The "No Trespassing" Sign at the Center

The first thing we need to notice about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is that it was located in the middle or center of the garden, along with the Tree of Life (Gen. 2:9; 3:3).¹ At the center of the Paradise God provided for Adam and Eve and all their descendants was a provision and a prohibition. “Upon these two trees,” Bonhoeffer noted, “the destiny of man is to be decided.”² The Tree of Life was God’s provision to meet our needs and share his life endlessly. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was God’s prohibition against humans overstepping their proper domain.

            At the center of the glorious life God wants humanity to share in is a “No Trespassing” sign that God graciously gives us to protect us from overstepping our finitude. At the center of the beautiful existence God wills for us is the humble recognition that we are not God and thus must leave to God what God wills to keep for himself, namely, the knowledge of good and evil. Everything else in the garden surrounds this center.

Repenting from Religion Pg 67 - Greg Boyd