I have been listening to some messages recently that talk about the freedom we believers should have in Jesus. In one of the messages, the speaker was talking about the problem that we have as humans. As believers, we often think that our problem is sin – and that is a problem. But sin led to death, which is our bigger problem.
When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, it led to spiritual death – we were separated from God. And now that we have the knowledge of good and evil, those are the things that are used against us by the enemy. Of course we all recognize that evil is a problem – but how is the knowledge of good a problem? It is because we often start thinking that we should try harder to do better. Religion is about trying to do the right things to get close to God, to no longer be separated from Him. But no matter how hard we try to do good, it is never enough to give us the life that we need. God does not want us to be religious – He wants us to be alive, to find our life and joy in relationship with Him.
The speaker explained it this way. He said it is as if we took a data cable and tried to plug it into the power connection on our computer. It’s not that data is bad – it just will not give power to your computer. The same is true in our lives. Knowledge, even good knowledge, will not bring us life. But because of our sin, we try to find life from the wrong source (Jeremiah 2:13). Instead of finding life in Jesus, we look to evil, or even good, to make us feel alive.
As a school, ECS wants to educate students with excellence. Education is good. But education and knowledge do not bring life. We need to remember where the source of true life is and plug into His power to find the solution to our problem. Jesus came to give us life (John 10:10) – and when we are filled with His life, it will flow out of us as springs of living water (John 7:38).