Genesis 2:15–17: “The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it. Then the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.’”
So we have a restriction here. We have a limitation. Nobody is saying, “Do not eat,” but, “Do not eat this.” “Do not do this.” That exists in life: you have your space, but you have something restricted. You have some limitation. Even Jesus Christ said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24).
It exists in all contexts, where you have the things you are supposed to do and the things you are not supposed to do. You have restrictions. These people had a lot of freedom. He said, “You may freely…” There is freedom here. We are not talking about some deprivation. We are talking about freedom. “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
That is why the Bible says that with respect to malice we should be like children (1 Corinthians 14:20). There are some things you are just not supposed to go and find out: “Let me see how it works. Let me taste that. Let me experience that so that I can talk about it, that I have experienced it.”
The first disobedience we see in the Bible came with severe consequences. Lack of self‑limiting came with consequences, a lack of discipline—whatever the reason. Eve concluded, from the persuasion of the serpent, “I do not think God was correct to say that we should not eat this. He is trying to limit us unnecessarily, for nothing” (Genesis 3:1–6).
But what happened was that they found out that by that act of disobedience they cut themselves off from the good. They chose the bad, and they cut themselves from the good. They became more restricted, because now they did not have access to the “good” anymore. That “freedom” they were seeking brought corruption, brought limitation. They were sold a bill of goods. Promises were made to them that would not be fulfilled.
Paul says some people disregard their conscience and shipwreck their faith (1 Timothy 1:19). He also says that even though you have freedom, do not use your freedom as an excuse for indulging the flesh (Galatians 5:13). And he also says: the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life, and the one who sows to the flesh will reap corruption; whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Galatians 6:7–8).
So this eating of fruit is not just eating of fruit. It is a sowing, and there has to be a reaping. There has to be a reaping. There has to be a reaping. There has to be repercussion. You can tell yourself, “I am a free moral agent. I can do whatever I want.” Yes, you can do whatever you want—but you cannot choose the consequence of doing whatever you want. The consequence is attached to the action.
Jesus Christ said, “Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction… But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life” (Matthew 7:13–14). You can say, “I am free to choose the broad way.” Yes, but you are not free to choose the consequences of the broad way. So the freedom you think you have is actually not freedom.
Paul also says that we “do not do what we want” (Romans 7:19). So when Jesus Christ said, “Come to Me, all you that labor and are heavy‑laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you” (Matthew 11:28–29), He is saying: you already have a burden now. You cannot not have a burden. You cannot not be restricted. The false promise of freedom is actually compounded bondage.
That is the truth. That is exactly what happened here. They thought the freedom was not enough. They wanted more freedom—but in search of more freedom, they entered into unlimited bondage.
That is, of course, a warning—an eternal warning—to everyone: to realize there are restrictions and there are limitations.
God bless you. See you later.