do to be tree

The ideas brought up yesterday at church are still rolling around in my head. So this morning, I started my day by reading some of the notes and verses presented yesterday.

The conversation between Eve and Satan in Genesis was one of blatant lies as well as twisting of words.

God had given them freedom of what to eat with the exception of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The consequence of eating from that particular tree, "you shall surely die." (Gen 3:16-17) But when Satan began to question Eve, he focused on the restrictions instead of the freedom. "You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?" He had already begun to twist things to bring the focus on the restrictions and rules. (Gen 3: 1)

Eve was evidently confused at the point in which she responded with the explanation that they could not only not eat the fruit from that particular tree, but also they could not touch it. Where did she get that from? Was that something Adam had told her to keep her away from it altogether?

Satan blatantly lies, saying "You shall surely not die!" He explains that "her eyes will be opened and she will be like God, knowing good and evil." The latter statement had some truth in it since even God stated that Adam and Eve had become "like us" in Genesis 3:22.

These last words of Satan have a deeper meaning. He speaks of eating the fruit, as a means of achieving a state of being. "When you eat from it (DO), you will BE like God." He suggests an action on Eve's part, that by her doing something, she will achieve a particular state of being. DO in order to BE.

This is completely opposite of the gospel. The Bible teaches us that Christ paid the price to make us clean and whole. The action, the doing, has been done and not by us but by Christ. We are to receive what has been done and walk in that. There is nothing we can "do" in order to be more righteous or more whole in God's eyes.

The DO to BE tree existed in the Garden of Eden so many years ago. But, in reality it exists even today. How many things do we choose to DO thinking that they will help us achieve a certain state of being? that by doing, we will obtain more favor? That by doing we will be something more than we are in God's eyes?

Is your doing a product of who you are or are doing to become something you're not?