And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Gen 2:15-17) The tree of the knowledge of good & evil mentioned in scripture only in this verse, largely because its effects have become widespread. But the tree of life reappears again in the book of Revelation. This tree seems to have had the power to convey immortality to man, and as such is used in Scripture as a symbol of the Lord Jesus Chris, that he "abolished death and brought life & immortality to light through the gospel,” But what is this "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"? &why did God forbid Adam to partake of this fruit? In Genesis 3:5 Satan misuses the truth, in order to draw women on until she become the victims, of his lie. Serpent said to the woman “You will not certainly die,” “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”That suggests a clue as to what this fruit was and what it did. God knows evil, not by experience because he cannot experience evil, but he knows it by relating it to himself. That which is consistent & in line with his character and his nature is good; that which is inconsistent and out of line with himself is evil. That is how God knows good and evil. He relates it to himself. God is the only one who can properly do that. God is the only Being in all the universe who has the right to relate all things to himself. When a creature tries it, he gets into trouble. The creatures of God's universe are made to discover the difference between good &evil by relating all to the Being of God, not to themselves. When man ate of the fruit he began to relate everything to himself. Yet, as a creature, he has no real ability to sustain this kind of relationship and thus he is constantly Interrupt an unbalanced element into life. When man began to think of himself as the center of the universe, he tried became like God. But it was all a lie. Man is not the center of the universe, and he cannot be. But as we trace the course of human history we can see that this is the seductive lie that the Satan has whispered into the ears of men ever since: "You are the center of life. This is your world, everything relates to you. What you like is right; what you don't like is wrong. You are the center of things." You can find this idea predominant and alive throughout the philosophies of men. That is the curse that fell upon man when he ate of the fruit in the Garden of Eden. In a sense his mind was twisted, and related all things to himself. But when man does this he introduces a tainted element into life, into creation. That is why everything is always going off in wrong directions. But the glory of the gospel is that when men are redeemed, through faith in Jesus Christ, they resume once again a balanced life, and everything relates once again to God. God now becomes the center of things. The purpose of Jesus is here, to put God back into the center of his world and relate everything in our life and in the lives of others to him and not to us. This is what the gospel message is all about. Have you crowned Jesus Christ Lord of his empire, where he belongs, and invited him with gladness to sit upon the throne of your heart and rule there? There is coming a day when every knee shall bow, and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Then the destruction, desolation, and despair of the Garden of Eden will be reversed, and men shall once again acknowledge the centrality of God in life. Then the world shall be filled with glory and righteousness. Everything shall be what God intended it to be.