nd sets man free. Indeed, being free from God is equal to being oppressed by Satan, but being free in God is the necessary freedom that saves and sustains.

A baby boy is born when he is very naked to the eyes of his mother and father. He is nursed in all ways and he always cries and begs for food, love, protection and other needs from his parents. He does everything shamelessly in the eyes of his parents. But when the boy grows to his adolescence, he begins getting ashamed doing many things in the presence of the parents. He begins to demand for privacy of practices, rooms, ideas and even belongings. At that age the boy begins to demand for freedom to decide and run the affairs of his life on his own. This freedom demands separation and it comes with enlightenment. This boy did not the need for privacy when he was young and helpless. He did not even know he was naked.

Humanly speaking, a son has the potentiality of growing until he is able to live on his own without direct control of his father and mother. He can be able to provide for his own family and become a father of equal ranking with his father. This equality necessitates separation. This is why even God said that a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and become one flesh.

However, our relationship with God does not necessitate separation. We cannot grow up to be equal with God. God created us to be with no potentiality of becoming equally omnipotent as he is. He purposed for

Much has been written about the fall of man, but little has been expressed concerning the exact nature of that fall. This is simply because most Bible commentators comment nothing on this crucial verse that reads, “Man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:22).”

This verse is an embodiment of God’s words and it carries the whole truth about the fall of man. Many staunch Christians avoid mentioning it mainly because it is unpalatable to say that man became like God when he sinned. It may be better to say that man became like God when he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But why was man forbidden to eat of that tree which would make him become like God? What was wrong with man becoming like God in the knowledge of good and evil?

To answer the above questions, we have to understand what God meant by the following two seemingly contrasting statements. First, God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness (Genesis 1;26),” and secondly, the Lord said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil…”

The creation story clearly shows that man both male and female, was created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). Postulating on this premise, systematic theologians have observed that man in himself has both a natural and a moral image of God. The natural image of God in man is often rendered as personality. Personality in this sense is inclusive of the powers that are inherent in man and without which man cannot be man. These powers are spirituality, knowledge, and immortality. This natural image of God in man cannot be lost but it can be corrupted, darkened, defiled and this happened at the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. The moral image of God is called holiness and man lost it at the fall.

At the occasion of the fall, man lost holiness that is the moral image of God in man, but immediately, he gained some likeness of God in the knowledge of good and evil. This kind of likeness is what God did not want man to have.

Hermeneutical rules state that scripture interprets scripture. Therefore it is helpful for us now to sit at the feet of the Apostle Paul and hear him tell the Roman Church that, “Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil.”

From the above verse, the Apostle Paul had a three-fold message for the church in Rome. First, he applauded them for their evident obedience. Secondly, he challenged them to be wise about what is good and thirdly, he counseled them to be innocent about what is evil.

We can hereby rest assured that God allowed man to know good only and not both good and evil. The kind of good that man was permitted to know and even to do was that which God determined and approved for man to do. The things, activities, and thoughts that God permits or commands men to do are considered as good and those that God forbids people to do are considered as evil.

Therefore, the kind of evil which man was supposed to avoid was that which God determined and forbade him to do. This requires people to be obedient to God, because God determines what people should do and what they should not do. God knows what is best for people.

However, when man (male and female) sinned, he began determining on his own what was good and what was evil. He began to decide on his own, without God’s guidance, what he wanted to do and what he did not want to do. As an obvious consequence, it became impossible for man to obey God and at the same time do what he saw fit on his own.

Knowing good and evil cannot match at all with obedience because whoever determines what is good and evil does not need to submit to any external authority. Man became like God in the knowledge of good and evil by usurping a likeness of God’s freedom of being free to decide on his own what he wants to do. But why was the knowledge of good and evil reserved for God alone?

The knowledge of both good and evil is good for God alone because one who is wise in knowing good and evil must be self sufficient in deciding and living his life the way he wants. God needs no external cognitive support on how to run his affairs. He doesn’t need anybody or anything to sustain his life. He exists without external help. He is absolutely independent.

For Adam and Eve, knowing good and evil like God, connotes independence, which is under the motivation of pride. Pride in this context means to want to be more than one is in reality(Isaac Zokoue1990).

Deceived by the serpent, Adam and Eve resorted to yield to the pride of attempting to be equally wise as God. Being equally wise as God here means assuming the tendency to independently decide on what to do and how to live. The Creator’s original intention was for man to be dependent upon God’s wisdom forever.

Hitherto, we have established that the knowledge of good and evil is only fit for the person who can survive in absolute independence and doesn’t need to obey any authority because he is an authority in himself. This person doesn’t need any counsel because he is all knowing and doesn’t owe anybody anything because everything belongs to him. This person is none but God.

God needs neither source nor sustainer and obeys no commands. He can do anything that he wants without external help and without suffering failure. Our creator is essentially free from outside control and his life cannot be threatened or destroyed by any enemy.

Satan cheated man to opt for this dangerous freedom. It is dangerous because when man is left alone without God to control and sustain his life then he will surely die. The apostle Paul substantiated this fact when he wrote that, “For in him (God) we live and move and have our being.”

Jesus Christ came to this world purposely to reveal to us the truth about the necessary freedom. This is the truth that saves and sets man free. Indeed, being free from God is equal to being oppressed by Satan, but being free in God is the necessary freedom that saves and sustains.

A baby boy is born when he is very naked to the eyes of his mother and father. He is nursed in all ways and he always cries and begs for food, love, protection and other needs from his parents. He does everything shamelessly in the eyes of his parents. But when the boy grows to his adolescence, he begins getting ashamed doing many things in the presence of the parents. He begins to demand for privacy of practices, rooms, ideas and even belongings. At that age the boy begins to demand for freedom to decide and run the affairs of his life on his own. This freedom demands separation and it comes with enlightenment. This boy did not the need for privacy when he was young and helpless. He did not even know he was naked.

Humanly speaking, a son has the potentiality of growing until he is able to live on his own without direct control of his father and mother. He can be able to provide for his own family and become a father of equal ranking with his father. This equality necessitates separation. This is why even God said that a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and become one flesh.

However, our relationship with God does not necessitate separation. We cannot grow up to be equal with God. God created us to be with no potentiality of becoming equally omnipotent as he is. He purposed for u

out which man cannot be man. These powers are spirituality, knowledge, and immortality. This natural image of God in man cannot be lost but it can be corrupted, darkened, defiled and this happened at the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. The moral image of God is called holiness and man lost it at the fall.

At the occasion of the fall, man lost holiness that is the moral image of God in man, but immediately, he gained some likeness of God in the knowledge of good and evil. This kind of likeness is what God did not want man to have.

Hermeneutical rules state that scripture interprets scripture. Therefore it is helpful for us now to sit at the feet of the Apostle Paul and hear him tell the Roman Church that, “Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil.”

From the above verse, the Apostle Paul had a three-fold message for the church in Rome. First, he applauded them for their evident obedience. Secondly, he challenged them to be wise about what is good and thirdly, he counseled them to be innocent about what is evil.

We can hereby rest assured that God allowed man to know good only and not both good and evil. The kind of good that man was permitted to know and even to do was that which God determined and approved for man to do. The things, activities, and thoughts that God permits or commands men to do are considered as good and those that God forbids people to do are considered as evil.

Therefore, the kind of evil which man was supposed to avoid was that which God determined and forbade him to do. This requires people to be obedient to God, because God determines what people should do and what they should not do. God knows what is best for people.

However, when man (male and female) sinned, he began determining on his own what was good and what was evil. He began to decide on his own, without God’s guidance, what he wanted to do and what he did not want to do. As an obvious consequence, it became impossible for man to obey God and at the same time do what he saw fit on his own.

Knowing good and evil cannot match at all with obedience because whoever determines what is good and evil does not need to submit to any external authority. Man became like God in the knowledge of good and evil by usurping a likeness of God’s freedom of being free to decide on his own what he wants to do. But why was the knowledge of good and evil reserved for God alone?

The knowledge of both good and evil is good for God alone because one who is wise in knowing good and evil must be self sufficient in deciding and living his life the way he wants. God needs no external cognitive support on how to run his affairs. He doesn’t need anybody or anything to sustain his life. He exists without external help. He is absolutely independent.

For Adam and Eve, knowing good and evil like God, connotes independence, which is under the motivation of pride. Pride in this context means to want to be more than one is in reality(Isaac Zokoue1990).

Deceived by the serpent, Adam and Eve resorted to yield to the pride of attempting to be equally wise as God. Being equally wise as God here means assuming the tendency to independently decide on what to do and how to live. The Creator’s original intention was for man to be dependent upon God’s wisdom forever.

Hitherto, we have established that the knowledge of good and evil is only fit for the person who can survive in absolute independence and doesn’t need to obey any authority because he is an authority in himself. This person doesn’t need any counsel because he is all knowing and doesn’t owe anybody anything because everything belongs to him. This person is none but God.

God needs neither source nor sustainer and obeys no commands. He can do anything that he wants without external help and without suffering failure. Our creator is essentially free from outside control and his life cannot be threatened or destroyed by any enemy.

Satan cheated man to opt for this dangerous freedom. It is dangerous because when man is left alone without God to control and sustain his life then he will surely die. The apostle Paul substantiated this fact when he wrote that, “For in him (God) we live and move and have our being.”

Jesus Christ came to this world purposely to reveal to us the truth about the necessary freedom. This is the truth that saves and sets man free. Indeed, being free from God is equal to being oppressed by Satan, but being free in God is the necessary freedom that saves and sustains.

A baby boy is born when he is very naked to the eyes of his mother and father. He is nursed in all ways and he always cries and begs for food, love, protection and other needs from his parents. He does everything shamelessly in the eyes of his parents. But when the boy grows to his adolescence, he begins getting ashamed doing many things in the presence of the parents. He begins to demand for privacy of practices, rooms, ideas and even belongings. At that age the boy begins to demand for freedom to decide and run the affairs of his life on his own. This freedom demands separation and it comes with enlightenment. This boy did not the need for privacy when he was young and helpless. He did not even know he was naked.

Humanly speaking, a son has the potentiality of growing until he is able to live on his own without direct control of his father and mother. He can be able to provide for his own family and become a father of equal ranking with his father. This equality necessitates separation. This is why even God said that a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and become one flesh.

However, our relationship with God does not necessitate separation. We cannot grow up to be equal with God. God created us to be with no potentiality of becoming equally omnipotent as he is. He purposed for

ple to do are considered as evil.

Therefore, the kind of evil which man was supposed to avoid was that which God determined and forbade him to do. This requires people to be obedient to God, because God determines what people should do and what they should not do. God knows what is best for people.

However, when man (male and female) sinned, he began determining on his own what was good and what was evil. He began to decide on his own, without God’s guidance, what he wanted to do and what he did not want to do. As an obvious consequence, it became impossible for man to obey God and at the same time do what he saw fit on his own.

Knowing good and evil cannot match at all with obedience because whoever determines what is good and evil does not need to submit to any external authority. Man became like God in the knowledge of good and evil by usurping a likeness of God’s freedom of being free to decide on his own what he wants to do. But why was the knowledge of good and evil reserved for God alone?

The knowledge of both good and evil is good for God alone because one who is wise in knowing good and evil must be self sufficient in deciding and living his life the way he wants. God needs no external cognitive support on how to run his affairs. He doesn’t need anybody or anything to sustain his life. He exists without external help. He is absolutely independent.

For Adam and Eve, knowing good and evil like God, connotes independence, which is under the motivation of pride. Pride in this context means to want to be more than one is in reality(Isaac Zokoue1990).

Deceived by the serpent, Adam and Eve resorted to yield to the pride of attempting to be equally wise as God. Being equally wise as God here means assuming the tendency to independently decide on what to do and how to live. The Creator’s original intention was for man to be dependent upon God’s wisdom forever.

Hitherto, we have established that the knowledge of good and evil is only fit for the person who can survive in absolute independence and doesn’t need to obey any authority because he is an authority in himself. This person doesn’t need any counsel because he is all knowing and doesn’t owe anybody anything because everything belongs to him. This person is none but God.

God needs neither source nor sustainer and obeys no commands. He can do anything that he wants without external help and without suffering failure. Our creator is essentially free from outside control and his life cannot be threatened or destroyed by any enemy.

Satan cheated man to opt for this dangerous freedom. It is dangerous because when man is left alone without God to control and sustain his life then he will surely die. The apostle Paul substantiated this fact when he wrote that, “For in him (God) we live and move and have our being.”

Jesus Christ came to this world purposely to reveal to us the truth about the necessary freedom. This is the truth that saves and sets man free. Indeed, being free from God is equal to being oppressed by Satan, but being free in God is the necessary freedom that saves and sustains.

A baby boy is born when he is very naked to the eyes of his mother and father. He is nursed in all ways and he always cries and begs for food, love, protection and other needs from his parents. He does everything shamelessly in the eyes of his parents. But when the boy grows to his adolescence, he begins getting ashamed doing many things in the presence of the parents. He begins to demand for privacy of practices, rooms, ideas and even belongings. At that age the boy begins to demand for freedom to decide and run the affairs of his life on his own. This freedom demands separation and it comes with enlightenment. This boy did not the need for privacy when he was young and helpless. He did not even know he was naked.

Humanly speaking, a son has the potentiality of growing until he is able to live on his own without direct control of his father and mother. He can be able to provide for his own family and become a father of equal ranking with his father. This equality necessitates separation. This is why even God said that a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and become one flesh.

However, our relationship with God does not necessitate separation. We cannot grow up to be equal with God. God created us to be with no potentiality of becoming equally omnipotent as he is. He purposed for

the motivation of pride. Pride in this context means to want to be more than one is in reality(Isaac Zokoue1990).

Deceived by the serpent, Adam and Eve resorted to yield to the pride of attempting to be equally wise as God. Being equally wise as God here means assuming the tendency to independently decide on what to do and how to live. The Creator’s original intention was for man to be dependent upon God’s wisdom forever.

Hitherto, we have established that the knowledge of good and evil is only fit for the person who can survive in absolute independence and doesn’t need to obey any authority because he is an authority in himself. This person doesn’t need any counsel because he is all knowing and doesn’t owe anybody anything because everything belongs to him. This person is none but God.

God needs neither source nor sustainer and obeys no commands. He can do anything that he wants without external help and without suffering failure. Our creator is essentially free from outside control and his life cannot be threatened or destroyed by any enemy.

Satan cheated man to opt for this dangerous freedom. It is dangerous because when man is left alone without God to control and sustain his life then he will surely die. The apostle Paul substantiated this fact when he wrote that, “For in him (God) we live and move and have our being.”

Jesus Christ came to this world purposely to reveal to us the truth about the necessary freedom. This is the truth that saves and sets man free. Indeed, being free from God is equal to being oppressed by Satan, but being free in God is the necessary freedom that saves and sustains.

A baby boy is born when he is very naked to the eyes of his mother and father. He is nursed in all ways and he always cries and begs for food, love, protection and other needs from his parents. He does everything shamelessly in the eyes of his parents. But when the boy grows to his adolescence, he begins getting ashamed doing many things in the presence of the parents. He begins to demand for privacy of practices, rooms, ideas and even belongings. At that age the boy begins to demand for freedom to decide and run the affairs of his life on his own. This freedom demands separation and it comes with enlightenment. This boy did not the need for privacy when he was young and helpless. He did not even know he was naked.

Humanly speaking, a son has the potentiality of growing until he is able to live on his own without direct control of his father and mother. He can be able to provide for his own family and become a father of equal ranking with his father. This equality necessitates separation. This is why even God said that a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and become one flesh.

However, our relationship with God does not necessitate separation. We cannot grow up to be equal with God. God created us to be with no potentiality of becoming equally omnipotent as he is. He purposed for

nd sets man free. Indeed, being free from God is equal to being oppressed by Satan, but being free in God is the necessary freedom that saves and sustains.

A baby boy is born when he is very naked to the eyes of his mother and father. He is nursed in all ways and he always cries and begs for food, love, protection and other needs from his parents. He does everything shamelessly in the eyes of his parents. But when the boy grows to his adolescence, he begins getting ashamed doing many things in the presence of the parents. He begins to demand for privacy of practices, rooms, ideas and even belongings. At that age the boy begins to demand for freedom to decide and run the affairs of his life on his own. This freedom demands separation and it comes with enlightenment. This boy did not the need for privacy when he was young and helpless. He did not even know he was naked.

Humanly speaking, a son has the potentiality of growing until he is able to live on his own without direct control of his father and mother. He can be able to provide for his own family and become a father of equal ranking with his father. This equality necessitates separation. This is why even God said that a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and become one flesh.

However, our relationship with God does not necessitate separation. We cannot grow up to be equal with God. God created us to be with no potentiality of becoming equally omnipotent as he is. He purposed for us to depend upon him forever. The moment we separate ourselves from God then we shall surely die.

While it can be possible for our earthly fathers to grow weaker and less wise than their sons and daughters, it is not possible for human beings to be equal with God in power and knowledge and anything else. Therefore when Adam and Eve decided to eat of that tree that separated them from God, they were foolishly behaving like a one-year old son who is separated from his parents and stays with wild game. He will surely die because everything around him is dangerous. He has neither knowledge nor power to counter his environment. He is neither able to fend for himself nor to sustain his life.