817. Beginning in the Spirit - But Perfected by the Flesh?

Doing good, avoiding evil. Those four words would seem to be a no-brainer within almost every religious creed. And this seems to be the foundation upon which Christianity has been built, at least within many church denominations. So if this is supposed to be the goal for believers in Christ—if this is the primary purpose—what is it that makes our faith unique?

Paul spoke to the Galatian churches in frustration because after receiving the Spirit of God freely by faith, they had been persuaded to begin trusting in the works of the old law in addition to faith in Christ. Paul called this a work of the flesh. Its roots go back to the same tree Adam ate from when everything collapsed. It was called The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was an unbelief problem as Adam decided to turn from trusting in the sufficiency of the life of God … and chose to begin trusting in the knowledge of both good and evil. He was told it would make him more like God, but it had the opposite result.

Many believers today are struggling with the same thing. They are working at trying to become more like God, and it becomes more about doing—or not doing—instead of being or resting in who God has already made them to be.

   
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633. Summarizing the Scripture (Part 4): We Can Learn from Adam’s Mistake

Part 4 of our series includes some final thoughts about Adam and the fall that took place in the beginning. We often still struggle with the same thing as Adam, but the good news is we’ve been provided with a solution since the cross. We can avoid the tree that forced humankind to live for centuries by The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God always wanted His creation to live by His life, which we can do now that we’ve been placed in Christ. Next week we’ll talk about Abraham and how he made faith possible for a multitude of generations to come.



   

In this episode we briefly reminisced about our past days in Christian radio, and some of the grace-based songs we used to play. We specifically mentioned these two songs that we both really like.

632. Summarizing the Scripture (Part 3): Adam's Temptation to Be More Like God

This week we get rolling with our series of summarizing the Scripture with the purpose of helping us to shrink the Bible into one big picture, so to speak, in order to connect some dots and how the Word is primarily a picture of Jesus Christ. Adam’s temptation revolved around the desire to be wise and more like God. The serpent challenged him on the basis of identity, much like the devil did with Jesus in the wilderness. One chose not to believe God and failed (Adam). The other chose to believe the truth and overcame (Jesus). We are challenged in a similar way today when it comes to our identity in Christ.



   

544. Why Jesus Taught Two Covenants (Part 1): The Law Tree

We begin a series on why Jesus ministered both the Old Covenant and the New. Before we get to some of the teachings of Jesus, we'll lay a foundation that provides reasons why Jesus did this. We'll start at the beginning with Adam in the garden being faced with an element of law already at work when he was commanded not to eat from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It's the tree of law, and Adam's motivation on why he chose to eat from it may sound familiar in the lives of many Christians today.



   

525. The Curse of Seeking Self Improvement

It's one of the biggest deceptions known to mankind - the attempt to achieve a higher level of personal improvement through our works and efforts. Adam and Eve were distracted by the glossy appearance of its fruit and the rest of the world followed suit. Israel demonstrated the futility of trying to establish their own righteousness through the works of the law by pursuing a level of improvement that would make them acceptable to God. It falls short every time and fortunately, it is something Jesus redeemed us from.



   

479. Satan to Jesus: Can I See Some ID Please?

One of the greatest battles for us in this life is the battle of identity. That is, understanding who we are as children of God. The first Adam lost that battle in the garden and the human race became identified as sinners. The last Adam (Jesus) came to offer the free gift of becoming God's righteousness and receiving life. This was made possible because Jesus won the battle of His identity. As a boy growing into a man, He believed and understood who He was as the Son of God and conquered on the basis of that identity. Jesus did not have to do anything to prove who He was. We can experience the same victory as new creatures in Christ.


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478. The Pursuit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Trying to avoid bad and striving to do good. This is what man has been chasing since the first two people were placed on the planet. So what's wrong with this approach? Choosing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil brought death and positioned man in a state of hopelessness. The Mosaic law also brought the knowledge of sin and left the Jewish people in a place of unsuccessfully attempting do right and avoid wrong. The gospel provided us with something entirely different. It removed us from the pursuit of the knowledge of good and evil and placed us into a fruitful tree of life in Christ, where we now abide.


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476. The (Christmas) Tree of Life

Adam was told he may eat from any tree in the garden except the one known as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We take a closer look and this tree and consider the likely motive of Adam and Eve as they ate from it. What did they think they would gain from this action? What did the tree represent? Let's compare all of this to another tree located in that garden, the tree of life and in what way it all relates to the gospel.


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