The Two Trees – Mastering the Flesh-Part 3

We have talked about the consequences of Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Now man’s eyes (focal point) are opened.  God gives us clues by telling Cain he must master his sin.  We are restored to God through Jesus, and we live by grace.  However, we still MUST master our flesh by choosing to be slaves to righteousness.
Genesis 2: 16 :   ¹⁶ The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; ¹⁷ but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”  ^{NAS Die-muwth- die lit. or fig. acting as a cause to kill or slay; put to death or worthy of death, or given a cause to die, be destroyed or a destroyer}
Notice the choice man made was not a matter of doing good, it was a matter of choosing correctly.  They could receive God as life, or Satan as death. 

Genesis 3: 6, 7a: ⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; ^{NAS eyes – ayin- outward appearance of what focused on; the focal point; center of what is looked at; the fountain as the eye of the landscape}
Genesis 3: 8:   ⁸ They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD …^NAS

Ephesians 2:2: in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.  ^Berean

Galatians 5:16:  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  ^KJ

Romans 8:3:  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ^ESV

Sin now came into mankind’s body after they ate the fruit.  Now man’s focal point was on his flesh.  He knew he was naked, he separated himself from God, but God told Cain he must master sin.  God then sent the law to show man his sin, but Jesus came and fulfilled the law by taking the sins of our flesh on the cross.  So now, if we walk in the spirit, we will not fulfill the lust in the flesh.

Romans 5: 12-17:   ¹² Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned. ¹³ For sin was in the world before the Law was given; but sin is not taken into account when there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the way that Adam transgressed. He is a pattern of the One to come.  ¹⁵ But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many! ¹⁶ Again, the gift is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment that followed one sin brought condemnation, but the gift that followed many trespasses brought justification. ¹⁷ For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!   ^Berean

Romans 6: 3-14: ³ Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ We therefore were buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be raised to life as He was. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. ¹² Therefore do not let sin control your mortal body so that you obey its desires. ¹³ Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.    ^Berean

Genesis 4:7:   If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; you are its object of desire, but you must master it.”  ^Berean

Romans 6: 15-23:    ¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. ¹⁹ I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.   ^NIV