The Cure for a Problem That Doesn't Exist

 By Martijn van Tilborgh

A few days ago, someone with a negative attitude left a comment on one of my social media posts.

He said something like this:

“Religion gives you a problem that doesn’t exist and then sells you the cure for it.”

He wasn’t wrong!

In fact, it is the oldest trick in the book … The “very first book” in fact.

In Genesis 3, even before what we call “the fall,” we are introduced to the serpent. A creature described as “a master of deception”.

The serpent approaches Eve with a narrative that subtly but decisively contradicts what God had already declared to be true.

“Eat this fruit,” he tells her, “and you will be like God.”

Notice what is happening.

Eve is being told to do something in order to become something.

Pause there.

A problem is being introduced where none previously existed.

Eve is led to believe that she is not like God, but that she could be like God if she performs the right action.

Isn’t that exactly what my Facebook critic was pointing out?

The serpent suggests a lack that was never real.

The truth was the opposite.

Eve had always been like God.

She was created in God’s image, according to God’s likeness. Something God Himself had already called “very good.”

The deception was not that God was withholding something.

The deception was convincing humanity that it was missing something.

The serpent understood that if the human race could be persuaded that it was not like God, then a cure could be sold for a problem that did not exist.

“Eve, here is the solution. Eat the fruit so you can become like God.”

She is invited to strive for what she already possesses.

Let that sink in.

This is how religion works. You must do something in order to get something. And yes, even within the Christian tradition, this pattern has often gone unquestioned.

Humanity has carried this lie for centuries.

That we are not a reflection of the divine nature.

That we are fundamentally lacking.

So we hide in the bushes like Adam. We cover ourselves with leaves. We tell one another to perform, improve, and repent our way back into acceptance.

All the while, from God’s perspective, nothing has changed.

We were “very good” all along.

God still calls out, just as He did to Adam.

“Where are you?”

Not because He does not know.

But because we are hiding.

And the invitation remains the same.

“You are already like Us.

There is nothing you need to do to make that true. Do not be afraid. Come out of hiding.”

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the Lord. “Thoughts of peace and not of evil. To give you a future and a hope.”