Gardens

                                                                                                                           

Aloha Dearest Family,

The choices that we make can have long lasting results that can affect not only your life but many others as well. Today, we will examine two such life altering decisions. Each decision affected countless millions of lives and changed the course of human history. Interestingly enough, both decisions took place in a garden.

The first decision was made in a garden called Eden. After God made, formed and created man, He placed him in Eden, God's garden of delight, and gave both Adam and Eve dominion over the whole earth (Genesis 1:28-30). God also gave them a job to do. They were charged with dressing and keeping the garden prosperous (Genesis 2:15). Now, God also placed a tree, the tree of the knowledge good and evil, in the midst of the garden and gave man explicate instructions not to eat of it for in that very day they would die. 

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eat thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:16 and 17)

Now you may ask, "Why did God do this? Was God trying to tempt man to sin?" No, a thousand times no! God does not tempt man to sin as it says in James 1:13. So what was God purpose? Man has free will and God will never over-step man's free will. Man was made with the right to choose. God wants man to obey His commandments so He has to provide for them a choice. Someone once asked me, "Why didn't God just "make" us obey him, like a robot that does not have a will of his own"? God wanted man to obey Him out of love, and without free will there is no true love. Well, over the course of time, the serpent comes (who is the devil) and tempts Eve and gets her to believe that the tree would make her as wise as God. He also gets her to believe that if she eats of the fruit of this tree, she would not die (Genesis 3:4). This is in direct contradiction to God's promise "Thou shalt surely die." Well, we all know what happened next. Eve ate of the fruit and gave some to her husband. On that day the spirit that God had created in man died, and man became thereafter separated from God. All of Adam's dominion was then transferred to God's arch enemy — Satan, who still has the control over the earth today. What a horrible decision this was. God asked man to obey Him but instead they chose to do their own will over God's Will. This decision had devastating results. Every man and women would henceforth be born with Adam's sinful nature and every man now stood condemned. And the sentence for every man - was death.

Now, fast-forward 4,000 years. A solitary man kneels in another garden on a cold April night. The decision he has to make is so overwhelming that he is in a state of deep anguish and distress. Jesus Christ knew that this moment was coming. He told his disciples about his sufferings and what he would face many times. In fact, a few days prior he stated, 

Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?: but for this cause came I unto this hour. (John 12:27) 

He knew that this is why he had come into the world. But now he has come to the moment of truth.

After his last supper with his disciples, they went out where he taught them many things. Then they finally reached the garden called Gethsemane.

Then came Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and said unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee (John and James), and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. (Matthew 26:36 and 37) 

They had never seen their master like this before. I doubt that they even knew what was about to happen, yet they could not even stay awake with Jesus to watch and pray with him. Here in this garden, the full enormity of what he was about to do, hit him. And he wasn't quite ready for it. Jesus knew what God's will was. He had read many times from the Old Testament scrolls (Isaiah 53) what the Messiah would go through. He knew well of the more than 40 hours of torture and crucifixion ahead of him, and he didn't want to do it. Jesus went to his Father 3 times in heart crushing anguish. Not to seek the Father's Will but to ask His Father if there was any other way for God's will to be accomplished without him having to go through with this gruesome death. In the end the answer was clear. There was no other way. The only question we have is this: would he choose, like Adam before him, to do his own will, or would he choose to do the will of his Father? Jesus clearly did not want to die like this but he was also fully dedicated to doing God's Will above his own, as he said, "...not as I will, but as thou wilt.". Jesus Christ made the ultimate decision and chose to pay the full penalty for Adam's disobedience and won our redemption. His death on the tree would bring us back to God. The ransom was now paid in full.

Why did Jesus choose to go through with such a death as this? Because God asked him to. Remember that Jesus Christ had free will too, just like Adam. Adam's disobedience stands in direct contradiction to Christ's obedience. 

For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (Romans 5:20)

We make decisions every day but not all of our choices will be as life altering as the ones that we have read about today. But some might be. The words that we speak could mean life (or death) to someone. The actions that we choose to do could help someone (or hurt someone). The choice that we have before us is this: will we choose to do our own will or the will of Heavenly Father? Choose wisely!

Love Always, Ray