“Will You Be Like YHWH God?”

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Satan tempted Eve to take of the fruit God had forbidden. In response, Eve clearly stated God’s warning: “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” In response to this, the serpent claimed, “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…” (Gen. 3:3-5)

It is curious that Satan’s first attempt to convince Eve was to undermine a word from God (“you will not surely die”) and his second was to credit a position like God’s (“you will be like God”). These two phrases are at the heart of everything which tempts. Ultimately, we wish to be like the Divine. However, our problem is that we wish this in a way that misunderstands the true nature of the Divine.

In our hopes to be like the divine, we usually seek the unlimited knowledge and the power of words with which Satan taunted Eve. We want to become sovereign over ourselves, our comrades, and our world. But while these might make us like a god, these are not the most important attributes that will make us like YHWH God.

Crucial to our God’s existence is his unadulterated holiness and continual self-sacrifice for the good of others. The cross is the grandest manifestation of this, and it gives us a target to shoot for in our daily living. Again and again, we are given the opportunity to behave in holiness and humility. It is in doing this—not in grasping for our own power—that we will truly be like the one true God.

- Dan Lankford, minister

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