COVENANTS OF WORKS & GRACE

The serpent said to Eve:  “God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God. . .”  (Genesis 3:5).  In verse 1, Satan had questioned God's character.  And in verse 4, he had contradicted His Word.  But here in verse 5, the snake tells the woman that sin is something desirable and good.  “Eve, happiness isn't found in following God—but in defying Him.”  Actually, Satan had told her that she would “be like God.”  The terrible irony here is that never was mankind so much like God than in Genesis 1-2.  After all, they had been created in His image.  It's only when they disobey the voice of the Lord that that image of God, which they had so wonderfully embodied, is frightfully corrupted.  Listening to the snake would make them profoundly unlike God.  But why was it that this sounded so good to Eve?  To “be like God”?  It seems she began thinking that knowing God wasn't quite enough.  She gave up knowing God  to pursue being Him.  But praise God, that's not where the story ends.  The Lord would undo the work of the snake.  He came to them; He spoke gently to them; and He made a promise to them.  Eve had known God as her Creator—but now she would know Him as her Redeemer.