We don’t have to work for salvation. That work has already been done on the cross. Our work starts after that.

^22:17 Open your ears, and hear the words of wise people,
    and set your mind on the knowledge I give you.
¹⁸ It is pleasant if you keep them in mind
    so that they will be on the tip of your tongue,
¹⁹ so that your trust may be in Yahweh.
    Today I have made them known to you, especially to you.

There seems to me to be two kinds of holiness. One is the noble holiness of God, who is set apart from and above humanity in His greatness and goodness. The other is the practical holiness of us setting ourselves apart from that which the Lord has made out-of-bounds for us. Trusting that He has our best interests at heart is key to obeying Him. Satan got Eve to doubt God, that He was hiding something from her, and that He did NOT have her best interests at heart. Let’s look:

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Genesis 3:6

1. The fruit was appetizing; it appealed to her senses.
2. She wanted what Satan said that God was holding back from her: The knowledge of good and evil. The wording says that she desired wisdom, but in actuality only knowledge was mentioned.
3. The desire to be like God and thus making her own decisions was offered by Satan, but wound up being the deathtrap that God said that it would become.

God is a loving Father and He cares for His children. Sin destroys us, so He warns us to stay away from anything that is out-of-bounds (other people’s stuff), excessive (indulgent), for another time (when we’ve grown in maturity), or warped (twisted from its God-given use). Why does the idea of God limiting us chafe us so? We do it for our children all the time. When we boil it all down, what we have is children (humanity) not wanting to be thought of as children, like a young teen who wants to act all grown up. All of a sudden, Jesus’ insight makes great sense:

³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change (repent) and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3

The old hymn says,

“Trusting as the moments fly,
trusting as the days go by;
Trusting Him whate’er befall,
trusting Jesus, that is all.”

Tomorrow, we will look at Galatians 5 and how setting ourselves apart from worldliness will help us to be like God (godly) the right way. Sorry, Eve.

Abba, we are Your children and You love us. May we not think too highly of ourselves and come to You as little children, ready to trust You at Your Word. Amen.