Rejecting My Name

The cunning serpent sidled up to Eve as she stood beside the forbidden tree. He was beautiful, and the sound of his voice was smooth and alluring. Quietly he hissed, ‘Did God really mean it when He said, “do not eat of this tree”’? Her reply seemed clear enough, but in giving an ear to the question at all, Eve had started the downward slide. She said, ‘God has said that if we eat of it we will die’. Now the serpent had her in a dialogue, and he went for the kill! ‘You will not die, but instead, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’

Upon receiving this word, Eve had fallen. After that she ate the fruit. Her sin was not firstly in disobeying God’s instructions, but in rejecting the definition or ‘name’ God had given her. She wanted to be like God on her own terms. God had named Adam and Eve in a specific mode of relationship with Himself – one of love and trust. They were created in the image of God, and were to live within, fill out, and be obedient to the parameters of that ‘named’ identity.

The serpent had seduced them with the temptation to be like God, knowing good and evil. The lie was that they would not have to trust God, but could elevate themselves to stand alongside Him, living by their own assessments and judgments. They exchanged God’s naming of them for their own name and definition. What a travesty! They had blotted their true name from the book, and God had to slay a lamb to restore it.

We want to ‘name’ ourselves

Ever since Adam’s fall, men and women have sought to name themselves. Of course, just like Adam and Eve, we want to be good rather than bad. No one likes to consider himself a bad person. (Even thieves have their own code of honour.) But this is exactly the point. God does not want us to be ‘good’, He wants us to be His sons and daughters. True goodness will flow from those who are His children.

Thankfully, the fall of Adam and Eve was not the end of the story. God the Father had already named His Son to be the Saviour of the world. He was ‘called’ to be God’s high priest who would reconcile us back to God by the sacrifice of Himself. Now when we come to God in humility and repentance, desiring to be His sons and daughters, then He places the seed of His own life within us, restoring us to our original name and calling.

True freedom

Having been named uniquely by God, we then have both the responsibility and freedom to live out who we really are. Responsibility and freedom go together. In Adam’s original creation, he was free to be who he was named to be. Nothing else. To be anything else was to be in bondage, and he soon proved this when fear and shame flooded over him.

In Christ, we have been given the freedom to fully express our name. Paul said, ‘for freedom Christ has set us free’. Gal 5:1. It is imperative that we use this freedom to fully express our name through the life we live. This is our accountability. As we receive and believe what He says about us, He gives us capacity to fulfill that destiny.

‘As many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become sons of God.’ John 1:12.