Gen

Gen. 3:1-7

4/13/2008

“You Will be Like God”

The background to our passage is, of course, what God told Adam in 2:16-17: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.” These words contain some ominous thoughts/concepts: the idea of prohibition (“you shall not eat”); the idea of “evil” (“the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”); and the idea of “death” (“you shall surely die”) couched in terms of immediate retribution (“in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”). Do these words seem like an unwelcome disruption to Adam’s otherwise peaceful, idyllic existence in the garden-paradise?

If we think that way, it shows how little we understand what it means to be a creature made in the image of God. The most immediate context, or environment, of Adam’s existence was not the garden of Eden. Sure, the garden had an abundant supply of fruits and vegetables that Adam needed for his sustenance. It had more than enough trees and bowers for his shelter and nocturnal repose. The air was fresh and sweet with the delicious fragrance of flowers and fruits. The streams of pure, refreshing water sparkled with bouncy, glittering sunbeams. But the garden, though luxuriant with all that Adam needed, was not Adam’s most immediate environment; God was. Not only was it God, who created Adam and gave him the capacity to enjoy and appreciate these things in the garden; it was also God, who gave Adam each breath he breathed and sustained his life every moment with the strength he needed to actually enjoy them! If God had withdrawn his breath, the garden would have meant nothing to Adam! And this prohibition concerning the forbidden tree brought to the forefront the true nature of the relationship between God the Creator and Adam the image bearer of God. And we will consider different aspects of this relationship.

As we go on, we must mention something about the true nature of the forbidden tree. We must point out that there was nothing “magical” about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The forbidden fruit did not have the power to make someone know good and evil in some magical way. You see, the Bible does not allow for any kind of “magic”--that is, no object has any kind of supernatural power to do something magical, apart from God. To put it in another way: God does not make anything with magical power to perform some magical feats independent of God. There is no such thing as Aladdin’s Lamp or magic carpet. Even the Ark of the Covenant was not some kind of magical object, which automatically brought victory to whoever happened to possess it. The sons of Israel lost their battle against the Philistines even though they brought the ark to their camp. And the ark was nothing but trouble to the Philistines, who captured it. What made the difference was God’s presence and purpose, not the ark itself. And that touches upon the very reason that we are so fascinated with magical things: we want supernatural power that we can tame and use at will apart from God, without dealing with God’s sovereign will and character.

Again, the forbidden fruit did not have the power to make someone know good and evil in some magical way. In fact, it was Satan, who insinuated the idea: “when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (v. 5). But did Adam and Eve not know good and evil? Of course they did! If they did not know good and evil, God’s command would have made no sense to them. For God’s command to make sense, they had to know that eating the forbidden fruit against God’s explicit command was evil, that dying was evil (insofar as it was the due punishment for their disobedience)! Yes, they were sinless and righteous. As such, they probably had not personally experienced evil. But that does not mean that they did not know what was good and evil. God knows what evil is infinitely better than any of us, though He never does evil and we do evil all the time!

What was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil about, then? Van Til said,

“God chose one tree from among many and ‘arbitrarily’ told man not to eat of it…. If the tree of the knowledge of good and evil had been naturally different from other trees it could not have served its unique purpose. That the commandment might appear as purely ‘arbitrary’ the specially chosen tree had to be naturally like other trees.”

What does Van Til mean by that? Why did the commandment have to take on this “arbitrary” character? Because the obedience, which God required of Adam, was an absolute kind of obedience. The tree could not be “special” in any way. If it were special, the reason for obedience could be found in the tree itself and not in God’s authority and His authority alone. So the forbidden tree had to be absolutely “ordinary”, no different from other trees in the garden.

We must not lose sight of this fact. As a minister of the gospel, in the hopes of motivating and encouraging you to live in obedience to God, I often try to explain the reasons for the law--how it reflects the wisdom and righteousness of God. I try to show how God’s grace to us should be the motivation for our obedience. I try to even show the benefits of living in obedience to God! And this is what the Bible does to spur us on to obedience. But this approach, which God takes with us, is a manifestation of God’s gracious dealings with us. “Gracious” is the key here. God does not have to be “gracious” to earn our obedience. His authority alone should be more than sufficient to warrant our unconditional, absolute obedience. But in His gracious disposition toward us in Christ Jesus, God adds more compelling reasons, grace upon grace, so that we could obey Him joyfully, not merely out of duty but out of profound gratitude! And because God does this, we should not think that God is obligated to show His grace to demand our obedience; that, if somehow God does not make us feel His grace in a special way, if God does not do something more special for us, we are somehow excused from obeying God.

It was that principle, which God demonstrated in His prohibition concerning the forbidden tree: the forbidden tree was a symbol of God’s sovereign lordship over man and man’s obligation to obey Him absolutely. And if it was necessary, it was only because the honor, which God extended to man was so great. Think about all the rich blessings God bestowed on Him: God made man in His own image; God gave him dominion over all other creatures of the sea, of the sky and on the earth (1:26, 28); and God gave him the permission to “eat of every tree of the garden” (2:16). God’s generosity to man was so prodigious, the honor God bestowed on man was so great, that an arrangement had to be made to remind Adam of God’s sovereignty over him. Adam was not the master of his own life despite his abundant freedom. Adam’s dominion over other creatures was not on account of his own merit. It came from God and it was his only as long as he submitted himself to the supreme authority of God over him. His position and honor were all given to him by God. He was only a steward and God was the true Lord of all things. And the tree, which he could not freely eat, was a symbol of God’s sovereign lordship over him--like the Sabbath day, like the Sabbatical year and the year of jubilee, like the tithe.

Was this some kind of harsh, cruel arrangement on the part of God? Of course not! What is one forbidden tree compared to all the trees in the garden paradise, each tree with its many branches drooping with sweet, juicy, succulent fruits? How can we ever accuse God of miserliness for the forbidden tree of our lives? If we stop and look around, we will realize that we don’t have enough time just to enjoy all the things God has granted us. Just walk around your neighborhood. You will see the amazing beauty and delicate designs of each and every flower we encounter on our evening stroll! And think about all the fruits and vegetables and foods that we simply consume instead of savoring them slowly and unhurriedly. Even water is something we can savor if we could just remember to do so! We can spend our whole day handling, beholding, marveling, cherishing and savoring the things that surround us--each and all God’s gracious gift to us! But what do we do? We zero in on that one forbidden tree, which we do not have, and we complain! We think of God as “a hard man”, who is not interested in our happiness, whose love for us is often questionable!

Then why the name for the tree? Again, it was not because it had a magical power to impart the knowledge of good and evil. It was rather because the tree was where the question of what is good and evil was to be settled--between the good of God’s word and the evil of Satan’s lies. The tree was a judgment seat.

But we must keep in mind that Adam and Eve were to make this judgment not as an independent, third party, sitting in the judgment seat above both God and Satan. They were to carry out their task of rendering judgment as God’s image bearers!

What does it mean for man to bear the image of God? In Gen. 1, in which the image of God is first mentioned, it consists of man’s dominion over other created things. God’s blessing on man to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth is followed by the commission to subdue the earth and have dominion over all other creatures (1:28). Here we clearly see that one aspect of the image of God is man’s kingly role as God’s vicegerent.

But as the creation story is expanded in greater detail in ch. 2, we see the concept of the image of God unfold more.

We are told in 2:15, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” The word translated here as “keep” is the same word translated as “guard” in Gen. 3:24: “He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he laced the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” (cf. Numbers 3:5-10) We see here the priestly aspect of the image of God. God is a holy God. The garden was not just a paradise but also a holy sanctuary: it was a holy place where the First Pair, once fallen, could no longer stay. And as holy priests unto God, Adam and Eve were to guard the garden-sanctuary from Satan’s invasion.

We also see the prophetic aspect of the image of God in Adam’s naming of the animals. When people speak of prophecy, they usually mean foretelling--the act of predicting what will happen in the future. Biblical prophecy, as many of you already know, is not so much fore-telling as it is forth-telling. Biblical prophecy includes fore-telling, for sure. But it is primarily speaking forth the word of God. So the biblical prophets are at times spoken of as the “mouthpiece” of God. And the standard formula of biblical prophecy is “Thus saith the Lord…!” When Adam named the animals, he was reflecting God’s creational, fiat speech. Fiat is a Latin word, meaning “Let it be done!” When God created the heavens and the earth and all that they contained, God said, “Let there be…!” And what follows this speech act? Like a refrain, we hear again and again, “And it was so.” In ch. 2, we are also told that whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name. You see a clear conceptual parallel here between God’s fiat-speech and Adam’s naming-speech. Adam through his naming speech was imitating and reflecting the image of God.

Do you see? All these aspects of the image of God--kingly, priestly and prophetic--were put to the test at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As the prophets of God, Adam and Eve were to declare, “Thus saith the Lord: ‘You shall not eat the forbidden fruit!” and reject Satan’s temptation concerning the forbidden fruit. As the priests of God, Adam and Eve were to protect the garden of God against any satanic invasion. As the king and queen, Adam and Eve were to uphold the law of God and render judgment on Satan as evil and wrong. As God’s image bearers, they were to reflect God’s knowledge (as prophets), holiness (as priests) and righteousness (as king and queen). And it was at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that their identity and covenant responsibilities as God’s image bearers were put to the test. You see, it was not God, who was on trial! God is the ultimate Judge of all and it was He, who put Adam and Eve to the test! If Adam and Eve were entrusted with this task of rendering judgment on Satan, it was because they were God’s image bearers. As the image bearers of God, the ultimate Judge, they were to try Satan and condemn him for his wrongdoing and not as a third, independent party!

But what happened when Satan finally appeared in the form of a serpent? The serpent, ever so craftily, insinuated what a miserly Master God was: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’” (v. 1)? Then he out right contradicted God’s words: “You will not surely die” (v. 4). Then he goes on to paint God as a jealous, close-fisted Master: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (v. 5). Thus Satan implied that God did not want Adam and Eve to be like God even though it was God, who created them in His own image in the first place so that they might be like Him! By zeroing on the forbidden tree, Satan makes Eve forget all of God’s bountiful gifts. And Satan paints the forbidden tree to be far more than what it really is--not an ordinary tree, arbitrarily chosen as a symbol of God’s absolute yet generous sovereignty but a magical tree, which can make one wise! And isn’t that precisely what Satan does with us all the time when he tempts us? Whatever he tempts us with, he blows it up way out of proportion and makes it so much more important and necessary and desirable than it really is. What is it that you are obsessed with these days? Why are you so preoccupied with them? Are they really that important? That necessary? That desirable?

Do you see what is ultimately going on? As Satan blows up the importance and desirability of the forbidden tree, he is disparaging the worth of God and the worth of Eve’s allegiance to Him! And as Eve’s mind is slowly bending toward this view, she is further and further removed from her true identity as God’s image bearer. And what does Eve do when Satan directly contradicts God’s word, when she finds herself between two contradictory, antithetical statements by God and Satan? She decides to take the matter into her own hands: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (v. 6). Rather than thinking and judging like God’s image bearer, Eve decides to make judgment on the basis of her own empirical observation! “Since God says one thing and Satan says another, what do I do? I will decide!” Does she know that, when she does this, she is putting herself above God and putting God on trial? Yet that is exactly what she does! And thus she declares her independence from God as an autonomous being!

But, alas, how greatly she was deceived! For eating from the forbidden tree did not make her independent at all! When she ate the forbidden fruit, she was degenerated into an ignominious image bearer of Satan from being a glorious image bearer of God; she was degenerated into a slave of Satan and of the forbidden fruit from the exalted position of being queen over all other creatures; she was degenerated into a fallen sinner from being a holy priestess of God; yes, she was degenerated into an propagandist of Satan from being a prophetess of God--in giving the forbidden fruit to Adam to eat, she bore the image of Satan.

Adam and Eve became ashamed of their nakedness! Why? Not because the fruit made her know good and evil! It was because the glory, with which God endowed them as His image bearers, departed from them when they relinquished the image of God!

Oh, what a shame! What a fall! What a tragedy! What foolishness! Desiring to be wise, she became a fool! How can one be wise by forsaking God, who is the true, perfect Wisdom? She and Adam exchanged the glory of the immortal God for a bite off the forbidden fruit. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! They exchanged the joy of eternally communing with God for a momentary taste of forbidden pleasure!

And this is what is true of all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve! Isn’t this what we see around us all over--man trying to sit in the judgment seat and decide what is good and evil according to his preference? What right does man have to settle the question of good and evil? How much do we know? How much have we experienced? How many books have we read? Only God, who alone knows everything and everything in relation to everything else, has the authority and right to declare what is good and evil. In our pursuit of independence from God, we become more and more enslaved to other things and entrapped in our own darkened foolishness.

Here in this passage, we see the genesis of sin. And we see the essence of sin as well. What is the true essence of sin? Lying, murdering, cheating, committing adultery--these are mere symptoms of sin. There is something deeper underlying all these sinful acts. John Piper put it very well: sin in essence is preferring anything over God. Sin is ultimately idolatry in essence. And our heart is a factory of idols. That is the condition of our hearts as sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.

Where, then, is our hope? Not in our own futile efforts to cleanse our own hearts. Our hope is found only n Christ, the last Adam, who resisted the Satanic temptation and condemned him as evil and wrong! The temptation that the last Adam faced was remarkably similar to the temptation that the First Pair received in the garden of Eden. Regarding the forbidden fruit, Eve thought it was “good for food”. According to 1 John 2:16, this is “the lust of the flesh”. Jesus, too, was tempted to turn the stones into bread and satisfy the lust of the flesh. Eve thought that the forbidden fruit was “a delight to the eyes”--the lust of the eyes. Jesus too was tempted by being shown the whole world to be given to Him only if He would down to Satan and worship him. Eve thought that the fruit was “to be desired to make one wise”--the boastful pride of life. Jesus was tempted to jump down from the steeple of the temple to dazzle the people and get their respect (if not popularity).

But to these temptation, Jesus the true Prophet declared, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” As the true Priest, Jesus rebuked Satan, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘“You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”’” As the true King, Jesus says, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Thus He upheld the sovereign lordship of the true King of all kings. And ultimately He died on the cross to obey God’s will for Him. He did it willingly, readily and gladly. As He had done from all eternity, even through His earthly journey, through all of His suffering and pain in this world, He treasured God more than anything else! Jesus the last Adam treasure God and His will more than anything else in this world, yea, more than His own life!

Our salvation is found in this true Prophet, Priest and King. In Him, the image of God is restored to us and will be perfected in us through His redeeming work. Having been united with Him, we are to live as His image bearers--as His royal prophets, priests and kings! As His royal prophets, we are to declare, “Thus saith the Lord…!” We are to have the word of Christ dwell in us richly at all times. As His royal priests, we are to declare, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord!” As His royal kings, we are to confess, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”; “This world is not worthy of my affection and desire.” Yes, we are to enjoy all the gifts God gives to us even in this world. But we are not to be enslaved to them. As kings, we are to have dominion over them--to enjoy them while we have them but not to be dependent on them as our idols for our happiness. As kings, we are to enjoy that glorious freedom from idols that enslave us. And it is this freedom, which enables us to truly enjoy all of God’s gifts without being enslaved to them!

You see, the essence of this way of living is this: to prefer God over all other things! For our freedom from idols comes from being most satisfied with God! Our deepest conviction is, “God is more precious than anything else. I’d rather have Jesus than anything!”

Has not the Spirit of Christ transformed your heart to know what is truly good and evil? All the things with which Satan tantalizes you can offer you only a momentary pleasure, only one bite, and that followed by a life time of regrets and miserable consequences. Have you not seen the other side of the cheap cosmetics of Satan’s temptation? On the other hand, have you not experienced the abounding and everlasting joy of a clean conscience washed by the blood of the Lamb; the joy of that freedom when you crucify yourself and say, “God, I am yours entirely! I am yours and all that I have is yours! My greatest desire is to do Your will!” Have you not had the glimpses of that joy? You have the true knowledge of what is good and evil.

What are the temptations that assail you these days? You may be no stronger than a sheet of paper. But if we are placed against the Rock of ages, we can be as strong as the Rock! So then, let us abide in Christ. By His victory, let us resist Satan’s temptation to the point of shedding blood! We will lose our life sometime and somehow! What a blessing it is to lose our life in order to gain eternal life in Jesus Christ! Let us grow in true wisdom as we love what is good and hate what is evil more and more until that day when the image of God in us shall be perfected in that glorious heaven, where we shall enjoy all the riches of God’s blessings upon us in Christ Jesus!