Genesis 3:1-5 – “…’Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?’ ‘Of course we may eat it,’ the woman told him. ‘It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die.’ ‘You won’t die!’, the serpent hissed. ‘God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God,…”
I was reading the passage as part of a Bible study I’m involved in. This verse was being used to highlight the temptation at the heart of sin: to be our own gods. While this may be true, I had another thought when I read this passage. Think of these verses:
1 Cor 15:49 – “Just as we are now like Adam,…so we will someday be like Christ,…”
Ephesians 4:15 – “Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.”
1 John 3:2 – “…But we do know that when he (Christ) comes we will be like Him, for we will see him as he really is.”
Here’s my thought: Adam and Eve desired to be like God. We also desire to be like God; we submit our lives to Christ, trusting that through the Holy Spirit, we will become more and more like Him, who is God. We were created in God’s image. I think Adam and Eve desired a good thing. Who wouldn’t want to be like their heavenly Father? In one sense, there is nothing wrong with desiring to be like God. However, in the case of Adam and Eve, Satan persuaded them that they could reach that desire without God, and so become their own gods. And that’s where sin entered in. It wasn’t in the desire to be like God.