Our Competing Trees of Free Will

"God having created man, appointed to govern him by a just, wise, and holy law, the reward of which was eternal life the penalty of which was death. 

 

This reward and penalty was represented by two trees, i. e., the "tree of life," and the "tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis 2:9).

 Man's will was left free to choose the one 

and to refuse the other.  

Eating the fruit of these trees involved the great principles of obedience or disobedience;....

 
"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." 

By this passage, we learn that the penalty of the law of God threatened Adam for was disobedience was death. 

Q: But did Adam disobey? 

A: He did. 

Q: Did he suffer the penalty? 

A: He did. 

And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. Genesis 5:5." 

  J. M. Stephenson