NOTES for Gen 3:1-24
"If you are what you think you are, prove it. If you are your own master, become like God." Here is the refined simplicity of temptation: do what is proper for you to do according to your position. The loss is not in what we try to do. We lose when we agree that we really are what the devil calls us. When we begin to prove that we are intelligent, kind, generous, great, almighty, independent, or anything else. He demands proof, and we rush to provide it. It always ends the same way: it is impossible to win by providing proof to a liar. What does Jesus do? What does He teach us as He overcomes temptation? He exposes the liar and deceiver not by doing what, of course, He can do. He does not enter into the argument, showing us that He needs no proof at all. He knows us and never offers us a burden we cannot bear. He asks of us love and mercy, and He does not need proof that we can love and show mercy.