Imagine a world where fear does not exist. A world where there are no misunderstandings because nobody is acting or speaking deceptively; nobody is manipulating; nobody has a hidden agenda. Imagine conversations without defensiveness, without trauma responses, without the need to protect yourself from harm.
Imagine a world with no concern for physical, financial, or emotional security. Would war exist in such a place? Would there be hostility, greed, envy, or strife?
Pause here and let yourself picture it.
Imagine a world where your next meal is guaranteed, where love is freely given and freely received, where pain does not exist in any form. Picture yourself having useful things to do, pleasant ways to spend your time, and full, fulfilling relationships. Imagine never being cold, never being lonely, never being afraid.
This is not wishful thinking. This was the reality of Adam and Eve before the Fall. They lived in what we long for but have never known — a world permeated by goodness, satisfaction, and purpose. A world where the existence of evil was completely unknown to them.
And then came the serpent, offering them what sounded like a gain: “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” But as we will see, the only thing they truly gained was the experience of evil.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’” “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves
Genesis 3:1-7
For most of my life, I misunderstood what happened in the Garden of Eden. I thought the serpent was promising Adam and Eve the ability to discern between right and wrong. But the Hebrew word used for “knowledge” — yada — doesn’t mean just abstract, intellectual knowing. It means experiential knowing.
Adam and Eve already knew good in the deepest sense. Their lives were steeped in it: walking in God’s presence, living without shame or fear, enjoying His provision without toil, relating to one another without suspicion or self-protection.
Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.
Genesis 2:25
That verse alone describes a reality we’ve never known. From the womb onward, even before birth, research shows babies can feel pain and sense their mother’s emotions. Unlike Adam and Eve, we have never had a single moment of existence free from the shadow of brokenness.
So what did humanity “gain” by eating the fruit? Nothing good. They already had every good thing.
What they gained was the burden of autonomy. Instead of trusting God’s word and living in His covering, they took on responsibility for their own righteousness. Suddenly, they were accountable for their own actions in a way they hadn’t been before.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned
Romans 5:12
That shift was enormous; it moved them from innocence to accountability. From being covered by God’s goodness to scrambling to cover themselves with fig leaves.
Here’s the irony: while the serpent did deceive, it didn’t technically lie. God Himself says,
The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.”
Genesis 3:22
Adam and Eve did become “like God” — but not in the way Eve probably thought. Not omniscient. Not omnipotent. Not divine.
They became like God in one narrow, crushing sense: bearing responsibility for their own moral accountability.
That’s the serpent’s strategy even today — truth twisted into deception by context and implication.
Here’s what breaks my heart every time I read Genesis 3: they already had what they were reaching for.
So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.
Genesis 1:27
They were already like God — made in His image, walking in His likeness, entrusted with authority over creation. Yet they traded true likeness (intimacy with Him) for counterfeit likeness (autonomy from Him).
And the result? Shame, fear, toil, and death.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves
Genesis 3:7
The Fall isn’t just a story of the past. It’s a mirror for us now. So what should we do?
- Beware of half-truths. Satan still twists God’s words.
When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars.
John 8:44
But we cannot identify a lie if we don’t know the truth. You can’t see what is just a tiny bit crooked until you place it next to something perfectly straight. In order to know what is true and what is false, you must place every claim, every promise, every question next to God’s Word. If it doesn’t line up with His Word, or if it only partially lines up with God’s Word, it is not true. And the only way to do that is to study God’s Word so you know what it says. The truth will reveal the lie every time.
2. Don’t grasp for what we already have. In Christ, we already possess security, wisdom, and love. This is an easy trap to fall into. It comes from taking things for granted—failing to notice and give thanks for all that you have. (When is the last time you gave thanks for your functioning kidneys or the ability to breathe through your nose or the fact that you have eyelids?) It also comes from comparing your lot with that of other people. Comparison leads us to think we are lacking rather than see what we have.
Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens.
Ephesians 1:3
3. Surrender—Autonomy is exhausting. Trying to manage our own righteousness only leads to shame, regret, failure, defensiveness, and every kind of misery.
Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
4. Remember that grace meets accountability. We can’t undo our responsibility — but Christ bore it for us.
He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
Adam’s choice brought death, but Christ’s obedience brings life.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:22
5. Trust God! The serpent deceived the woman into believing that God was somehow withholding something good by forbidding them from eating from the tree. In reality, He was protecting them. It is no different today. His commands are not meant to withhold anything good from us but to protect us from what He knows will cause us harm. I sometimes hear people say “I don’t see why God would forbid…” as an excuse for their disobedience. But the truth is, we don’t possess the mind of God. We cannot ever know the full implications of our actions. Personally, I have lived the terrible experience of discovering much too late that the sin I thought “didn’t hurt anybody” actually did hurt many people including myself in ways I could never have anticipated. Obedience to God isn’t mindless or blind. It is a rational acknowledgement of our understanding: that He knows everything, and we do not; that He is entirely holy and good, and we are not; and that He is God, and we are not!
One day, when Christ restores all things, we will again know only good. No pain. No shame. No grief. No evil. Only unbroken fellowship with God.
Isn’t that a lovely thing to anticipate!
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.
Revelation 21:4
Until that day, though the lesson is clear: Don’t be deceived into striving for what you already have in Christ. The “gain” of autonomy is no gain at all. Dependence on God isn’t bondage — it’s the truest freedom, the very life Adam and Eve once knew, and the life we will one day know again.
a surrendered life 