In His greatness, God created a dimension different to all other dimensions, one that is visible to the human eye. He then chose to stay invisible, but wanted to have a representation of Himself. He could’ve created an empty shell to fill and walk around in on earth. But, He is the author of relationship. Dare I say, He is obsessed by it. Nothing matters more to Him. He even created relationship within His very being.

He is the 3-in-1, and the 1-in-3. He is the perfect picture of community. It exists within Him. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in constant one-ness. The have unfiltered, unhindered, full-on intimacy. They have no secrets or conflicts, yet each person of the God-head is unique in their expression and relationship to humanity.

So, instead of creating empty shells to fill in order to experience the visible dimension, He created man. And like Him, man can’t exist apart from relationship, at least not in a healthy way. So He created man with the ability, or more accurately, the need for community.

Because man is created in His image, man has the ability, like God, to have relationship internally and externally. Once man invites God into him, a community is created within his body between him and God, almost like a picture of the 3-in-1-ness of God. Yet, God also created him with the ability to have relationship externally with other people, showing the 1-in-3-ness of God.

In the garden of Eden God gave man the choice to give permanence to the very good relationship with Him, by eating from the tree of life, or to break relationship with Him by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The tree of life essentially represented faith in God’s ability to sustain and perfect man’s relationship with Him. In this scenario God would be the one validating man’s value and identity. This tree represented salvation through the work of Jesus Christ.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represented man’s faith in his own ability to sustain and perfect his relationship with God. In this scenario man would be the one validating his value and identity. This tree represented false religion and by man breaking his relationship with God, he left the door wide open for the influence of satan in his life.

Man’s relationship with God was broken internally and consequently his external relationships with other human beings were broken as well. Through the ages humanity has utterly failed in defining their own identity and value. Repeated rebellion to God’s Word has caused man to become more and more deceived, and relationships to become more and more perverted.

God’s amazing strategy was to send the tree of life to humanity again, but this time in the bodily form of Jesus. We all know what man did to Jesus through the knowledge of good and evil, yet God used this to bring ax to the roots of that very tree.

He took the keys from the enemy and handed it to us. These keys represent our ability to choose. Once again we can choose, each one of us, between the two trees. Will we choose Jesus (God’s way) to truth, life and holiness, or will we choose our own way?

An unthinkable price was paid to allow you the freedom of choice.

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” Deut 30:19 NLT

Will we allow Him to define our identity and value? Or will we rebelliously do it our own way?