Like God

Like God


Man is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27); he is like God. This is truth from God. But the devil is a deceiver and a liar (Jn. 8:44). The first lie he told Eve was that she and Adam were not like God (implied, at least) and that the way to become like him was to disobey him, which is so contrary to common sense and logic and reason that one would think that Eve should immediately have seen right through this contradiction to the truth. How could the way to become pure and good and holy and true, like God, be by being impure and wicked and unholy and false? Besides which, she did not need to become like God; she and Adam already were like God, made in his image.

The devil says that the way to become like God is to disobey God (Gen. 3:4). God says that we already are like him and that the way to become more like him is to obey him (Gen. 4:7). He is our source of joy and our face "can be bright with joy (like God) if you will do what you should! But if you refuse to obey, watch out. Sin is waiting to attack you, longing to destroy you. But you can conquer it" (Gen. 4:7).

One problem Eve had was not trusting or believing in God and what he said. Instead, she trusted her senses, that the forbidden fruit appeared desirable.

Another problem was adding to what god had said. He had said that they must not eat of the fruit. She added that they were not even to touch it (Gen. 3:3).

"Do not go beyond what is written" (1 Cor. 4:6).

"I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the Tree of Life" (Rev. 22:18,19).

Yet a third problem Eve had was not being content with what God had given them. They lived in a perfect paradise and lacked no good thing.

"Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing" (Psalm 34:10).

God withheld only one thing from them and that was because he knew it would be ruinous for them to have it: the knowledge of good and evil. This is a deep truth that few human beings grasp, that having everything is not always good. Sometimes it is better to have less than everything. In the matter of knowing good and evil, only God has both the perfect character of goodness and the perfect fullness of power and strength to handle safely the knowledge of good and evil. Human beings do not have this perfection of being. Only as they rest and grow in the Lord and obey him do they have this power to withstand the temptation of evil.

So God withheld this one this one thing from them because it was dangerous to them. That Eve partook of this danger and disobeyed God shows that she did not believe that God withheld this one thing out of love but for a less noble reason. In a word, she did not believe that God loved her. She was discontent. She had not learned the valuable lesson Paul learned:

"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances . . . I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want" (Ph. 4:12).

And what is that secret to contentment? It is relying upon and trusting God.

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Ph. 4:13).

Even the strength to be content.

Contentment is found in God.