In the bible we read that God created man and woman in His own image and He did. He set them to be rulers over that all He had created. He created them differently from all the other creatures He had created already. He brought them together in a marriage relationship and gave them the responsibilities of reproducing to fill the face of earth with people of like manner [God’s image bearers] who were like their parents meant to worship the Lord and display His glory through a healthy relationship with the Lord their God. God had created them so that as they produced more children and children producing after their kind, the glory of God was to be displayed through them all over the face of the earth. They were also supposed to take care of the garden and to rule over all the things God had created.

The relationship humans [men and women]and God was like that between a loving [holy] Father and His [holy] children. Humans where supposed to rule on the earth on behalf of God; for He had designated the responsibility to them.

As we see in the first two chapters of Genesis, life is good; humans are having a healthy relationship with the Lord their God and everything is going as intended.

God like any other loving parent, He allowed His children to do so many things but not without any form of restrictions.  The restriction was given by a loving Father to His children. He allowed them to eat from every tree of the garden as they pleased, but He forbid them from eating the fruit of one tree, the tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He cautioned them “for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” Gen 2:17

Not long after this command is given, do we see Satan masquerading in form of a snake in chapter three to tempt Eve. The bible mentions that the snake was a crafty animal more any other beast God had created. Surely for Satan to get his lies and schemes through, he needed to borrow the craftiness of this poor animal! He starts off by trick question “Did God say that you should not eat from any tree of the garden?” The woman answered “No, from all the other trees we may eat, but only from the tree of knowing good and evil we should not eat, for in the day that we do, we will surely die” woman quoted God’s word perfectly!

Note: In the same manner as Christians when temptation first comes our way, finds us strong we quote God’s word and stand by it. However, if we give the enemy time and listen to his lies for a prolonged duration, he will surely succeed in persuading us to fall prey of his craftiness. In the same way we are going to see Eve and Adam here giving in to bring about a multi-generational catastrophe.

Continuing into their conversation, the snake stains God’s character by convincing a woman that:

• “you will surely not die.”
• “for God knows that in the day you eat, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil”

Jesus said “…. from the beginning, Satan does not stand in the truth and when he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature (John 8;44)”. Here we see Satan employing his nature deceive the woman into believing his lies. God said, “in the day you eat you will surely die”, and on the contrary, Satan says, “when you eat, you will surely not die!” He is alleging that God is a liar hence tarnishing His character!

As if this wasn’t enough, he continues to persuade her that this fruit will open their eyes and they will be LIKE God knowing good and evil! Of course, it would make them know good and evil and be like God, but God didn’t intend them to be like Him, that’s why in the first place He forbid them to eat of it. In other words, Satan is telling this woman that I know what’s good for you more than God does. Or if I don’t stretch the line too much, Satan in saying, “God does not want you to have this wonderful insight, He hid it from you, but look here, if only you harvest that fruit and eat it, you will have it!”

“Woho! Haven’t we all fallen prey of this over and over again.

Stay with me, imagine this single young woman faithfully waiting on God for a spouse. And Satan will whisper to her that “you know what, the God you are waiting for to bring a spouse won’t come soon.

Why don’t you just go and get yourself a spouse, life is too short don’t stress yourself. From my abundance I can offer you one” Next thing, Sister Jane dates a Muslim handsome young man, before so long she gets pregnant, and because of the shame and this unconfessed sin she quits ushering in her local church. Don’t be deceived,

Satan uses the same old trick, but butters it differently for better sales!”

So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waistcloths.

There is just so much to write about those verses, but for the interest of this chapter, I will not go into details. However, we can note a few things. Satan is a liar, but one thing he never lied about here “for God knows that in the day you eat, your eyes will be opened,”. Surely, when they ate, their eyes were opened, but opened to their shame no wonder they sewed for fig leaves to cover it.

Their shame made them to hide from the presence of the Lord, one who initially was responded to in love and friendship, now because of their transgression, they can’t look Him in the eye. Their relationship with Him is broken because of the sin they have committed against Him. Alas! Without fail, at this point as God had earlier told them that in the day they eat they will surely die, they died because they had eaten, both of them! Loving as God is, He is also Just, He neither changes nor regrets what He has spoken, they died, their relationship with Him was broken. He graciously covered their shame with a skin of an innocent animal, but he kicked them from the precious garden to which He had assigned them stewardship! This is all sad news, but where is Satan?

Note: Usually after Satan has gotten you into some big trouble, he leaves you to deal with the consequences, yet we almost never stop making deals with a treacherous man as he is!

From this point, sin came into the world, through one man as Paul would say in Rom 5:12, by nature all humans are born sinners because of Adam’s sin. We have like sheep all gone astray, each of us has turned his own way……Isaiah 53:6a. Sin has separated us from God [Isaiah 59:2].

When Adam and Eve voluntarily decided to choose Satan’s deception over God’s holy and loving command, they lost their sanctity, they lost their relationship with a loving God who created them in His Image, their Father, the source of life and peace; who loved them so much.

Those whom God created with innocence in His image to bear it all over the face of the earth, by choice corrupted it. They sinned against God by choosing to listen and voluntarily becoming allegiant to God’s enemy; Satan. They became God’s enemies, because they aligned themselves against God by thoughtfully teaming up together with God’s enemy. They sinned and sin brought death, sin separated from God.

Since then, those whom God had created to bear His image on the earth became the very people to go against anything concerning God on the earth. When He gave them laws, they happily broke them, when He sent them messengers them became indifferent to them and even some they killed. This is true of all us, not only the people of the Old. The bible teachers all of us are sinner, enemies of God, lovers of self, and though we may speak of God as though we deeply love Him, in our undegenerated state our hearts are far away from Him.

We are meant to be worshipers of God who created us in His own image, but because sin corrupted that image, we are born with a desire to worship ourselves and everything else we were never created to worship while neglecting or being indifferent to the one who created us in His Image such we would worship Him and display His glory.

You see those things we love much; the things we can’t live without; the things we choose to love everyday more than we love God; those are the things we worship. That which I worship gets my utmost adoration and attention. We are born this way, Satan somehow persuades us to think that these things such as significant other, cars, houses, carrier building, gardens, acceptance, fame, religion and religious acts will satisfy if we sincerely run after them. Just like one of my Bible Institute teacher often said “you can be sincere; but sincerely wrong.” These things won’t give you true meaning, because your true meaning can only be found in the adoration of the one who created you out of love. Satan in a liar, he promises you safety, but his goal is to actually get you into adversity.

Now, choosing to be allegiant to Satan doesn’t only have earthly consequences, but it eternal ones too. When I attend funerals, I often hear the priest or anyone conducting the function of praying for the dead [Not a biblical practice but most religions practice it.] convince the dead and all those present that the soul of the dead has gone to rest in peace. As soothing to the ‘soul of the dead’ and those of the loved ones this message can be, it’s often not true and inconsistent with God’s word. The bible says that we are all born with a sinful nature inclined to pursue our selfish and vain glories, to worship other things that are not God and to neglect God and His word. This is who we are, even the most pious amongst us, in their unregenerate state, they are sinners in need of God’s grace. We are often told to do good things, religious deeds; and that by adhering to the practice of these, somehow God will look at the intents and practices of heart and have mercy on us. We are taught that our good works will somehow justify us before a holy and angry God.

But wait, before you get so much pumped up with all those hopes of good works will somehow justify you before God please consider the following:

You’re a sinner, born with a sin nature; inclined to break God’s law and love other things more than you love God; for they get your attention and adoration before God gets it! The bible says, because you’re born a sinner and you have voluntarily practiced sin over and over, the wages of sin is death; meaning eternal separation from God. And if you’re eternally separated from God, it means that you’re in the lake of fire forever.

Good works don’t save us, for the Bible says that all of our good works are like filthy rags [Is 64:6]. He says that in sacrifices He doesn’t delight, but in a broken and contrite heart [Ps 51:16]. He says that if all those religious practices and good works could somehow save you, then Christ needed not to come and die on the cross [Gal 2:21]. For God would simply have told us to do all those things and we go to Him in praise.

Salvation is a gift of God not a reward from some sort of working the law. It’s a gracious gift of God received by faith in Christ, so that no man may boast [Eph 2:8-9].

Only those who trust in sinless Christ who voluntarily took the penalty of our sin when He shed His blood on the cross receive forgiveness and therefore reconciled to God in a loving child-Father relationship [Col 1:21-22]. For the sin that once estranged them it’s penalty Christ has paid for. In a legal sense, God doesn’t have anything against them, they’re presented holy and blameless, image bearers just like Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden before they disobeyed God; these, a community of these are now able to genuinely worship the Lord because that which obstructed them from doing so, has been hang on the cross and overcame with a testimony of an empty cross and grave. Only those who trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins are reconciled to God and gracious restored into a relationship with God who previously was angry at them for their sin.

Have you trusted Christ as your personal savior and repented of your sins? If not, please don’t be lied to, if you died today, you will spend eternity in the lake of fire separated from God. Your soul will not be at rest, for there is no rest in the lake of fire but only conscious torment of souls. You can only get forgiveness, rest and peace with God, when you trust Jesus Christ who took the penalty and guilty for the sins of those who trust in Him while He died on the cross. When He resurrected, He overcame the power of sin which is death, and so those who trust Him; in Him they have as well overcome the power of sin, which is death. They are now Image bearers of God being cleansed by His word through the Power of the Holy Spirit who indwells them. They are progressively being transformed into the image of His Son.

 If you’re one who has understood that you’re a sinner, inclined to worship other things but God, and you would like God to forgive you so that you get a personal relationship with Him through Christ who paid for the penalty and guilty of your sin; all you have to do is to let go of all the other things you trusted to justify before an angry God; because they can’t and won’t and now trust Jesus Christ who voluntarily shed His blood for all those who would trust in Him for the salvation of their souls.

If you have decided to trust Christ alone for the salvation of your soul, you have been saved from the penalty and guilt of your sins, and right now you’re a child of God because that which made you an enemy Jesus has taken away. Praise the Lord. Now can you say a prayer of thankfulness; thanking Jesus for what He did for you and all those who have already trusted Him when He shed His blood on the cross. Say “thank you Jesus, for loving me, for voluntarily taking my place on the cross; a sinless man taking on the penalty and guilt of a sinful person like me, I can only say that I am grateful. Jesus give me the grace to walk in the newness of my life and connect me to the church that will help me to know and love you more. Thank you Jesus. Amen.”