death. The cross shows that God did notgive up on humanity. He rewrote our story. Now, everyone who believes can experience the victory Adam lost. That is exactly what the gospel is.

can experience the victory Adam lost. That is exactly what the gospel is. What was broken has been restored in Christ. Eden's failure was not the last chapter.