Pride, Self, and Sin. “Has God Said…?”

God placed man in the garden of Eden, and directed him to cultivate and keep it. He also “commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:15-17).

Then, in chapter three of Genesis, we watch as trouble enters man’s life for the first time since he began his stewardship of the garden. The serpent tempted the woman to disobey God through the pride of her own reasoning. Through his sly and deceptive dialog, he tempted the woman to think for herself and trust her own reasoning, instead of trusting in God. Eve fell into the trap of choosing to measure God’s words against the serpent’s words.

As discussion with the serpent progressed, the poisonous seed of pride was implanted in Eve’s heart. It germinated and grew into the newly formed Self, which sat down on the throne to rule over her being. She measured God’s limiting and restrictive commands against the enticing and more favorable pronouncements of the serpent. She elevated her own assessment of the tree and its fruit above what God had said (Genesis 3:1-13). The seed of pride is that which feeds Self and fuels its demand for autonomy. It grows into every kind of sin and evil, and so it is the mainstay of Satan’s arsenal in his assault upon man. Satan is determined to destroy man’s posture of humility (that place of entire dependence on God) toward his Creator.

For Eve, or for us to suggest God’s word is inconclusive on any matter, is the height of arrogance and self-importance. The woman chose to consider “that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6). Here we see that the woman is reasoning between God’s view and Self-view, weighing both views as if they were equal in credibility, thus elevating and equating Self with God.

After pride convinced Eve to consider this additional information, she chose Self over God. She ate the fruit, then gave it to her husband, and he ate it. Eating the fruit was the sin of disobedience, but Self-elevation by pride gave birth to that sin and brought trouble and death to all of mankind. The development and awakening of Self within the heart of man was the serpent’s deceptive scheme to poison all of future mankind with pride and Self-rule. This was how he would separate mankind from his God. Now each man must face the daily testing of pride and “Self-rule”, which stirs up the same compulsions with which Eve struggled. James catalogs this struggle for man, saying:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren” (James 1:13–16).

Because of man’s fall from his humble relationship with God, Self remains enthroned in the heart of men, to rule the lives of men and to cause division and chaos in all relationships. No person can successfully remove Self from the throne of his life. Only through the redemption found in Jesus’ death on the cross, and Jesus living within him, can man be set free from enslavement to self and sin.