Wednesday, September 24, 2014

War In Your Heart # 65

Christ Our Pattern (continued)

The Mind In Jesus Christ (continued)

This necessity was created by the sin and fall of both lucifer and Adam. lucifer, a sinless, celestial being, through self-esteem, self-arrogation and self-exaltation claimed equality with God, as we have seen. Through self-will he rebelled against the sovereignty of God and led a revolt against the throne of God. Five times he said "I will" and each time it was to "ascend" - "above" - "exalt my throne" - "to be like the Most High" - to go up until he would reach equality with God in the expression of the rights and prerogatives which belong only to God. But such a seizure was "robbery," "a thing unlawfully seized," which constituted an act of treason against the throne of God, and which met with the swift and irrevocable judgment of God. "Thy pomp hath brought thee down: thou shalt be brought down to hell; to the sides of the pit." lucifer had said "I will" go up to the highest heights; God said, "Thou shalt go down to the deepest depths." Self-exaltation that leads to self-will is the pathway to hell. Self-will pitted against God's will necessitated hell. When lucifer said, "I will" he became a self-constituted candidate for hell.

Adam was a sinless human being created in the image of God plus the capacity for sonship. Between the Creator and the man created there was a very real relationship and fellowship. But between what God was in His uncreated, essential Deity and what Adam was in his created, finite humanity there was an absolutely impassable gulf. God and Adam were on totally different planes, which prohibited even a thought of equality. Yet this was precisely the temptation which satan presented to Adam and Eve in the garden. It was openly and blatantly stated in the words, "Ye shall be as God" (Genesis 3:5). It was satan's subtle, diabolical luring of God's first man and woman into the committal of the same sin against God which he had committed; through self-arrogation, self-exaltation, and self-will to renounce subjection to His will and to step out into complete independence of God. God had clearly stated that in the day they took any such step into disobedience "thou shalt surely die". The very moment they disobeyed they were separated from God and took their first step on the downward road that leads to hell.

lucifer and Adam in going up had gone down. Humanity had been dragged down in Adam into his sin, death, and hell. An alien will was in God's world, usurping and exercising dominion over it; robbing God of His undivided rulership over the earth and mankind. This revolt against the very throne of God could be met only be a revolutionary reversal: the Lord from heaven, God in His own right, must go down; down even to the very depths; yes, even down to the hell from which man must be delivered. God's way up is down. Calvary is the reverse of Eden. God's way up to the throne is down to the Cross.

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 66 - (The Infinite Stoop)

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