There is one exception to eating from all the trees—that concerns the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord gives a clear command with regard to this tree: you shall not eat from it. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the test for mankind by which God measures man’s love and obedience to him. The Lord wants man to choose him in love, and for this, it is necessary that man has a choice. Man shows his obedience in and through love by not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The day man eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he shall surely die. This does not mean that the moment man eats of it he will immediately drop dead. It means that when man eats from it, he will become a mortal man. Death will then start the breakdown work in his body. The day he eats of it, he will also die spiritually. Then he will be under God’s judgment. From that day forward he is mortal, and death has become inevitable for man.
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”