What is a loving God supposed to do?

In The Garden, God was looking at both Adam and Eve, the federal heads of His highest creation, reaching out to the Tree of Good and Evil to consume its forbidden fruit.  God has explicitly commanded them not to do this, yet the two creatures had the audacity to go against the will of The Almighty God.  It didn’t matter what their motives were: was it to become Gods themselves? Were they hurt thinking that God was holding out on them?  It doesn’t matter, “do not eat of the tree” means do not eat of the tree.  There will be much trouble should they partake of this, for every transgression has to be dealt with accordingly, severely.  For every sin should be paid for by blood.  The Holy God and His Holy Law demands no less.

Here comes Adam and Eve reaching out to partake of the forbidden fruit.  The question for this article is: what should a loving God do?  To stop Adam and Eve from partaking of the forbidden fruit? Or to allow them to carry on with their choice to eat it? And why?

It occurred to me that while allowing them to eat the fruit will damn humanity (and all creation), disallowing Adam and Eve to exercise their free will would even be more catastrophic.  For God to take away the free will of man, whom He charged with having dominion over creation, would literally destroy the concept of what being human is.  We, human beings alone can boast about being created in God’s image.  Above all creation, we have consciousness, we have free will; and this is the gift that God has given us: that among all creatures, we are the only ones (save angels) who can reject the calls of The Almighty.  And God will not take this away from us.

We know what happened in that Garden.  The Loving God allowed Adam and Eve to partake of what was forbidden, even if it means bringing forth death and destruction in to creation.  Why? Because this is what love does.  Love does not operate in fear and love does not reduce people to subjecting themselves into mindless rules and laws.  Love springs out from the freedom of the person; hence, the dispensation of God’s grace.  For fear cannot bring out love, only hate.

Love is allowing the person to be who they truly are. It is not imprisoning them to a bunch of rules that will stifle not only their physical freedom but also their identity. It is not bringing one to the state of fear.  One of the worst things people can do to another is to stifle their identities, their true sense of self. 

We ought not to control other people (to dominate them against their will) and claim that it is out of love. Of course this is a different story when parents are dealing with their children. For the parents are the stewards of their children.  I am speaking of adults dealing with adults.  The fear of The Law will not bring out love and without love, grace loses its foothold.  It becomes powerless.

Love respects the choice of others. Love respects the views of others. This is also why salvation is not forced upon any of us. This is what God exercised when He allowed Adam and Eve to break His law. This was not a game God played but an expression of His love.  Without the expression of free choice, there can be no love.


We love because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19

The greatest is love because only love can bring about grace.  The Law which operates through fear will only produce hatred. Fear and hatred made Israel break up with Egypt.  Love and Grace made The Apostles freely walk to their deaths for Jesus Christ.

Next: The Forbidden Fruit: Why is it Forbidden?


If you feel that you have been living in fear and under dominance your whole life, this is why you are blocked from reaching your potentials.  This is why there seems to be a wall between you and your happiness.

Reach out to us for a good dose of Christian Counselling at admin@gracecounsellors.com and we will aid you on your path to freedom and to the freedom to love.  We are available for both face-to-face counselling and online counselling alike.  For more information, please visit us at: www.gracecounsellors.com


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