Why did God place the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden?

God placed the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden to test Adam and Eve’s loyalty. Our first parents were created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26) which meant that they were free moral agents. Because Adam and Eve were created with the freedom of choice, they needed to exercise their free will either in obedience or disobedience to God.

God would rather run the risk of creating free will beings with the choice to do good or evil than to create beings with no freedom like robots simply doing what they were programmed to do. Man’s love to God was not forced.

God knew Adam and Eve would sin when He created them. If at that point God had refused to create them, He would have been canceling the principle of free choice. This same principle applies also to humans when they decide to have children. They know that their children may not love them back but they still take the risk of having them hoping that some of the children will choose to love them.

Satan knew if he can get Adam and Eve to disobey God and eat of the tree, he will succeed in taking over the world. Sadly our parents chose to believe the devil. And their sin opened their eyes to evil. They felt shame and hid from God. This sin of disobedience brought suffering and death to the world (Genesis 3:6–7).

But the only One that ultimately got hurt from creating free will beings is God Himself. God sacrificed His Son to solve the sin problem “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God sent His Son to carry the punishment of man’s sin in His body. What a price He paid for our redemption? “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).