Knowledge of good and evil

The human quest for knowledge of good and evil

Genesis 3:22 (LSB)

Then Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us to know good and evil; and now, lest he send forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever”—

See also Ge 2:9; Ge 3:5–6; 2 Sa 14:17; 2 Sa 19:35; Eze 28:2–7

The consequences of the attempt to attain this knowledge

Genesis 2:17 LSB

but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it; for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

See also Ge 3:7–19; Eze 28:13–19; Ro 1:28–32

God as the source of full knowledge of good and evil

Psalm 119:66 LSB

Teach me good discernment and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments.

See also Job 28:28; Ps 34:11–14; Ps 111:10; Ro 7:7

The natural knowledge of good and evil

Given in the human conscience

Romans 2:14–15 LSB

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law naturally do the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they demonstrate the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,

See also Job 27:6; Eze 36:31; Jn 3:20; Ac 24:16; Ro 9:1; 2 Co 1:12; 1 Ti 1:5; 1 Ti 1:18–19; 1 Pe 3:15–16

Conscience and moral decisions

1 Sa 25:30–34; 1 Ch 21:6–7; Ps 37:27; Am 5:14–15; Eph 4:25–32

A natural knowledge of good and evil will not necessarily empower anyone to do good

Romans 7:15–25 LSB

For what I am working out, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I agree with the Law, that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that in me evil is present—in me who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

7:14–15 The law is from God and is therefore spiritual, but Paul is of the flesh (a metaphorical reference to spiritual fallenness) and thus finds himself conflicted with the heavenly law of God.

The relationship among sin, death, and the law is the main focus of Rom 7. In the first part of the chapter, Paul states that believers are free from the law (Rom 7:1–6) since they died to the law through their baptism in Christ. This line of argument presumes an intimate relationship between sin and the law. Even though sin works through the law to produce death (Rom 7:7–13), Paul rejects the idea that the law itself is sinful. The law, therefore, cannot be charged with bringing death; it is God’s holy, righteous, and good law (Rom 7:12).

To prove that the law alone does not bring death, Paul uses the present-tense perspective of the “I” in Rom 7:14–25 to illustrate the ongoing internal struggle between the desire to do good—…