In the Image of God: What motivated the Fall?

Before we can speak about why we were made in God’s image and likeness, we need to define in what way human beings are made in His image and likeness and whether or not the image still remains. This topic is discussed in the second article/video in this series entitled ‘Why are we made in God’s Image’, but not in terms of the image being lost due to original sin. The video can be found here.

Reformed theologians, who hold to Calvin’s views, consider that the Fall of Adam has all but obliterated the image of God in humanity as we have inherited original sin. In Calvin’s words:

And the Apostle most distinctly testifies, that "death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned," (Rom 5:12); that is, are involved in original sin, and polluted by its stain. Hence, even infants bringing their condemnation with them from their mother's womb, suffer not for another's, but for their own defect. For although they have not yet produced the fruits of their own unrighteousness, they have the seed implanted in them. Nay, their whole nature is, as it were, a seed-bed of sin, and therefore cannot but be odious and abominable to God.

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2. 8

Augustine’s doctrine of original sin is examined in detail in other articles/videos, but here I am simply pointing out why Calvinists do not consider the topic of being made in God’s image worth discussing. For Calvin, original sin (inherited sin/guilt) means that an unborn child’s ‘whole nature’ is a ‘seed-bed of sin’, and renders a child repulsive and an abomination to God. Is it any wonder that Calvin, holding this view, does not quote Jesus' words regarding children, for perhaps in his mind, the Lord would say, 'keep the little children away from me, for they are repulsive and an abomination', a total contradiction to Jesus’ attitude towards children in passages such as Mark 10:13-16. I consider Calvin’s view of God to be a gross form of defamation and utterly contradicted in Scripture.   

Genesis 9:5-6 and James 3:9 both contradict the Reformed view. The Genesis verses warn anyone who takes the life of a human being, and James, anyone who curses a human being. You cannot change your inherent nature anymore than change a cat to a dog. Yes, humans brought physical death upon themselves, and that mortality has been passed on and inherited, but we remain by nature, creatures made in God’s image.  

What is clear to me, is that those who hold to Augustine’s view of original sin end up having nothing worth saying about the image of God in humanity, and therefore, nothing to say about why we were made in God’s image. This foundation logically ends up with a doctrine of humans having to be pre-determined to heaven or hell before creation, of having no freedom to fulfill even the basic purpose of creation as expressed in Acts 17:27 to ‘seek God, perhaps reach out to Him and find Him’, and absolutely no answer as to why most are predetermined to hell. This ends up with salvation being a divine lottery, that which I call ‘sola lucktora: by luck alone’.

So what was lost at the Fall? Some, especially Reformed theologians, would superficially claim that fellowship with God was lost because the entire nature of man was now totally depraved.  Does Scripture support this view? Such people cite Genesis 5:3 that Adam had a son, Seth, after his own likeness, as proof that people were no longer made in God’s image and likeness. Consider the following passage where the Lord spoke to Cain, the firstborn of Adam and Eve after the Fall (Genesis 4:1). Both Cain and Abel brought an offering to the Lord. Abel’s offering was accepted, and Cain’s was not, presumably because Cain decided to bring an offering which was not designated. Genesis 4:5 tells us that Cain was very angry and his face was downcast. Then we read these words.

‘Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to master you, but you must rule over it.” 

(Genesis 4:5-7)

It is obvious that Cain did not do what is right, and it is strongly implied that he knew what was right and that he had a choice to be accepted or not. Furthermore, if fellowship with God was lost, how was this conversation even taking place? Also, notice the Lord tells Cain that ‘sin is crouching at your door, it seeks to master you but you must rule over it’. ‘Crouching at your door’ means waiting to be let in, not that your entire nature is now under the mastery of sin. The idea that Cain’s ‘whole nature was a seed-bed of sin, repulsive and an abomination to God’, to quote Calvin, is utterly contradicted here in the first generation of human beings.

Cain and Abel had a choice. Abel chose to obey; Cain chose to follow his autonomous nature and rebel. Cain chose to open the door, to let sin take mastery over him, and the result was he murdered his brother. 

The question we must answer is simply this: What motivated Adam and Eve to disobey God? Once we can answer this question, we will have a better understanding of what we mean by being created in God’s image and likeness. 

Let’s draw a picture of the scene in Eden.

Firstly, we are told that Adam and Eve ‘heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden and hid from Him’ after they sinned (Genesis 3:8). This is the first Christophany mentioned in Scripture, a physical manifestation of the pre-incarnate Logos, the one who is the ‘image of the invisible God’, the second person of the trinity before He became flesh and dwelt among us. What did He look like? Did He look like Jesus when the Lord was transfigured on Mount Hermon? Understand that in Eden His glory was in no way veiled in human flesh, therefore, Adam and Eve were seeing the Logos in all His glory, holiness and perfection, and this was the one in whose image they were created.

Surely, the greatest and most noble desire they could have would be to be like God the Son, and surely this is the goal of creation, for us to be ‘conformed to the image of Christ’ (Romans 8:29). We might also ask in what capacity they understood obedience, for they had no knowledge of good and evil. They certainly had an experiential knowledge of good, for everything around them was good, but no experiential knowledge of evil. 

Satan began his temptation with trying to sow a seed of doubt, asking ‘did God really say’, and Eve answered that they ‘must not eat from the tree in the center or they would die’. We may ask at this point what the word ‘die’ would mean to Eve? Had she ever witnessed death in any form? Had the Lord explained this word to them, had He explained the concept of mortality? We don’t know the answer to these questions, but we do know that Satan contradicted God emphatically stating ‘you will not certainly die’. 

But it is in the second statement of Satan in which we find the motivation for Eve’s being deceived, ‘for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’.

God is all knowing, God is perfect in every way, and God is autonomous, He answers only to Himself. Being made in His image and likeness, humans have an insatiable desire for knowledge, a desire for perfection, and a desire to be independent, to be autonomous. Adam and Eve were like infants. They had no training in patience or self-control, they had never experienced the consequences of disobedience, and like children, they had an insatiable desire for knowledge. Satan suggested that God was trying to withhold that knowledge and even trying to deny them the opportunity to ‘be like God’. Incidentally, this idea became the heart and foundation of Gnosticism, early Christianity’s most powerful threat.

Adam and Eve had seen the manifestation of perfection, the pre-incarnate Logos, and no desire could be higher or more correct than to be as He is. Their sin was not in wanting to be like God, but demanding that this happen in an instant and their way. Satan deceived them that if they disobeyed the Lord they would 'be like God, knowing good and evil'. Satan mixed truth with deception. Yes, they did become like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:22), but only after did they really understand the consequences.

Eve wanted it all, she wanted it now; she wanted infinity in a moment of time, she wanted the seed to be a tree in an instant. She wanted what God had; perfect knowledge, perfect power, perfect love, and the Fallen One deceived her into believing she had only to reach out her hand and take it, the fruit she saw was ‘good for gaining wisdom’. How could a finite creature, a creature bound to the earth, made from the dust of the ground, reach the perfection of God in a moment?  

Of course, Satan knew exactly how to tempt Eve. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 tell us that He said in his heart ‘I will raise my throne above the stars of God’ and ‘I will make myself like the most high’. He had already fallen to this same desire to be self-ruling.

Human beings are sentient creatures, we recognize ourselves as individuals, as individual selfs. This fact is evidenced in our having the opportunity to act independently, to make decisions. If the opportunity to act independent of God was not inherent in our human natures, then Adam and Eve would never have had the opportunity to disobey. Therefore, we can state that our ability to act independently of God is grounded in our being made in His image. For now, it is enough to understand that God is the supreme autonomous being, the one who answers only to Himself, and His autonomy is grounded in perfect holiness, love, and justice and He can never act against His character.

And here is the basic paradox of the human condition. We cannot become like God in acting autonomously, without declaring ourselves independent of our Creator. To try and make ourselves like God our way is the root of sin, it is to place self on the throne, and it is this very ‘self rule’ which must be crucified with Christ in order for us to begin to be conformed to the likeness of Christ, His way, rather than our way. This is why this topic is so important. If we do not understand the root of sin grounded in self-rule, we will not teach that this same self-rule must be surrendered to Christ as Lord, it must die so that we can be born again, born anew and begin the process of being made like Christ, His way.

What happened to Eve in the garden happens in every human home that has children.  Every parent can attest to their children's obsession with gaining knowledge and experiencing everything they see around them. We consider this to be a natural process, not a desire to sin, however, once we understand the concepts of obedience and disobedience, and choose to disobey, we become sinners. As children we live with two opposing desires; a desire to please our parents and be in an unbroken loving relationship with them, and an impatient desire to experience everything we see at the risk of being punished. 

When we are denied the opportunity to fulfill our insatiable desire for knowledge and experience, our autonomous nature kicks in and we rebel, for we have not learned patience and self-control. The more we develop a sense of self, the greater the desire to develop self becomes, and this inescapable drive becomes the habitual sin to which we become enslaved. 

No person, except Christ Himself, has been able to resist the desire to try and make ourselves like God.  Philippians 2:5-6 states, 

5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant...

The Greek ἁρπαγμὸν (harpagmon), translated ‘something to be grasped’ means to eagerly desire or plunder. From an early age Jesus knew His divine origins, He was ‘in very nature God’ and, therefore, He never tried to make Himself equal to God. 

This desire to make ourselves like God is the root of sin, not only for Eve, but for every human being. This desire is rooted in our being made in God’s image and likeness, and every human being has succumbed to its inherent power for ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’, a glory we were created to eventually experience, provided we submit to the process God’s way rather than our way.

There is a great deal more to say on this topic. We may ask why did God give us bodies of flesh which dominate our thoughts, desires and emotions? Was it His intention to show us that in our demand to try and make ourselves like Him, independent of Him, that our self-centeredness would manifest itself in every form of sin as we lord it over each other. Did He intend to show us that we cannot even control our flesh, let alone even begin to make ourselves like Him?

In the next video/article entitled ‘The Desire for Perfection’ we will explore this topic in more detail, especially our desire for perfection and autonomy. This not only helps us understand why all have sinned, but also, what drives those involved in Hinduism, Buddhism, Scientology and New Age religions.  

God bless