But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code (Rom 7:6).

We have seen so far that the stories of Gen 2-3 deal with the spiritual state of a human heart, not merely what happened to the first humans, Adam and Eve, but what happens to us in our hearts spiritually when we sin. Now, we want to know what the two trees planted in the middle of the Garden of Eden mean to us: what does it mean to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and how can we regain the access to the tree of life and eat from it? Unfortunately, believing in Jesus does not automatically make you eat from the tree of life. All believers in Christ are given the right to eat from it, but are not necessarily eating from it.

According to Paul, to eat from the tree of life is to live according to the spirit, and to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is to live according to the flesh. Those who live according to the spirit listen to the voice of God who speaks to them through the spirit, but those who live according to the flesh live according to their own decisions and ideas contained in the flesh (soul) about what is good or evil. The problem with the latter case is that the soul is not powerful enough to carry out what it thinks good due to the sin in it, and when they try to do it, they find themselves not doing it.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me (vv. 15-17).

For Paul, “what I want to do” is the law in the Old Testament, but for the Gentiles, it is the conscience that every human has, and for Christians, it is all that the Bible says is good and is summed up as a single command—to love one another. We all desire to do what is good, but the moment we try to do it, we fall into Satan’s temptation, and find ourselves not doing it. Rather, the Bible teaches us to listen to the voice of God we hear in our hearts.

The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. … Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you. There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites (Exod 25:20-22).

Note that the location of the ark in the tabernacle along with two cherubim on top of its cover is related to the description of cherubim and a flaming sword placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden:

After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen 3:24).

Here, the expression “to guard the way to the tree of life” should be understood in a positive sense: one day the access to this tree would be restored. The tree of life for Moses was the voice he heard between the two cherubim above the atonement cover of the ark. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was obviously the Ten Commandments written on the stone tablets that were placed inside the ark, which was covered and sealed with “the atonement cover”: in a sense, the access to the stone tablets was prohibited. This pointed to the time when the access to the stone tablets would be no longer necessary:

… for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, (Phil 2:13-14)…

God’s voice you hear inside your heart is not actually a voice any more, but a “will” that he puts in you. Note that “it is God who works in you to will” directly—not through the process of teaching you so that you try to do it. You do what you want to do, and end up doing the will of God.