Who does God say you are today? That’s not just theology, I’m meaning, your identity. We all have to live from that place.
In the garden, that perfect place, disobedience introduced words that were never meant to exist. Actions that should never have been taken were carried out.
They covered themselves in shame. They hid from the presence of God. Fear gripped their hearts for the first time.
And then came the reckoning.
“And God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.” (Genesis 3 v 11-20)
God’s questions pierce through the silence: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
What follows is humanity’s first blame-shifting. Adam points to the woman and subtly, to God himself: “The woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit.” Eve points to the serpent: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Look at the new vocabulary sin has introduced to creation:
Deception – “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Cursed – “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!”
War, crushing, striking – “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Pain – “To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
Thorns and thistles – “It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.”
Death – “ By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
These words tell the story of what went wrong. They define the moment. They could have defined the woman forever. But they didn’t.
Hidden in verse 20 is a profound act of defiance against failure’s labels: “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.”
Think about that. In the middle of a passage saturated with curse, death, and pain, Adam gives his wife a name that means LIFE.
It’s important to know who you are.
Of all these many words that could have been used which fit the situation perfectly, this failed woman takes a name from Adam, Eve. Its meaning is this, LIFE.
Names were synonymous with the nature of that person and was often used prophetically even without awareness of the events to be unfolded. For example, Abel means ‘breath’ or ‘vapour’, fitting for his shortened life.
This is who I am. Even though I’ve failed, sinned and been disobedient. I am LIFE.
Like Joshua the high priest standing before God in Zechariahs prophecy with Satan at his right side to accuse him, the enemy of your soul has positioned demonic angels close enough for you to hear the accusation. The aim is to get you to believe the accusation.
Now what shall I call this woman? Deceiver? Cursed? Death? No! Eve is LIFE.
What will you call yourself after you’ve failed?
The accusations are loud: Failure. Disappointment. Beyond repair. Used up. Disqualified.
What is your identity? You will act according to who you believe you are. If you work at who you are you will live like that. Who are you? Not what have you done?
If anyone is in Christ; he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.
God says I’m a new creation.
This new self, fashioned after Jesus Christ, looks nothing like your failures:
- You are someone who loves people deeply
- You carry God’s anointing
- You go the extra mile
- You walk in patience
- You are free from fear
- You pursue purity
- You demonstrate gentleness
- You operate in wisdom
That’s who you are. Not what you’ve done but who you are.
If you accept the label of your failure, you’ll live in its shadow.
Eve could have lived the rest of her days known as “the woman who ruined everything.” Instead, she became “the mother of all the living.”
You have the same choice.
Missions Paul 