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The Two TreesThee of knowledge of good and evil is the pattern of thinking and behaving that is in direct opposition to the goodness of God. It is the spirit ofthe anti-Christ that says, “I decide” and “no” to God! It also denies the Lordship of Jesus. Its fruit is recognized as pride, idolatry, judgment,condemnation, self-sufficiency, selfish-ambition, discord, hatred, violence, sexual immorality, envy and jealousy, love of pleasure, drunkenness,orgies, and disorder (Galatians 5:19).The tree of life is relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the transformation of our thinking and behaving that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Itsubmits to the goodwill of the Father. It is the filling of the Holy Spirit that says, “Yes God!” It receives and rejoices in the Lordship of Jesus. Itsfruit is recognized as humility, worship, generosity, love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-discipline(Galatians 5:22-25).What is Eternal Life?As human beings, we are preoccupied with death and the question of the afterlife. Modern-day Christians are particularly preoccupied with theafterlife. The Bible says very little about the afterlife. The story of God revealed in the Bible is much more focused on the present life we livenow. This does not mean the afterlife is not important and is not real. God’s revelation and story gives us much hope and certainty concerningthe reality of life after physical death (1 Corinthians 15: Resurrection and New Creation).We must be careful not to bring a presumption of the afterlife focus onto the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount or the definition ofblessing. Some Bible scholars have attempted to place the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount into the afterlife. I believe this is an errantview of the text in context of the teaching of Jesus on the blessing of His Kingdom. A careful reading of Jesus' words leaves no doubt that hiswords are meant for this present life right now!So how should we understand Jesus' words about the Kingdom of heaven in the present tense?Jesus declared, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17). Jesus is saying the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, breakinginto this present time. Jesus preached a message that heaven (God’s presence, action, will) is now. The following verses describe Jesus' ministryof teaching, healing, and delivering (Matthew 4:23-25; Luke 4). The message is clear. Heaven is not only afterlife. God is here now, He is doingsomething new, and His will is good! No more waiting. We can change our thinking because eternal life and God’s blessing is available now.This changes how we think about this present life with God and His commands. This present life is full of purpose and hope and blessing inJesus Christ! Just as our resurrected life (afterlife) will also be filled with these things with God forever as well.

Who Are We? What Does it Mean to Be Human?If eternal life is available now and blessing is available to everyone in Jesus Christ, what is our purpose now?Genesis tells us we were made in God's image, male and female made in God’s image. Not only did God create Adam and Eve in His likeness,but He also gave them a creative purpose of caring and ruling over His creation. This truth has incredible implications for how we understandourselves and others. We believe every human life is of infinite worth.Jesus speaks to the human purpose when he says, “you are the salt of the earth”, or when he says, “You are the light of the world”. Jesusexplains these analogies when he says, “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father inheaven” (Matthew 5:13-16). This reveals two aspects of who we are and what it means to be human.1. We exist as beloved children of God to glorify and worship Him. We are made to glorify and worship our Father in everything we do asbeloved sons and daughters. This is our blessing!2. We exist to be a blessing to others. We are made to be like Jesus and bring goodness and blessing for others. “I did not come to beserved but to serve.” (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; John 13:1-17)Understanding the Ten Commandments as the way of a transformed life in relationship with God as we practice worship and love for Godand others.“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.These commands that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home andwhen you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates” Deuteronomy 6:4-9.“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:1028“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle andhumble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who giveslife has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did bysending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteousrequirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1-4“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25

God’s covenant and commands are part of a storyWe should never read or try to obey the 10 commandments without understanding that they are part of God’s story in Jesus Christ. If we don’tunderstand the context behind the commandments, they will become lifeless duties that are impossible to follow. These words of the covenantcome out of an epic love story of God for his people. In fact, the word covenant should alert us that God is concerned about a relationshipmore than he is looking for an obligation. It is wrong to post the commandments without sharing who God is and the story behind them. Theyare lifeless without the life-giving God who reveals them in His heart for relationship and desire for- covenant love with His people. He alonemakes these commandments alive in our hearts and lives. It is about the Person of God!The first words that the finger of God carved into the stone had to do with a story. He says, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out ofthe land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Deuteronomy 5:6). We can only understand these commandments in light of the sovereignaction and will of God in the life of God’s people.At the burning bush, terrified fugitive Moses learned that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was concerned about the people suffering inslavery in Egypt. He tells Moses that He has, “heard their cries”. He tells Moses that He is going to do something about their condition and asksMoses to be His chosen person to bring about this deliverance. Moses asks what name he should give to this God that is concerned about thecondition of the people. God says, “I am who I am”. He is the Lord! Moses, a reluctant recruit, agrees to go back to Egypt. There God moves in apowerful way with signs and plagues to bring about Israel’s freedom. The greatest sign is the blood on the doorpost of every Israelite’s home asthe angel of death strikes down the firstborn of Egypt. This Passover event becomes the defining act of God for the deliverance of the people.The symbolism of the blood of the spotless lamb atones for the people’s lives. God reveals His purpose of salvation and redemption in love andjustice through the shedding of blood.Egypt is a sign of all that is anti-God in the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The worship of false gods, the cruelty and pride ofPharaoh, and the refusal to allow God’s people to worship all point to the rebellion against God as the great “I am”. The defeat of Pharaoh atthe Red Sea again reveals God’s victorious purpose to destroy the sinful rebellion against Him and bring about deliverance and blessing to Hispeople. The greater challenge was getting Egypt out of Israel’s heart! Much of the book of Deuteronomy is addressing the issue of what willthey choose? It is this story that helps us to understand the words of the covenant and God’s purpose to save and transform His people intopeople made in His image.Jesus teaches us that The Sermon on the Mount is a recreation of the Moses event with God on Mount Sinai that God’s purpose for creating usis twofold. First, it is to create goodness and bless others. Second, we were designed to worship and glorify our Father. Jesus says this is theintention and heart of the commandments. They have to do with our relationship with God and each other. They point the way to blessing inGod. Jesus says, “Do not think I have come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you until heaven and earth disappear, not thesmallest letter, not the least stoke of the pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished”.Matthew 5:17-18

God’s desire was always to write the words of the covenant in the hearts of his people. In Jeremiah 31 it says,“The days are coming,” declares the LORD,“when I will make a new covenantwith the people of Israeland with the people of Judah. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israelafter that time,” declares the LORD.“I will put my law in their mindsand write it on their hearts.I will be their God,and they will be my people.Jesus reveals to us that God’s grace of “the blessing” is now available to anyone who trusts in Him as the way to right living. He makes it possible for us to change our thinking and patterns of behavior and enter the Kingdom of heaven through his atoning death and resurrection.“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God- this isyour true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will beable to test and approve what God’s will is- His good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2). The commandments reveal the will and goodness of God. Because of the transforming work of Jesus, we can now live out the blessing of God’s favor and His will by His Holy Spirit in us!In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus flips the commandments and begins with the commandments on our relationships towards others. He alsodoes another surprising thing. He makes the relational commandments inseparable from the worship commandments. This is why the ApostleJohn says, “And this is his command; to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The onewho keeps God’s command lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us” (1John 3:24). The worship and faith relationship with God is inseparable from evident love for others. This becomes the evidence of heaven andeternal life now (God’s presence, action, and will) in us through His Holy Spirit.Receive the Blessing of God in His Word“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, wholoved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law .therefore,love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:8-10)

1.Rescued from slavery and given new life as children“You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully andkeep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdomof priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:4-6).“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonshipthrough Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:4-5).Slavery is something that has existed for a long time in human history. As Americans, our own history with slavery is painful. To go back and seesome of the images and read the horrors that slaves faced in transport from Africa and being sold in markets in America is sobering.Every American has been touched in some way by the history of slavery. It still reverberates in the fabric of our nation as we see current eventsunfold. The Bible story helps us see that it is not just physical slavery that is part of the human dilemma, rather it is the slavery of our souls,spirits, and hearts that is the true tragedy “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. In which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians2:1-2). Every human being has been enslaved in the sins of their hearts, thoughts, and action and the rule of Satan over them in this worldapart from God. The Bible does not shy away from the reality of slavery. In fact, God chose to reveal himself through a story with special people. These were the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites who became enslaved in Egypt.The Exodus story is the revelation of who God is and His purpose and plan in the human story. Exodus 2:24 tells us that God was concernedabout the Israelites enslaved, “God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and Jacob. So God lookedon the Israelites and was concerned about them”. God’s loving-kindness is on full display throughout the story of the Bible. 1 John tells us thatGod first loved us. Romans says He demonstrated his love for us while we were still sinners. He sees our struggle and slavery to sin and deathand He is compassionate and concerned for our well-being.The story of rescue starts with God and is accomplished by God. The good news is that God’s compassion is not just a feeling but a genuinemovement of love that results in action. In the Exodus story, God raises up a special servant, Moses, to lead his people out of slavery inEgypt. God intervenes with powerful plagues that overthrow the Egyptian gods and the hardness of Pharaoh's heart. God acts at the Red Sea todemonstrate his rescue and power over the military might of Egypt with wind and water. God makes a safe way on dry ground for His belovedpeople. Moses and the people are freed from Egypt in order to go worship God and live out the purpose He has for them of blessing in apromised land.This story of Israel is meant to help us understand what God is doing through Jesus Christ in us. “Like the rest, we were by nature deserving ofwrath.” We were under the heavy yoke of slavery to sin and death, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made usalive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression-it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:3-4). Just like in the ancient storyof Israel God moves in action to deliver and set us free. He sent His son Jesus, a better Moses, to stand and act against the power of sin and theDevil. Jesus’ victory and deliverance came through the cross and His resurrection. Forever His blood covers and pays the redemption price for

His people as the atoning Passover Lamb. The judgment and condemnation for sin are paid for in full and the captives are set free to worshipand live in the Promised Land as sons and daughters of God! This is our justification or adoption. “For those who are led by the Spirit of Godare the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you receivedbrought about your adoption to sonship” (Romans 8:14-15).Questions to discuss and ponder1. Share an experience of a happy memory of being a child? What made that time special?2. Read Exodus 1 and Ephesians 2:1-3. What are the parallels between Israel’s physical slavery experience and spiritual slavery to sin andthe devil that we have all experienced?3. What are the characteristics of slavery? What are the characteristics of being a son/daughter? What is the difference? And how doesthis help us understand what kind of relationship God wants with us?4. Read Exodus 2:23-25; 12:13 Ephesians 2:4-10. How are people rescued from spiritual slavery?5. How does the reality of God’s rescue story in Jesus change the way we understand His covenantal relationship with His people? Howdoes it change the way we interpret and obey the 10 Commandments?

2. Rescued to live in the presence of God“Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by His Presence and great strength Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below. There is no other.” Deuteronomy 4:37-39“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6Why does God save? What is God’s purpose in rescuing His people from slavery and death? In Israel’s story, they are promised a new land, anew place to dwell, a place of blessing and fulfillment. But I don’t think these are the primary reasons for God’s rescue.Many people are misguided in answering the above question. Like Israel, our hearts are prone to wander towards idolatry. Not long after beingset free from Egypt, the people of Israel made a golden calf out of the gold they had plundered from their masters. They, like us, tend to thinksalvation and freedom are about our own personal fulfillment. This idolatry leads us to worship false gods like comfort, wealth, possessions,self-fulfillment, what we have achieved, and other persons or objects that are not God. These golden calves keep us from the real purpose ofwhy God saves and rescues us.The 40 years of wandering the wilderness was an intentional time for Israel to learn the answer to this question. It was never fully about theland or place in and of itself; it was about who they were with!God was with His people in a cloud and fire. His presence was provision and power for the people. Moses discovered this on Mount Sinai as hespent time in God’s presence. Moses would wear a veil so that people could not see the fading glory in his face when he was away from God’spresence.The gold, the land, and the temple were nothing without God’s presence. God, Himself is the ultimate glory that we all seek.The Word of the covenant God made with the people of Israel was all about His presence and His blessing in their lives. The covenant Godmakes through Jesus Christ is about His presence and His blessing in our lives. Why does God save? God wants a relationship with you.Because He wants to dwell with His people made in His image. Because He is good. Because what is best for us is to dwell with our Father inHeaven.Jesus’ life and ministry were lived with one goal: to manifest and reveal the presence of God with mankind so that we could have a relationshipwith God. He lived, died, and rose again to reveal this reality. When He ascended, He told them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the HolySpirit. Again, the presence of God with His people was the treasure, power, and provision that was most needed. Pentecost becomes the fulfillment of the story of God’s salvation purpose of Him dwelling with His people. God’s Spirit was poured out on all people, available to anyonewho would believe and receive. The triune God saved and rescued in order to dwell with mankind that we might glory in Him and be fully satisfied in His presence. Knowing Him and being known by Him is the greatest treasure.

The book of Revelation gives us a clear picture of this purpose of God. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look! God’s dwellingplace is now among the people, and he wil

The 10 commandments are in the context of a story of relationship and covenant with God. (Deuteronomy 5:6:Ephesians 2:1-10) The commandments reveal Gods goodness and love towards His people. They show the way that we were created to live in