Exodus 20:3
"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."
What was it that was sinful about Adam and Eve eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It became their god, their idol. It was not even when they ate of the fruit that they fell: "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food," (Genesis 3:6) Eve thought it good, even though God had said it was not good, and Adam must have agreed that it was good because he didn't stop her and ate of it himself.
"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4-5) They wanted to be gods.
You hear people saying, "Well, I think that God ought to leave the choice up to man." But look what happened when He did! The example of free will was when Adam and Eve, in that upright state, chose to go against God's Word, and I will tell you that the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' today represents all of false religion, which is idolatry.
People can change from one congregation to another, one denomination to another, but that is only jumping from one branch of that idolatrous tree to another.
Men still run around in circles trying to figure out what is good and what is evil. Every congregation by their bylaws or by what is preached are telling people what is good and evil. But I will tell you this: if it is not the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus alone then it is evil! It does not matter what men say.
What God says, His Word, is Good and believing anything else is evil. But you have people out there, right now that are looking at their own morality, looking at their own faith, looking at their own personal obedience, looking at their own progressive sanctification. The bottom line is that they are looking everywhere but Christ and His finished work.
Someone had their Bible out this past week and said, "Well, I'm working on defeating temptation this week." Evil is looking to methods and ways of trying to figure out how to be righteous which makes God's Word a lie. That is how they read the Bible. "It's all about me!" If you say, "Well what about Christ?" They will say, "Yes, him too." But that is the idolatry. They do not believe God. The 'christ' they see is a failure. They do not believe Christ has finished the work. They think they must finish the work. They think they can finish the work and in blindness become their own idol. "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the Light of the Glorious Gospel of Christ, Who is the Image of God, should shine unto them." (2 Corinthians 4:4)
There is only One Image of the Invisible God that He has ever purposed and that is His Son, the LORD Jesus Christ: "the Image of the Invisible God," (Colossians 1:15)
Only God can give eyes to see Christ and His finished work!
ALL Glory to God in Christ alone!
"So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him." (Matthew 20:34)
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