Both are really good, but I was thinking of specifically highlighting their shared ministry of death...
There is a direct functional parallel in Scripture between the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Law of Moses. They share the same ministry...
Genesis 2:16–17
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
A command is given. Death is attached to the command.
That principle does not disappear after Eden. It expands.
Romans 5:12
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
Now listen to how Paul describes the Law:
Romans 7:9–11
“For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.”
II Corinthians 3:6–7
“…for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious…”
II Corinthians 3:9
“For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.”
The pattern is identical.
A command is given.
Sin takes occasion.
Death results.
That is exactly what happened at the Tree, and it is exactly how Paul describes the Law.
The Tree introduced the knowledge of good and evil in the context of a command that brings death when violated. The Law is the full codified expression of that same reality. What was once a single command in Eden becomes an entire system of commandments at Sinai.
In that sense, and very deliberately speaking in terms of function, the Law is the outworking of what was introduced at the Tree. It operates on the same principle, produces the same result, and carries the same ministry. The law is, in effect, the fruit of that Tree.
For those under grace, this matters.
If the Law is a “ministration of death,” and if sin uses the commandment to bring death, then returning to the Law as a means of righteousness is not a neutral act. It is, in effect, placing oneself back under the same death-principle first encountered in Eden. In Christ, the curse that came in Eden is lifted, partaking of the law is, in effect, partaking of the Tree just as Adam did.