Forbidden Fruit

To the unredeemed mind, there may be nothing that is necessarily forbidden.  Unless a person is born again, they have no awareness that there is a kingdom of God.

Understanding this will help us not to be judgemental.

Religious expression that precedes or doesn’t acknowledge this beginning is just “cleaning the outside of the cup and saucer”. See http://biblehub.com/matthew/23-25.htm

Since the fall of Adam, now we begin under the influence of the knowledge of good and evil, and there is no going back to Eden prior to the fall.  The opposite of Adam’s experience , we now start under the influence of this source of death, only to discover later that there is a tree of life (Jesus) that has been made available to us. Thank God for redeeming us through the blood of Jesus!

As an interesting parallel to Adam’s partaking of the evil fruit of the tree that resulted in death, now we partake of Christ’s sacrifice and we are made alive (spiritual animation).

These are imperfect parallels, but for sure there is something there.

The fruit we partake of - whether life or death - goes on to produce an outcome (fruit & fruitfulness) in us.  This is at the root of all our interpersonal influence.