“the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil” (Gen. 3:22a, NKJV)
The Scripture we are currently discussing is Heb. 5:14 (KJV) – “But solid food is for fullgrown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.” We concluded the previous teaching by noting that it is absolutely clear that natural and spiritual senses need to be exercised in order to discern good from evil. But what would this mean, in practical terms, for you and I?
The ability to discern good from evil cannot be seen apart from the explicit command God gave to the first two people in the garden of Eden in Gen. 2:16-17: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” In Gen. 3:4-5 God’s command to the snake is interpreted, and he adds something God never mentioned in explicit terms: “Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”
It is immensely important that the implication of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil is that man gained spiritual abilities that God did not originally intend for them to have! That the snake was thus speaking the truth when he mentioned this to Eve (about the fact that their eyes would be opened and that they would not physically die), is undeniably true. Therefore, we read about what happened to them once they had eaten of the tree, in verse 7: “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”
In verse 22a God confirms that what the snake had said was true: “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.’”
The implication of this is that although man was made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26), man was still created without this characteristic marker of God, namely the ability to discern good from evil, and that God purposefully created him without it. The further implication is that the soul and spirit dimension of the originally created man had not yet been separated, but functioned as a unity, thus he was “a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). Strictly speaking this also means an eternal soul, which was possible at the time, but that, once they were disobedient, it became a soul that had to die – “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:4). [Granted – animals too were living souls (Gen. 1:30), but no living thing on earth was subjected to mortality then (Rom. 8:21).]
But what exactly does this ability that man was NOT created with entail, and what are the implications for man who did indeed receive this ability after the fall?
- Selah: Realise that it is absolutely imperative to discern good from evil.
- Read: 55-57
- Memorise: 55:10-11
