When Satan came to the garden to tempt Eve, he was basically saying, “You’re missing out! God is holding out on you. If you want to be like God, eat from this tree and you’ll know both good AND evil.” Now God had created Adam and Eve in His image. They were already “like” God. But it was true that they only knew good. Evil had been withheld from them. And that was God’s original intent.
Can you imagine knowing only good? What would that kind of purity look like? Life. Peace. Satisfaction. Deep relationship. Delight! That’s all Adam and Eve had known.
Eve wasn’t the only one tempted that day. Adam was standing right there throughout the whole ordeal. And he remained quiet. He never attempted to stop Eve. He never reminded her of God’s command to not eat from that tree—or they would die. She ate. And then she gave the fruit to her husband. And he ate. At that moment, spiritual death, shame, covetous desire, fear, awareness of sin, and rebellion were awakened in man. And since that time, an insatiable appetite for desire has replaced peace and satisfaction in our world. Everything they’d known was lost.
I can’t blame Adam and Eve. Neither can you. If it had been Andy and Becky, we would have made the very same choice. Satan knows how to tempt us. “God is holding out on you.” His tactic hasn’t changed. But here’s what I know…God’s plan all along has been to bring us back to that place of life, purity, peace, satisfaction, deep relationship, and delight! It’s available if you’ve surrendered to Jesus. And it’s in our future in heaven—perfect and complete—the way God always intended.
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