But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5)

God Created Man in his image

The Bible teaches us that God created everything. Heaven, angels, water, air, sun, moon, stars, land, animals, plants, and humans were all created by God. Afterwards, he looked at all of it and said it was good.

Man and woman were unique from everything else God created because they were created in God’s own image. Humans were created to be “like” God as reflections of his character, representatives of his rule, and pseudo-creators of beauty and order here on earth. When we were created, we were good.

God Defines Good and Evil

God told them what trees were good for food and what tree was bad. When he did this, he defined good and evil for the first man and woman. By defining what was good and what was bad, God gave mankind the choice to trust his definition of good and evil, or to autonomously define good and evil for themselves. The serpent saw this as his first opportunity to try and thwart God’s plan. The sneaky snake told the woman that if she chose to define good and evil for herself she would be like God having knowledge of good and evil.

The Irony

The irony of sin is that mankind was already like God because God created us in his image. Furthermore, man already had knowledge of good and evil because it was already defined for us by God. By eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they chose to define good and evil for themselves. They didn’t want to know good and evil, they already knew it, they just wanted to define it for themselves. This is the exact same choice we face every time we are tempted to sin. Ask yourself this, “Do I trust God’s definition of good and evil, or do I seek to define it for myself?”

“The irony of sin is that mankind was already like God because God created us in his image, and that man already had knowledge of good and evil because it was defined for us by God.”

Response

Lord, I pray that we would think of this choice every time we face temptation and that we would choose to trust you and not ourselves. You are more wise and more awesome than we could ever comprehend. Your ways are not our ways and your thoughts are not our thoughts. Let us meditate on your word and who you are, keeping this idolatrous irony in the forefront of our minds.