The story of the Fall of our race as it comes to us in Genesis is marked by the ironic promise made by the serpent to Eve: "When you eat of [the fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God" (Gen. 3:5). Just as the devil would later tempt Christ, the Second Adam, with a distorted view of his divine sonship ("If you are the Son of God," Mt 4:3), so he beguiles Eve with a distorted account of God's purpose ("If you eat, you will be like God"). There is a certain truth lodged in the serpent's words. It was indeed the purpose of God that the human race become like God. This is what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God. In this respect the devil's seduction was especially effective. He dressed up the path to disobedience with a promise that represented God's true purpose for our race. But instead of attaining to likeness to God through obedience and fear of the Lord as we were intended to do, we set out on our own path to "become like God," imitating the disobedience of the devil, and reaping the fruit of death instead of partaking of the tree of life.--Daniel Keating, Deification and Grace, (Naples, FL: Sapientia Press, 2007), pg. 108.
, to be sons in the Son. Excerpts:
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