¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! ¹⁶ Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

Law as a motivation is not sufficient for righteous behavior. It didn’t keep Adam from sinning in the Garden, and it will not keep us from sinning today. Yet religion, which is so popular among humanity, has a constant pull toward self-realization rather than God-realization. It is not enough that God has warned, “In the day you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen 2:17). We want to find out for ourselves. It wasn’t just the command, but what the eating from the tree would mean. Was God not using fear to enforce compliance? That might seem possible, except there was nothing intrinsic about the tree that would have caused Adam harm, as if it bore poisonous fruit. It was all “good.” No, the forbidden fruit represented a test to see if Adam would accept his position before God, receiving revelation and being subordinate to His Creator.

If Ezekiel’s and Isaiah’s taunts against the kings of Tyre and Babylon reflect the fall of Satan, then we see the tempter in the Garden was trying to drag the image-bearers down with himself:

“You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God … You were blameless in your ways, from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you … and I have destroyed you, O covering cherub from the midst of the stones of fire … your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor…” (Ezek 28:14-17)

“How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning [or Lucifer, NKJV], You have been cut down to earth … But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God … I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol. (Is 14:12-15)

That same tempter’s offering to Adam and Eve followed suit: “… your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Gen 3:5). Already fashioned in God’s image, they wanted it on their terms—they wanted more, to be Godlike, but independent of the Creator God Himself. What they were graciously given as image-bearers, they wanted by acclaim, and thus became slaves to sin.

O Lord, help me not revert back to the sin of pride and self-actualization, but to grow in the knowledge of my gracious Justifier, the Lord Jesus Christ.