The Bible is clear on these three points:
- Our options are life and death.
- God wants us to choose life.
- God respects the choice we make.
The two trees in the garden symbolize the options that are always before us:
- “I have set before you life and death” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
- “The Lord says, ’See, I set before you the way of life and the way of death’” (Jeremiah 21:8).
- “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
- “The payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).