His Burden is Light

Christians often get asked questions like, "If God knew Adam and Eve would eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, why did He put it in the Garden of Eden in the first place?" Or, "Why did God put the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden and then Command Adam and Eve not to eat of it?" I would begin to answer this question as follows. A child is happy in the care of his parents. The child is content even if Dad loses his job and the family has to live in a car or a temporary shelter. That was an evil event that befell the family but the child simply trusts in his father and is sheltered from the experience of evil. The only time the child truly knows evil is if his father himself is taken away. Then the one in whom the child trusted and depended is gone and responsibility for his own needs falls upon the child himself. He now has the knowledge of good and evil. So really the first thing we must understand in answering this question is what...

I'm always searching for new ways to express not only the Gospel itself but man's need for the Gospel of grace through Jesus Christ. I often contemplate in relation to myself and my own experience, and I realize that for a long time I didn't understand my need for the Gospel or its power to really transform my life. When I did get an inkling of both my need and its power, I received it by faith. Before that, as someone raised nominally Christian, I only gave my mental assent to key statements, that is, I decided to agree that Jesus died for my sins and rose again for my justification. This most important thing I did not understand: that He died not just to forgive my transgressions but to enable me to receive by faith His Spirit, who transforms the believer progressively into the image of Christ (2 Cor 3:18) and gives the power to preach the Gospel and walk in daily victory over sin. He died to break the bonds of sin around me (Rom 7:14), to set me, the captive, free (Isai...