Sinfully Correct
“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5 NASB
Knowing good and evil – Read the text again. What does the serpent claim will happen? Sometimes we think that the serpent offers eternal life (“You will be like God”), but that isn’t the case. The translation fools us. The text actually says, “You will be like ʾĕlōhîm,” probably more usefully translated “gods.” Eating of the Tree will not make them God. There is no substitution of being involved. Eating of the Tree will provide them with a god-like quality: the ability to know good and evil.
So why is this such a bad thing? Don’t we all want to know the difference between good and evil? We make choices every day based on our ability to discern the difference. What else is happening here that makes this possibility so fraught with danger?
“Man’s first sin is thus an act of disobedience whose aim is to obtain a knowledge that will make man God-like. With this knowledge, man is able to make his own moral judgments and thereby become God-like because he no longer needs God’s commands.”[1]
“[Man] is determined to make his own judgment as to what is good or bad and thus become God-like. The inner meaning of sin is not simply an act of disobedience against God but an attempt to overthrow God by making man into a God-like creature.”[2]
Wyschogrod helps us see the reality of Adam’s choice—and the terrifying implications for us. “The opening of the eyes to which the text refers is thus the autonomous human ability to perceive something to be wrong.”[3] What is the result? It is our human ability to replace God with a moral system:
“Contemporary man insists on knowing why the good is good and evil, evil. And once such knowledge is obtained, or the illusion of such knowledge is obtained, the need for a commanding God disappears entirely. For if the commanding God forbids that which is anyhow inherently evil and commands that which is anyhow inherently good, then his forbidding and commanding lacks all authority, since the mere fact that God forbids or commands something cannot by itself make it either evil or good. This discovery, first made by Plato in the Euthyphro, substitutes an autonomous moral claim for a commanding God and eliminates the concept of sin from our moral dictionary.”[4]
Did you understand what Wyschogrod said? If we live according to a universal moral code of right and wrong, we don’t need God. In fact, we replace God with the code. We become the gods who decide what is good and what is evil. The serpent was right, not because we will live forever but because knowing good and evil makes God unnecessary.
Let me draw out just one more implication (or maybe two). If you grew up in a culture that expected you to live by a moral code, like the Church or middle America, then your decisions were not based on the commands of God but rather on the expectations of the moral culture even if those expectations were originally derived from God. You now determine what is good and what is evil based on your moral code. And when you do that, God is unnecessary. It is the codethat determines your behavior.
But sin isn’t a function of violating the code. Sin is breaking a relationship, not a rule. That’s because “Sin is a religious and not an ethical category.”[5] If you do something against the code, like lying, for example, you have not sinned. Why? Because “sin” only makes sense in the realm of a divine command. You might have made a mistake, but what you need is correction, not forgiveness, because there is no one to forgive you if you have only violated a universal expectation, a moral value. Sin isn’t about breaking the law.
And here’s the second terrifying implication: If you do the right thing according to your moral code, you have still sinned. Why? Because you did the right thing because of the moral code, not because of God’s relational command. Living a good, ethical life is sin. Obedience to God’s relational commands means obedience simply for the sake of God. Morality has nothing to do with it. In fact, morality by itself is sinful. “Thus to establish morality is necessarily to do wrong. . . God himself frees us from morality and places us in the only true ethical situation, that of personal choice, of responsibility, of the invention and imagination that we must exercise if we are to find the concrete form of obedience to our Father. Thus all morality is annulled.”[6]
So, keep the rules—and end up with Paul, “All have sinned.”
Topical Index: sin, moral code, good, evil, Genesis 3:5
[1]Michael Wyschogrod, Abraham’s Promise, ed. and trans. R. Kendall Soulen (Eerdmans, 2004), p. 56.
[2]Ibid., p. 56.
[3]Ibid., p. 57.
[4]Ibid., p. 55.
[5]Ibid., p. 57.
[6]Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity, p. 15.
Skip
I don’t know if there is some way for you to expound on this further but I would love for you to so either here or Virginia Beach when you are here. I don’t feel like I am fully grasping this in my head but my heart is getting something from it. This sent me into sobs as I read it. Maybe it’s that following Torah has seemed like such a heavy system of rules that I have found confusing and frustrating because of cultural differences since it was written. Growing up I was taught that a personal relationship with God is what matters. As I learned about Torah, obedience seemed to be the goal. I have felt the loss of my first love. Recently the desire has been so strong, in me, to find that lost love and this seems to confirm I should do so.
I am so tired and worn out from other’s rules and expectations! Trying to people please and seeking acceptance is draining but how do we let it all go? Maybe seeking first the kingdom which must somehow really mean a relationship with God.
Thanks for this!!!
Cheryl, this is not Skip ?
I hear your dilemna loud and clear! I did not have the time to respond to you before now.
I have known many, many believers with this very problem you are having. You are by no means alone!!!! My years of walking as a believer (44 and a half so far), began with a deep and boundless love for Yeshua because of how, when I turned to Him, being a young woman of 20 years, He had totally and irrevocably freed me from the torment which was choking my life. As a result He found a place in my heart for which I’ve never allowed any competition. I had been rescued; He deserved my total allegiance and trust. I loved Jesus, treasured the deep peace He had given me and began to learn to follow Him. I knew Him as Jesus and did not even know he was Jewish – that had no significance for me then.
About 2 years after beginning my walk, I found myself going through another troubling time and again He met me. Going through Scriptures, which were by then very familiar, I read Jesus’ description of His relationship with His Father and became jealous, yes jealous!! It was as if my eyes were opened and my aching heart ‘saw’ Jesus’ total security in His Father’s love. There were no if’s, no but’s…, only a rest, a certainty, a complete dependence and a child-like trust in His Father. Jesus had no personal agenda, He needed none. He lived only to hear His Father’s voice and do His Father’s will. He remained this way to the very end though it led to betrayal, crucifixion and death!
This revelation drove me to tears. I wept desperately and pleaded with Jesus to bring me to the Father so I could also know the same security in the Father’s love; I could also learn to live to hear my Father’s voice and do only my Father’s will. For me, I realized that though I had come to know Jesus, I still did not yet know the Father nor enjoyed intimacy of fellowship with Him. I wanted what Jesus had and asked Him to make good for me that very promise – to bring me/us to the Father that we could also be one with the Father as He Himself was one with His Father. He responded to my plea and in those early years of my walk Jesus’ Father became my Father and the One who gave His life for me became closer than a brother in my real life. I was made aware of His humanity and the Jesus who was already my Savior and Redeemer became my intimate Friend walking with me throughout my real life, leading me, teaching me, guiding me, transforming me. His Spirit in me censored the teachings of my human tutors; I learned to appreciate my teachers but followed only that which the Spirit of my Teacher approved. I kept my heart fully open only to Him. All others teachers were, like me, prone to deception. One Teacher alone had me sitting at His feet and I learned to listened for His Voice behind every voice. All this happened over time.
When the Torah world began to open up to me, my habit of submitting everything to the Spirit of Messiah remained intact – I did not allow Yeshua’s authority in my life to be supplanted or undermined by the teachings of the rabbis (ancient or modern). My walk with Him and His (our) Father had already secured the place of fidelity and highest honor in my heart, and so together we continued to censor all my human tutors. I particularly safeguarded the authority of Yeshua in my life throughout my 5-year sojourn in the Land of Israel. I came away with a deep and irrevocable regard and respect for the particularity of Israel, her people and nation. To this was joined a heightened sense of my need to be continually taught by Yeshua – allowing Him and His/my Father’s Spirit in me to ratify the truth of whatever I was now learning in the exciting Hebraic world. I soon realized how much spiritual discernment was necessary to prevent the intimacy I had with Yeshua and with my Father from being derailed in the tantalizing world of rabbinic-hebraic
intellectual discourse. That world, not unlike the Gentile Christian world, was also fraught with treacherous paths. Neither world could be safely traversed without walking hand in hand with my Father and my Brother while being led by the Spirit. I found Yeshua’s words in Matthew 7:13-14 to be even more poignant: ‘…broad is the way that leads to destruction… narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it’. Who else then, but Yeshua, would be able to keep me/us on that road?!
Why have I shared this Cheryl? I seem to be hearing the need for you to return to your first love. I would answer you with a resounding ‘Yes!’ It is about relationship. Walk with Yeshua in intimacy and allow Him to heal your life in whatever way it is broken (Isaiah 61:1-2a / Luke 4:14-19).
Make Yeshua your Primary Rabbi in leading you into Torah. The confusion will go, your joy will return and your life will begin to enter into it’s fullness. ?
I tried to keep the code without the Coder. It didn’t work! That was because I was having to use ‘little helpers’ such as Drivenness and Performance (performing for love) and Fear (panic every time I thought I messed up). I think those motivations made what I did, sin. Only love is correct motivation, and we can’t do that if we don’t have the Lover dwelling in (motivating) us. When I feel fear or shame or think I have to do something for God or others or even myself to love me, I have to stop. And wait. And pray while I wait. When the Holy Spirit thaws my heart and I can know God loves me and that I love Him (and others and myself, too) then I know what to do next. And it may look NOTHING like what I think the ‘rules’ are! This shocks and amazes me time and again. I now have begun to suspect that the rules are there – like prophecies are there – so that, like Skip says, we can know that it is of God AFTER the fact. I can always see later how the Spirit of the Law recreates it in ever new and amazing ways in each of us. All of it conforms, but in ways I could not have realized before. Love first. That doesn’t happen by myself. We pull together, that Spirit of the Law and I – the days that I actually get somewhere, that is. Halleluah!
Excellent word, Laurita! Helpful and clarifying. Thanks. I can say, “me too!”.
Yes, I agree that only love is correct motivation and that the law of the Spirit of Life recreates & sets me free.
I hope this TW answers your question the other day about Wyschogrod’s definition and opinion of sin. I didnt reply because I knew Skip would do a much more detailed comprehensive job than I could ever do. I read this book on my Kindle which makes it extremely difficult to research any particular subject.
Dan is reading my copy on his computer. He commented on some of the things I have highlighted. He is liking the book as you know. Wiil be interesting to hear from him when he is done. He once commented, “why would I read anything written by a Jew. I already know all that I need to know. Hmmm. He is changing his tune.
It does! It does! I was quoting this TW to a friend yesterday. I really do like seeing things from other angles, and this is a great angle. Thanks for having faith in Skip and myself, too. Do you have an online version? I failed to find one when I looked.
“Sin isn’t about breaking the law” (take that, you Romans and Greeks!): instead, sin is about what is motivating us, which is essential relationship at the most (interior) intimate level with spiritual forces from beyond us. We are either brides (joined as “one flesh” with our true Lover) or adulterers with unholy alliances (service, or joining of will to) other motivations posing as a god (power, or, elohim) in our lives. My latest conclusion! Timing. The Holy Spirit is doing what He does best, once again. I just love this.
Probably wont find it online Laurita. Dan has open access to my Amazon account and I have open access to his throat if necessary which it wont be. Trust me.
Excellent word. Perfectly fit for where I’m at right now. Doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons! Still trying to be God-like by performance. I think this is essential teaching and insights that are so necessary in the body of Christ.
A great eye opener about sin!
Sin is the darkness in the midst of the
knowledge of good and evil. It blinds mankind
into his own world of thinking and being.
But God isn’t sitting still. He’s pursuing us all . . .drawing
all men to Himself. He’s even using the creation to do so.
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities —
His eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen,
being understood from what has been made, so that men are
without excuse.” Rm 1:20
True, all men have sinned. But God is patient . . . “not wanting
anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2Pet 3:9
Just look around, God is saying. Open your eyes.
You can’t miss Me. I’m everywhere . . . even in the midst
of yourself!
Thank you for another thought-provoking post. This is going to mess with a number of our “sacred cows.” ?
I’ve wondered recently whether the serpent isn’t simply supposed to be the inner struggle, our animalistic tendencies or nature, which is more subtle than ANY animal in the field. It appears just when we least expect it. What is its desire? “Make your own decisions! It will free you and give you great wisdom, like a mighty one (God).” This is the flesh telling us what to do without us even giving it a second thought.
I’m not sure what the point of Ellul’s comment is, but it appears he is taking a swipe at Paul’s view of sin. I’m not sure whether I agree with him or not. But at least it is a good thing to reexamine Paul in light of Torah and not elevate his writings to the level of Scripture!
I’m not sure I can agree with your last statement, “But at least it is a good thing to re-examine Paul in light of Torah and not elevate his writings to the level of Scripture!”
For me, Paul brings a unique perspective. He transcends the apostles who were directly chosen by Yeshua. He was a persecutor of their supporters and then he had a unique “experience” of Yeshua from one extreme understanding to another. I don’t think we can blow off ANYTHING he has to say as not being comparable to the “scriptures” that were written later (and edited) by mere mortals. IMHO.
p.s. I will miss your commentary. I have always enjoyed it.
I don’t think it’s that we want to know the difference between good & evil but what IS good & what is evil in its intrinsic nature. I feel with revelation from the Spirit, we can know this. Dietrich Bonhoeffer looked evil in the eye and was able to say ‘Ours is a time of evil which is so evil that it can do good without prejudice to its own inequity – it is no longer threatened by goodness”. That would make me run to the other goodness that Jesus said, “No one is good but One, that is, God”.
Thank you for reminding us that sin is not about breaking the law but about disobedience to a divine command in our relationship to YHWH.
Where God could know the difference between good and evil and not do the evil. man after knowing good and evil
could not help but to do the evil.
I confess that I have eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and sometimes still snack upon it, but to no avail. I am not satied by its fruit nor any wiser from any of its offerings. I have grown fat and sluggish from these nearly 68 years of constant consumption of this luscious, tempting, low hanging fruit. I still don’t know good from evil or evil from good. Like Paul, I cry out, “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”…”O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” I suspect I still need to learn to apply his spiritual nutritional solution: “I thank God through ‘Yeshua HaMashiach’ our Lord….”. Better to break bread with the Master, than to eat fruit from the garden or even fresh manna in the wilderness. And supremely better than eating dust with the serpent.
Of all the TW’s I’ve read over the years, hands down, this one is the most pertinent to the believing community. If we could only get our hearts wrapped around this principle, it would be the beginning of our effectiveness in the Kingdom. Micah 6:8
This post is excellent! It’s got me wondering, is another aspect of our determination of what is good or bad, the removal of Gods provision and a displacement of ourselves in His plan for us? In order to determine what is bad or good, we have to compare our experiences with potential theoretical experiences (the future) or actualized past experiences. If the rules dictate that ‘sinning’ or breaking a rule will lead me to an unpleasant experience sometime in the future, that may be enough to dissuade my behavior and therefore label it bad. The potential of a bad experience. If I base my judgements on what is good or bad upon what might happen, I remove myself from the present or ‘what is.’ In this realm, we remove God from the equation and set ourselves upon the throne. I am now in charge of my destiny.
“It is reasonable to regard the world, as a forum for action, as a ‘place’…” It seems to me that the Torah is all about what is, not what will be. The future is not a ‘place’ you can get to and certainly not an actionable one. And yet by taking on the role of determining what is good or bad, instead of leaving it to God, all of our ‘action’ in the present is directed to a future that doesn’t exist and that we can never possess. Conversely, a life submitted to God is lived in the present in an actionable ‘place.’ (What is versus what I think will be.)
I must think about this some more, this post has been very timely. Thank you.