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graciousheaven · 6 months ago

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The schemes of the devil and the sin of man

Who is the devil

The devil – also known as Satan, the serpent, the evil one, the accuser, the tempter, the deceiver, the father of lies, the ruler of the world, the prince of the power of the air, the destroyer – is portrayed by the Bible as the instigator of two major rebellions against the Creator God: the angelic rebellion and the human rebellion. These two events plunged the created universe, and more specifically the earth and everything in it, into a profound misery. Two defining characteristics of Satan, namely his hatred toward God and his craving for power, enable us to understand why he raised himself against God and His creation from the beginning. When the Lord created the angels, He assigned to each of them their own position of authority. But Satan wanted to overthrow God and take His place on the throne, ruling over the “stars of God”, that is, God’s angelic ministers. Satan “said in [his] heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High’” (Isaiah 14:13-14). Thus in his desire to be like God, Satan incited one third of the angels to rebel against God, and as a result, they were thrown down to the earth.

Satan is known for his schemes, his lies and deceptions, and hostility toward God. He is anti-God and against the things of God. Satan is the incarnation of evil, the chief of demons, the ruler of the world system of evil. He was once one of the ministering angels of the LORD God. But moved by pride, the once holy Lucifer, “the Day Star, son of Dawn”, fell into perverseness because he did not stay within his own position of authority, and he was thrown down to the earth, and with him his angels. His hatred toward God has never ceased to grow, nor his determination to destroy God’s creation. And the main target of this demonic being has always been those made in the image of God, that is, human beings. Once he was cast to the earth he incited men in the same way he lured one third of the angels, and they too rebelled against God. He lured human beings to rebellion by causing them to question the goodness of God.

The devil in the Garden of Eden

When God made men, He gave them the authority to rule “over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). They lived under God’s rules and authority, and enjoyed His blessings. But Satan came along and incited them to defy God’s authority and break God’s rules. Satan allured Eve in the Garden by stressing on God's prohibition and not His provision, asking, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the Garden?’ (Genesis 3:1). Satan’s question insinuated Eve's misunderstanding of God's will and incited her to question God’s goodness. However, the first part of Eve’s answer, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden” (v.2), not only reveals God’s will for her and her husband, His abundant provision for their sustenance, but also expresses something they had been doing from day one: they enjoyed God’s provision every day. God had given them the liberty to enjoy the fruit of all the trees in the garden, with only one exception. The LORD God had commanded them, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).

The LORD God forbade Adam and his wife to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Not that the tree carried within its fruit the seed of destruction – for all God’s creation was good – but rather it was placed in the garden by God so that man could prove his obedience and love for God by not eating its fruit. Man's disobedience to God's command – which is sin – was thus to be punished by death, as God warned the man in Genesis 2:17. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Adam and Eve were both submissive to God’s command until the deceiver showed up and said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5).

In this statement, Satan denied the truthfulness of God's threat and deliberately misconstrued God's motives by insinuating that God's prohibition was designed to do the woman and her husband harm rather than good, to withhold something good from them rather than preserve them from something bad. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (v.6-7).

Thus the evil one led the human race into rebellion against God and they fell into depravity and were subjected to death. And it is without a doubt that the devil wants to keep man in bondage to corruption and forever separated from God. He has not given up on his plan to incite man to rebel against God, but continues to spread lies to pit man against God; for he is a liar and a murderer – “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies”, declares the Lord in John 8:44. In the Garden of Eden the devil lied to Eve that she would not die after eating the forbidden fruit, but would be like God. Eve believed his lie, ate of the fruit and gave some to Adam, and the curse befell them and their posterity, that is, the entire human race. Thus sin entered the world and death through sin.

The devil in the world

The strategy of the devil has not changed. He continues even today to induce people to rebel against God. Because of his hatred toward God, Satan wants to destroy God’s creation, and most specifically those made in God’s image, that is, human beings. He “has come down to [earth] in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short” (Revelation 12:12).

The tragedy that befell men after the fall has caused serious damage to their relationship with God: they are at enmity with God - as it is written, “No one seeks for God” (Romans 3:11b). All men by nature oppose God’s will, defy His authority, and despise His sovereignty. They are haters of God. This is exactly the degrading state that Satan intended men to fall into when, in the garden of Eden, he seduced Eve, and she and Adam disobeyed God’s command. Because of the alteration of their faculties, men no longer delight in the things of God, but love what the devil loves, and their will is to do his desires, i.e., the desires of Satan. Hence, unredeemed men are rightly identified by God in His Word as children of the devil (cf. John 8:44). For like him, they are by nature haters of God, proud and boastful, liars and murderers – as it is written, “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:18).

Men in their natural state are driven by sinful passions such as: “sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19-21). By nature they set their hope and conviction on things that are transient, to satisfy their lusts and passions; they reject the things of God, which are eternal and more precious than gold and silver; they love foolishness and reject wisdom – “Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace” (Proverbs 3:16-17); they turn their feet to the path of destruction and raise themselves against the knowledge of God. Instead of worshiping the Living God, they worship the gods of their making, though they are profitable for nothing (cf. Isaiah 44:9-10). For they desire a god who approves of their sinful desires and works to satisfy their cravings.

As a footnote, it should be noted that there are only two objects of worship in the world: God and Satan. Every worship that is not directed to the Living God is directed to Satan. Which is to say, when people worship all kinds of false gods, they are actually worshipping the devil. Every person who does not worship the LORD is a worshiper of Satan; some people might call themselves atheists, but in reality they are held captive by Satan. There is no such thing as atheist, for there is no neutrality; for everyone who is not for God is against God, and everyone who is against God is for the devil. For there are only two kingdoms: the kingdom of light (God’s Kingdom) and the kingdom of darkness (Satan’s kingdom). Whoever does not belong to the kingdom of light is of the darkness. Hence, whoever denies God is certainly not a free man; for he is held captive by Satan, he is a slave to the evil one, the king of darkness. Such a man is ruled and controlled by Satan; he lives under his dominion and remains in the bonds of corruption, and death entangles him.

What led Satan to rebel against God was his craving for worship, his desire to ascend “above the stars of God” and control them. The same desire animated him when he was thrown down to the earth, and he set in his heart to deceive man in order to turn man’s devotion from God to himself. The devil has such a fiery craving for worship that when the Son of God was baptized and let into the wilderness by the Spirit of God, “the devil took [the Son of God] to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to [the Son of God], “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:8-9). 1 Peter 5:8 warns us that the devil always “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” For he knows that every time a man defects to his lies and deceptions, it is he, the devil, and not God, who gets the glory, he is the one who is worshiped, not God.

Whenever a person sins, Satan rejoices because he loves evil and hates God. And whoever offers the members of his body to sin as instruments for unrighteousness does not fulfill the purposes of God, but serves the will of Satan. He constantly tempts men to rebel against God. And he who runs after the pleasures of sin then becomes his slave. It should be noted that Satan can only rule over a heart when it is under the grip of sin. As a malevolent being, he constantly usurps God’s prerogative. Whenever he tempts someone to defect from God’s rules and authority, he wants to divert honour from God to himself. Because he has always desired to receive what belongs to God alone, he is always tempting people.

Revelation 4:11 reads, “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created.” It is against this reality that Satan raised himself from the beginning. He has always desired to be the head of everything; he has always coveted God’s glory and honor. He rejected God’s authority by leaving his own position of authority because he wanted God’s creatures to worship him, a creature, rather than the Creator God. While dismissing Satan, after being tempted by him in the wilderness, the Son of God reminded Satan that God alone must be worshipped. He said to Satan, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve’” (Matthew 4:10). Yet Satan is still inflamed with the desire to usurp God’s prerogative, and he perpetually longs to destroy God’s image-bearers.

Satan's activity on earth has turned the realm of mankind into a realm of darkness and subjected its inhabitants to the fear of death. As the king of darkness, he rules over the evil world system that opposes God and His authority. Satan stands in opposition to God’s purpose for mankind. According to God’s sovereign decree, man’s chief purpose is to glorify God and rejoice in Him alone. Yet the evil one desires that God be for man neither his object of worship nor his object of joy, but that there be enmity between God and man. For in this manner he can continue to have dominion over man and usurp God’s prerogative – and man’s moral corruption always serves as a springboard for Satan's devilish enterprise. He seizes the opportunity to carry out his destructive work. To put it plainly, Satan seduces the sons of men by offering them exactly what their corrupt hearts desire. In their longing to gratify the flesh, people open the door of their hearts to the devil and, being the master of deception, he puts thoughts and desires in them; he fills their imagination with wild pleasures and the delusion that their sinful activities will benefit them (cf. Genesis 3:4-5). But never does he disclose the thorns and snares that line the way to the fleeting pleasures of sin and the unavailing wealth it promises. Through lies and deceptions, Satan ignites people’s irrational impulses and they succumb to temptation (cf. Genesis 3:6).

Satan’s temptation and human guilt

It must be noted however that Satan can have such influence on man only because of the natural disposition of man’s own heart. For by nature, man is rebellious: he desires to do the things that God forbids him and not to do what God commands him to do. Hence his natural inclination to sin becomes an open door for Satan, who incites him to proceed with his heart’s desire by flaunting before his eyes the glory of worldly wealth and the pleasures of sin, though fading and deadly. As we read from James 1:14-15, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Therefore we are without excuse whenever we disobey the commandments of the Lord, even when we are being tempted by Satan. For we willfully choose to reject God’s rules and defy His authority because of our unbelief and lack of trust in God – an attitude that is rooted in pride; we choose the things of the flesh over God and the things of God because we do not treasure God in our hearts, although He ought to be to object of our worship and the object of our joy. Therefore, Satan’s activity does not excuse our sinful deeds and disobedience to God. We are guilty of sin whenever our action does not bring glory to God, even when we act under the influence of Satan. For in our longing to gratify our own desires rather than glorify God, we deliberately reject the Word of God to obey Satan’s lie; we pursue the pleasures of sin, being deceived by our own heart, which is animated by lusts, thereby bringing upon ourselves curse instead of blessing (cf. Genesis 3:16-19).

It should be noted, however, that Satan is not free from guilt when he tempts us and we fall into sin. Yet his temptation does not nullify our own guilt. And it should be noted also that we make ourselves easy prey for him whenever we give provision for the flesh. It is therefore crucial to overcome the flesh if we are to resist Satan's schemes. For the flesh and the devil are faithful partners in the destruction of souls.

Deliverance from Satan’s dominion

Until the flesh is subdued, man can never be set free from the dominion of Satan. And since by nature man is of the flesh, the fight against the flesh cannot therefore be initiated by man. The initiative must come from outside of him, the battle against the flesh must be initiated and fought by an opposite power. For the flesh cannot fight against itself. The heart of man is by nature inclined toward the deeds of the flesh. Therefore he has neither the will nor the ability to initiate the battle against the flesh, nor can he win such a battle by means of the flesh. As the Lord Jesus says in John 3:6a, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” This statement from our Lord points out the sin-prone condition of man and his natural ability to achieve only that which is consistent with his inherently sinful nature. And in John 6:63 the Lord says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” The Spirit and the Word of God work together: the Spirit brings us from death to life through the instrumentality of the Word, He opens our hearts to the love and understanding of the Word, and the Word teaches us the way of God, which is the way of life.

By His declaration in John 6:63, Christ establishes on the one hand the contrast between the power of the Spirit to give life and the ineffectiveness of the flesh in this matter, thus implicitly highlighting the contrast between the work of the Spirit ( life) and that of the flesh (death). On the other hand, the Lord declares that the Word of God is the fountainhead of life, thereby refuting the effectiveness of all man-made supposed ways to life – human ideologies and traditions and man-made religions do not produce life but lead to destruction (cf. Jeremiah 2:13).

The Spirit of God is pictured in the Bible as the One who wages war against the flesh and its desires. Galatians 5:17 highlights the opposition that exists between the Spirit of God and the flesh. Paul writes in Romans 8:13, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Those who live according to the flesh abide in death. As Romans 8:6 says, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” A heart that is ruled by the Spirit of God rather than the flesh cannot fall under the dominion of Satan, nor can death have any claim on him. But a heart that raises itself against God cannot escape Satan’s influence and the grip of death, since it remains under the bonds of corruption. And the evilness of man’s heart is the fountainhead from which Satan’s blinding influence draws its sustenance, and death is the inevitable outcome of a soul ruled by Satan.

Satan’s blinding influence can be avoided only through an initial conquering of the flesh. But it is not within ourselves that we can find the ability to overcome the flesh. We must turn to Him who alone has the power to overcome the flesh and to defeat Satan. God alone can set us free from the bonds of corruption and the dominion of Satan. He graciously grants deliverance to anyone who turns to Him in humble submission and recognizes the corrupt nature of his own heart, his inability to overcome the evilness of the flesh, and his utter dependence on God for restoration. Proverbs 3:5-8 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.”

Only a humble submission to the Living God can break the power of sin, the flesh, and Satan over a person’s life and set them free from eternal ruin. For one who submits to God finds shelter under His wings and receives protection from these dangerous enemies (cf. Ephesians 6:11-18). James 4:7 commands us, “Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Anyone who humbles himself before God is graciously delivered by God from Satan’s dominion and from the sting of death on the basis of the work and person of Jesus Christ the Son of God. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8b). Christ died to set us free from sin – which entered the world because of Satan (cf. Genesis 3:1-7); Christ died to deliver us from the dominion of Satan, and from the wrath of God Almighty stirred up by our sins.

Satan led the sons of men into depravity with his lies and deceptions, and because of our sins we have been separated from God and subjected to the wrath of God. But in the fullness of His grace, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to redeem us. The Son of God came into the world not only to conquer the evilness of our hearts and set us free from the dominion of Satan, but also to restore peace between God and us. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).

Deliverance is found in Christ alone, deliverance from sin, Satan’s power, judgment and the wrath of God. I urge you today to submit yourself to God, put your trust in His Son Jesus Christ, that He may overcome sin in your heart and deliver you from Satan’s dominion, from the grip of death and from the coming judgment and wrath. Psalms 7:11-13 reminds us that “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will whet His sword; He has bent and readied His bow; He has prepared for him His deadly weapons, making His arrows fiery shafts.” Therefore do not delay! Turn to Him now in humble repentance and faith, that your soul may be set free and preserved. 1 Peter 5:5 reads, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

#sin and punishment #schemes #avoid temptation #graciousheaven

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graciousheaven · 6 months ago

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The Tragedy of the Fall of Man

1) Before the fall

When God made Adam and Eve, they were holy, just as the Lord is holy. They lived in the presence of God, enjoying His blessings, and were pleased to live, to the glory of the Lord, under His authority and according to the rules established by Him. They had no hostility toward God in their hearts, no conceit, but love, reverence and submission. They gloried in the LORD God and obeyed Him. Therefore they experienced no adversity but prosperity, happiness and health, and fulfilled their responsibility as God's stewards with great joy, ease and satisfaction. There was no disunity between God and them but unity. They enjoyed a life of peace, joy, love and abundant blessings in the glorious presence of God the Eternal; they had fellowship with God and enjoyed the rest of God’s creation as well.

Moreover, the relationship between the man and the woman was peaceful, free of conflict and opposition. There was harmony, mutual respect, intimacy, and trust between the man and the woman – “the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). Lastly, the relationship between men and the rest of creation was good, and they perfectly fulfilled their role as God’s stewards, ruling “over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28) as God Himself would. Man was God’s faithful deputy regent on earth, for he ruled over the earth to the glory of the Lord and gloried in Him; he ruled with uprightness and perfectly cared for God’s creation. Therefore God’s favor rested upon him, for he was holy in all his conduct. But this blissful life in the glorious presence of the Most High was swiftly forfeited by man, when he deferred to Satan’s lies and rejected God’s rules and authority.

#graciousheaven #the word of life #the fall of man

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graciousheaven · 7 months ago

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#vocation #graciousheaven #spiritual podcast #Spotify

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graciousheaven · 7 months ago

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#life purpose #graciousheaven #glorify god #spiritual podcast #christian podcast #Spotify

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graciousheaven · 7 months ago

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#the fall of man #separation #tragedy #be reconciled to god #graciousheaven

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graciousheaven · 7 months ago

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The Tragedy of the Fall of Man

When the LORD God made men, He put them in the garden that He Himself planted to supply them with food for their sustenance. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam and his wife kept this commandment that the LORD God gave them to preserve them from death, they joyfully lived under God’s rules and authority and enjoyed God’s blessings and His presence until the day the serpent came to the woman and incited her to doubt the goodness of God. “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1-5).

Thus the serpent deceived the woman and she ate the forbidden fruit and gave some to her husband. The man and his wife thus defied the Lord’s authority and violated His commandment. Their desire to be like God was an act of treason against Him as it defected from the chief purpose of mankind, which is to glorify God and rejoice in Him. Their deference to the serpent’s lie was an affront to God’s goodness, for the Lord had commanded them not to eat “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” to protect them from death; but the serpent gave them a distorted meaning of God’s prohibition, thereby calling into question the goodness of God.

God’s goodness guarantees blessing, comfort and blessedness; but the serpent caused the man and his wife to doubt this reality and incited them to believe that God's prohibition was designed to do them harm rather than good, to withhold something good from them rather than preserve them from something bad. The serpent said, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” He distorted the meaning of God’s prohibition in order to tarnish the beauty of the Lord. This led to man having a distorted view of God, a misunderstanding of God, which created in his heart the desire to live independently of God, outside of God's rules and authority; for the God of love was now seen by man as an oppressor. Hence his desire gave birth to sin, and as a result, peace was lost and death entered the realm of man. He severed himself from God and His blessings.

The effect of the fall of man is apparent in the degradation of men’s relationships with God, with one another, and with the rest of creation. For every faculty of their being has been utterly altered: their minds have become depraved and dull, their volition perverted, their hearts hardened, their eyes blinded, their ears stopped and their tongues inflamed – “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes”(Romans 3:10-18).

Such, then, has been the state of men since sin entered the world, and every aspect of their lives since then has been seriously stricken; for in their desire to exalt themselves rather than God, men defiled themselves and incurred divine curse. Therefore they can no longer enjoy God’s blessings and love, but suffer the effects of the curse: “To the woman [God] said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam [God] said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:16-19).

Thus man traded a life of blessedness and comfort for a life of pains, miseries, drudgeries and sorrows; he lost his moral purity and fell into depravity, giving up life and offering himself, body and soul, to death. Man was originally created to live forever in the presence of God: neither his body nor his soul was to see death. But once man became tainted by sin, he died spiritually, that is, his soul died to the things of God. Man’s rebellion against God led to his depravity. “Every intent of the thoughts of his heart [is] only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). He has become an enemy of his own soul, for all his deeds are evil and his wage is death. He hates God and the things of God. The mind of man is no longer set on the things of God but on the things of the flesh, “which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19-21). And as it is written, “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are of the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8).

Man by himself can no longer walk uprightly, for his heart has a propensity to do evil. And not only has man become dead to the things of God, but also “to dust [he] shall return” because of his sin. Which means he will also experience physical death. In addition, if a man returns to dust while still spiritually dead, he will also experience the second death, also called the eternal death, which is eternity in hell. For although the body perishes, the soul lives forever, and once the coming bodily resurrection is wrought by the Lord, each person’s soul will be reunited to their body and they will live forever, either in heaven or in hell.

In his rebellion against God, man traded his freedom in the garden of Paradise – where life abounds – for slavery to sin, Satan and the system of evil in a cursed realm – where death prevails; he turned from God and His authority to Satan and his lies; he traded God’s blessings for curses, and fellowship with God for friendship with the devil. Because he became spiritually dead, man no longer desires nor is he able to submit to God’s rules and authority. Hostility, pride and wickedness now rule in his heart, and God has become his enemy. He can no longer enjoy the presence of his Maker but constantly hides from Him. Adam and his wife never hid from God until they committed the first act of treason against God, and “they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8); they had never failed to revere the LORD God, but when their first act of rebellion occurred, instead of taking full responsibility for their wrongdoing, the man and his wife declined it and ultimately put the blame on God. For when the LORD God asked Adam, “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (v.11-13).

When God made Adam and put him in the garden, “the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18). “So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man He made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (v.21-23).

So, before the fall, Adam delighted in his companion and was grateful to God for the woman He had created to be with him. Because he was unstained by sin, his judgment was not clouded and there was no conceit in his heart. He had a proper view of God and himself, and he loved the things of God. But when he fell into sin, his view of God and himself was completely altered. Therefore, his first reaction was to hide from God. And when he was confronted by the Lord about his sin, instead of confessing it, Adam blamed the woman, ultimately accusing God for giving him a companion. The man said to the Lord, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate” (v.12). As if to say, if You, God, had not given me this woman, I would not have done evil. But the truth is this: Adam was fully culpable, because he freely and willfully chose to defy God’s authority; he acted in violation of the commandment of the Lord without being coerced or deceived. As written in 1 Timothy 2:14, “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” Moreover, Adam failed in his role as head of the woman, a role which endowed him with the responsibility to lead, protect and care for his companion. If Adam had properly held his position as head of the woman, he could have protected his wife from the temptation of the serpent. He was with his wife when the serpent enticed her and she ate the forbidden fruit and gave some to him and he ate without any resistance.

The woman, on the other hand, not only disregarded God’s commandment, but also did not respect the leadership position of her husband; for when the serpent started talking to her, she did not judge it necessary to retreat so that her husband could lead the conversation, but chose to pursue the dialogue with the serpent. And the serpent seduced and deceived her with empty words. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6). And when she was confronted by the Lord about her sin, “The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (v.13). Like Adam, she declined her responsibility by putting the blame on the serpent, ultimately accusing the Lord – He who created the serpent. It is true that the serpent was guilty, but Eve was nonetheless responsible for her action, because she willfully defied God’s authority and disregarded His rules.

The fall turned men into enemies of God and fugitives. They now have a distorted view of God and themselves due to their moral corruption. When men were morally pure, they enjoyed the presence of God, but they now hide themselves from the face of God, because He is holy and they are not. For no man tainted by sin can stand the glorious presence of the holy God. Because of their utter depravity, men were cast away from the presence of God. For “nothing unclean [can] ever [dwell in the presence of the Lord], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false” (Revelation 21:27). Men have plunged themselves into a darkness from which they cannot save themselves. They have a propensity to do evil, are blind and helpless, dead to the things of God. Therefore, they will not and cannot turn to God, but conceal their wrongdoings and pride themselves on their destruction. After Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, “they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8).

Adam’s sin nature has been inherited by the entire human race. Therefore, like their forefathers before them, all the sons of men are by nature dead in their trespasses and sins, unable and unwilling to turn to God. They are characterized by conceit and do not admit their guilt nor confess to God their wrongdoings unless they are supernaturally made alive by God.

The effect of the fall on men’s relationship with God is tragic. In addition, the rupture between God and men, which resulted from human rebellion, has a ripple effect on men’s relationships with one another. There is no longer intimacy, trust and admiration, but secrecy, distrust and shame – as seen in the garden. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (Genesis 3:6-7). Moreover, there is now enmity, hate, slander, gossip, rivalry, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, wars, constant frictions, and the like, among the sons of men.

Furthermore, the fall has tremendously affected men's relationships with other creatures on earth. Before the fall, animals, birds and sea creatures were not food for human beings, but “every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit” (Genesis 1:29). “And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, [the Lord gave] every green plant for food” (v.30). But after the fall and the flood that swept away the ancient world population, except for eight people, the Lord said to Noah and his sons, from whom the whole earth was populated after the flood, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything” (Genesis 9:3).

At first man posed no danger to other creatures on earth and they posed no danger to man. But the relationship between the two groups has changed since the Lord gave man permission to eat animals. As sovereignly decreed by the Lord, “The fear of [man] and the dread of [man is] upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. [For] into [his] hand they are delivered” (v.2). While many animal species are now endangered due to human activities, on the other hand, men are physically attacked or killed, their crops are destroyed and their homes invaded by animals. This starkly contrasts not only with how men ruled over the earth before the fall and cared for everything in it, but also with how they cohabited with animals on earth before the tragedy.

Men’s living conditions in general have also taken a serious hit as a result of sin. In the garden, men suffered neither cold nor heat, nor disease or pestilence, nor famine, nor natural disaster. But all these affections and adversities have become as common in our realm as the air we breathe since sin entered the world. People die of hunger, from virus attacks and all sorts of diseases. There are devastating windstorms, rainstorms, snowstorms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, droughts, floods and all kinds of natural disasters that constantly hit the earth and cause many casualties or affect our living conditions in one way or another. As a result of all these plight, there is always sorrow, depression, mourning, weeping and groaning. As written by Paul in Romans 8:22-23, “the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves.”

The fall also plunged mankind into very difficult working conditions. When the Lord made man, “the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates” (Genesis 2:8-14). Apart from these four rivers that flowed in the garden, “a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground” (v.6). Which means, the garden of Eden was well watered throughout the year and extremely fruitful. And the Lord gave this beautiful garden to man to work it and keep it, a task that the man performed with great satisfaction in the days of his purity. For his working conditions were very pleasurable, extremely comfortable, exceptionally propitious, exceedingly enjoyable, and stress-free.

Sadly, because of his disobedience, the garden of Paradise was lost to man. When he ate the forbidden fruit, “The LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:23-24). Thus the lushness and blessedness that man experienced in the garden ended with his expulsion from the garden. He is now exposed to scarcity, vain pursuit and drudgeries. There is no more ease, joy and satisfaction at work. Man must work hard because of the curse of the ground – “in pain [he] eats of it all the days of [his] life; thorns and thistles it [brings] forth for [him]; and [he] eats the plants of the field. By the sweat of [his] face [he] eats bread, till [he] returns to the ground, for out of it [he was] taken; for [he is] dust, and to dust [he] shall return” (Genesis 3:17-19).

The tragedy of the fall has a universal impact: all the sons of men, throughout all generations, have suffered its harsh consequences. No man has ever lived on earth who has not suffered the tragic effect of the fall in one way or another. Because the sinful nature of Adam has been inherited by all men, all are subjected to the curse that befell him, for all fall short of the glory of God. As it is written, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The implication is that no one is innocent. So lest we be mistaken about our own corrupt condition, we must not conclude that the miseries and troubles in our lives are all the result of the one sin of Adam. Romans 3:23 reads, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Isaiah 53:6a, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way.” We are all by nature puffed up with pride, haters of God and disobedient. Which is to say, we are just like our first parents, Adam and Eve. For every time we sin, we declare ourselves, and not God, worthy of honour.

So none of us is better than our first parents. Just like them, we do not comply with God’s standard. Rather, we decide what is good and what is evil according to the sinful inclination of our fallen hearts. By nature, we do not seek to honour God but to satisfy our sinful passions and lusts; the motives of our hearts do not pursue the glory of God but our own interests. We need to remind ourselves that any thought or word or action done to exalt oneself rather than God is sin. And the truth is this: in our natural state, none of our thoughts, actions and words is done for the glory of God, for our motives are evil. There is a lack of congruence between our ways and the ways of God. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). And the lack of the necessary congruence between a man's ways and those of God can only lead to his estrangement from God. In other words, man's utter depravity creates a huge chasm between him and the thrice holy God.

Our fallenness has estranged us from God and deprived us of His blessings. We now live in a sin-cursed world, with broken relationships, away from our God, away from the glory of His might, subjected to His wrath because of our rebellion. But that is not the end of the story. The fall of man did not take God by surprise, for nothing takes Him by surprise – “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose”, declares the Lord in Isaiah 46:9-10. The fall of man happened according to God’s sovereign decree and providence. Satan meant it for evil, but God meant it for good: to display His glorious grace to the created universe. Therefore, in His pronouncement against the serpent, God promised to deliver the sons of men, saying to the serpent in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

God foretold the defeat of the serpent by the Seed of the woman. And the serpent Crusher is God’s own Son, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the only righteous person who has ever walked upon this planet. He did not inherit the sin nature of Adam because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. Thus He was fully God and fully man. He was sent by His Father some two thousand years ago to set us free from the curse of the fall. Jesus, the God-Man, came into this world “to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8); God the Son left His throne on high, taking on flesh, to deliver us from our sins. “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).

Human depravity has created a huge chasm between God and the sons of men and subjected the creation to futility. Cursed is the world we live in, and separated from the Creator God are the sons of men because of sin. As Isaiah 59:2 declares, “[Our] iniquities have made a separation between [us] and [our] God, and [our] sins have hidden His face from [us] so that He does not hear.” Thus the rupture of our relationship with God is all due to sin. Sin has hidden the light of the face of God from us, plunging the entire human race into darkness. But thanks be to the LORD our God! For in eternity past, He had purposed to restore His presence to the midst of His people, He had predetermined our deliverance from the darkness, in order that we might be restored to the light. And when the fullness of time had come, God sent into the world His Son Jesus Christ, the True Light, the Light of the world, to enlighten all those overcome by darkness. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3).

Whoever beholds the face of Christ the Son of God beholds the face of God (John 14:9). He is “The light [that] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). Christ is the foundation for the new relationship between God and mankind, the Mediator who brings us peace. In Him alone there is reconciliation and healing. It pleased God, according to the riches of His grace, to grant forgiveness, on the basis of the person and work of His Son, to everyone who forsakes his sins and turns to God in humble repentance. By the blood of His Son, God ransoms us from the curse and cleanses us from all our impurities. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

The Son of God came into the world and willingly delivered Himself up as a propitiation for our sins, in order to give us life in the Spirit and restore our relationship with God. On the basis of His person and work, repentant sinners receive by grace the free gift of righteousness through faith in Him and are sealed by the Holy Spirit into the family of God, being made alive by Him. They thus become a new creation in Christ Jesus, free from sin and its penalty, free from the wrath to come. They will not see the second death, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.

Having been subjected to futility as a result of human rebellion, the creation itself will be liberated from the bondage of corruption. Yes, the day is coming when this cursed world will be destroyed by fire, and with it all those who continue in their sins and reject the Son of God. “Like a robe [the Lord] will roll up [the heaven and the earth that now exist], like a garment they will be changed” (Hebrews 1:12a). The system of evil which lies in the power of the evil one will also be destroyed. 1 John 2:17 says, “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” On the great day of the Lord Almighty, He will unleash His righteous wrath upon the ungodly, that is, those who have loved their sins and rejected His grace. And after He has rid the earth of all the ungodly, He, who made heaven and earth and all that is in them and who subjected the creation to futility because of human rebellion, will make all things new; for thus says the Lord God in Revelation 21:5, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

Surely, the Lord will restore all things. On that day, a new earth and a new heaven will come down out of heaven from God; “the dwelling place of God [will be] with [His saints, that is, those who have purified themselves with the blood of His Son]. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things [will] have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4). The Edenic blessedness lost as a result of the fall will be restored and God’s people will enjoy Him and His blessings forever in the new Jerusalem. “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:3-5). V.8, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death”; they will be thrown “into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:42).

No one can reverse God's curse or cancel its effects on the sons of men. As Job 12:14 puts it, “If [God] tears down, none can rebuild; if He shuts a man in, none can open.” From the womb we are held captive by death because of sin. But we cannot deliver ourselves from this bondage. As Psalms 49:7-9 points out, “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.” No human exertion, no amount of good work can save a person from the guilt and penalty of his sins, for it is against an infinitely holy God that they have sinned. And every sin deserves an everlasting punishment in the hell of fire. Therefore, in order to escape the pit, sinners must rely solely on the grace of the One they have offended. For He alone can open the prison door of death where He has cast them and restore them to freedom.

It was God who cursed man because of his disobedience; hence God alone can remove the curse and its effect. We can only be saved from the wrath of God by God Himself. Our deliverance from the sting of death is achieved by the work of God alone, and no one can be delivered without an atonement for his sins being made. Therefore, “By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3b), in order that we might be graciously justified through faith in His Son, on the basis of His substitutionary death on the cross. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God, the Holy One, God the Eternal, He “without [Whom] was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3), came into this world in the flesh: truly God and truly man. As the God-Man, Christ lived the perfect life that we can never live and was nailed to the cross as a substitute for all those who would believe in Him. He lived under the law of God like the rest of mankind; but unlike them, He perfectly kept all the requirements of God’s law and bore the sins of many upon His sinless flesh. “For our sake [God] made [Him] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). All those who turn away from their sins and put their trust in Jesus Christ the Son of God, are freed from the curse of sin; for Christ’s righteousness is graciously imputed to them and God treats them as righteous. As it is written, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).

If the weight of your sins still clings to you, I urge you today to lay your burden at the foot of the cross of Christ in exchange for eternal peace with God, lest you be consumed by the wrath to come because of your iniquities. Repent of your sins, for the time is near, the time of the end, the day of the great wrath of God the Almighty. I plead with you to turn to Christ now and trust in Him alone for the salvation of your soul. He alone can free you from the tragic effect of your iniquities. Come to Him without delay and He will make you heir of His Kingdom, a citizen of heaven. Christ will take you to the great city of God’s people, the new Jerusalem, away from every corruption, away from the curse of the sin, if you repent of your sins and put your trust in Him alone.

Christ alone restores that which is broken, makes the filthy clean, the profane holy, the corruptible incorruptible, the defiled pure, the reprobate a child of the Most High and the accursed a citizen of the Jerusalem of God. Come to Christ, and He will restore your soul. He who is mighty to save, rich in mercy and grace and who does not let the guilty go unpunished is calling you, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Run to Him now and do not delay. For today is the day of salvation, and the great day of the wrath of the Almighty is near.

#the fall of man #tragedy #original sin #graciousheaven

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graciousheaven · 8 months ago

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Man’s original vocation: a reflection

In biblical Christianity, the word vocation, which comes from the Latin word meaning “call”, refers in the original language to a holy calling of a creature by the Creator God, enjoining the creature to accomplish a specific task or to fulfill a definite responsibility.

From the beginning, God assigned to each of His creatures a specific vocation based on the realm of their existence, to the praise of His glory. For instance, all God’s angels are “His ministers, who do His will” (Psalms 103:21); they guard the presence of the Lord and minister to His people, i.e., the saints. “Day and night [the seraphim who stand around the throne of the Most High] never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come” (Revelation 4:8), proclaiming His distinctness and greatness. “The heavenly host bows down to [the Lord]” (Nehemiah 9:6). Inanimate objects, such as the mountains, the valleys and the seas, each perform a specific task as to the will of the Creator God; the animals, the birds of the air, sea creatures and all that moves on the earth, the grass of the field, the trees of the forest, the wind, the waves of the sea, every grain of sand, every speck of dust, every microscopic organism, every molecule, the stars, the moon, the sun and the expanse of the heavens, each have a definite vocation assigned by God at creation.

Nothing exists in the universe that has no mission. In the beginning, God made the light and caused it to shine in the darkness, and He “separated the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:3). He made the expanse and summoned it to “separate the waters from the waters” (v.6). As for the stars, the sun and the moon, the Lord God said, “let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness” (v.14-18).

As for man, he is the crowning jewel of God’s creation, a volitional being equipped with a mind and a heart, to whom the Lord God gave the earth as his dwelling place. Moreover, he was chosen by God to reflect His holiness on earth, to act as God’s deputy regent on earth, caring for the rest of God’s creation as God Himself would. Man was designated by God to rule the earth, to fill it and to keep it. This was his original vocation. Of all His creatures, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). As God’s image bearer, man is a being capable of embodying the communicable attributes of God. In the moral sense, before the fall, man was good and holy like God – as it is written, “God made men upright” (Ecclesiastes 7:29).

On the other hand, among all earthly creatures, man is the only rational being. His natural ability, in addition to his moral purity before the fall, makes him apt to act as God’s representative on earth, unlike other earthly living creatures, namely: animals, birds, sea creatures and every living being on earth – these are creatures of instinct. Because he bears the image of God, man was chosen by God to care for other creatures living on earth. He was called by God to work from the very moment of creation. The first task God commissioned Adam to do was to name the other creatures on earth – “And the man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field” (Genesis 2:20).

The Lord God is Himself a working God. “The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:8-9). God created everything in six literal twenty-hour days, “and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done” (Genesis 2:2). This does not mean that God stopped working, but rather that He rested from His work of creation. God is always working. “He upholds the universe by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3). When the Lord made man, He entrusted him with the responsibility to keep the earth; He granted man the privilege to steward and care for the rest of His creation.

As it is written, “The LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7). Then God took one of his ribs, after causing a deep sleep to fall upon him, and made the rib into a woman. Then “God blessed [the man and the woman]. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).

Thus, from creation, man was appointed deputy regent by God to keep the earth, to the glory of the Lord. As God’s deputy regent, man is to faithfully represent His Maker on earth, so that the glory of God may shine in him. His ways and thoughts ought to be in accord with those of his Maker and Master, the Lord God. He must lead a holy life and rule the earth with uprightness, according to the standard of perfect holiness, which is God Himself. He must be blameless in all his ways and must take care of the earth in the same manner as the Lord would. In other words, man’s character, his manner of life and the exercise of his rule over the earth ought to be a faithful reflection of God’s perfections, a display of the beauty and excellencies of God, a reflection of God’s holiness, springing from righteous living, good stewardship of the earth, perfect obedience to God and conformity to His standard of goodness. Put simply, man ought to be holy in all his conduct, so that the Lord’s glory may shine brightly in him – for God is holy, otherwise man would fall short of the glory of God.

#life & faith #graciousheaven #vocation #responsibility #call of duty

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graciousheaven · 8 months ago

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#vocation #responsibility #graciousheaven #life & faith #call to action

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graciousheaven · 8 months ago

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The Glorious Light of the Gospel

The heart of man in its natural state is the throne room of iniquity, where every vile act and evil intent is brewed, and darkness rules and reigns. But when the Lord in His grace shines the light of the Gospel in that room, this enables the man to understand the misery of walking in darkness. For he begins to see where he is going. And the beautiful mystery of this gracious divine light is that it shines brighter and brighter as the man grows in the knowledge of his divine Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. At salvation’s birth, it is like a beam of sunlight, coming in through the smallest window of the man’s heart, which points him to the source of light and enables him to realize that he resides in darkness and to understand the danger of it. And the Holy Spirit of love who quickens the man directs and empowers him to flee from the darkness and to turn to the light. And as the man matures in his walk in the light, it is no longer a window but a door through which the light shines that is opened. And the light shines brighter in the chamber of his heart and reveals all hidden sins. Thus, as the man grows in holiness, many a sin he sees in the chamber of his heart as the light continues to shine brighter; he beholds more of the beauty and excellencies of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, which enables him to see every tiny speck, even in the most hidden corner of his heart.

#the gospel #the light of life #the light of the world #graciousheaven #free from sin #from death to life

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graciousheaven · 10 months ago

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What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the act by which the Holy Spirit, at salvation's birth, unites God’s elect to the body of Christ by taking residence in them and empowers them for spiritual growth and perseverance in the faith. By this sovereign and supernatural act of God, the Holy Spirit brings us from spiritual deadness to life in the Spirit and produces in us repentance and faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God. Which means that our baptism by the Holy Spirit and the regeneration of our heart occur simultaneously. In other words, the moment the Holy Spirit takes residence in us, we become a new creation; the Spirit brings us forth in Christ and seals us into the family of God. We are therefore born of the Spirit through our baptism by the Spirit of Christ, and we are blessed with the gift of salvation the very moment that Christ baptizes us with His Spirit.

Baptism by the Holy Spirit is the mark of a genuine believer, the proof that someone is a new creation. There is no new creation, there is no new birth apart from the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God regenerates us through the instrumentality of God’s Word – as our Lord Jesus says in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Therefore, those who reject the Word of God remain spiritually dead; they cannot experience the new birth and are therefore condemned to eternal destruction – as the Lord Jesus declares in John 3:5, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”

#be reconciled to god #be born again #graciousheaven #baptism of the holy spirit

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graciousheaven · 10 months ago

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Who can Baptise with the Holy Spirit

The baptism of the Holy Spirit happens at conversion and precedes water baptism. And God alone has the prerogative, the authority and the power to baptise people with the Holy Spirit. As the Author of life, God regenerates those He predestined for adoption by baptizing them with His Spirit. By the baptism of the Spirit, they receive a new nature (the divine nature), and this new nature is evidenced by their repentance and faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God. Which means that regeneration precedes faith. And faith is a gift of God implanted in the hearts of God's elect at the time of their regeneration. So the Lord baptises us with the Holy Spirit, leads us to repentance and gives us faith to believe in Him, and He also seals us into His eternal love.

No one but God baptises with the Spirit – the Holy Spirit comes down from above. For instance, when Peter was preaching the Good News to Cornelius and his family and close friends, it is written in Acts 10:44, “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who were listening to his message.” Verse 48a reads, “And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.” So, through the instrumentality of the Word of God preached by Peter, the Holy Spirit regenerated these people and they began to speak in tongues and to glorify God (cf. v.46). And Peter, a witness of their conversion, ordered them to be baptised with water.

There are many false teachers and so-called prophets and apostles today who revile the Spirit of grace by claiming to wield the power to baptise with the Spirit – a prerogative that belongs exclusively to God. These are children of the devil, enemies of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, devoted to the work of their father the devil. They lay their hands on people and cause them to fall into an ecstatic state, and then spuriously ascribe their satanic schemes to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a force that man can draw upon or manipulate as he pleases, nor is He a violent being who knocks people down. The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Triune God: He is one in essence with the Father and the Son, and equal with Them in character. He is God and therefore sovereign. Moreover, the Holy Spirit is so gentle that when He descended upon the Son of God at His baptism He had the appearance of a dove.

The activity of these so-called miracle workers is therefore an utter blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. For the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an exclusive prerogative of Christ. No one but Christ has the authority and the power to baptise with the Holy Spirit. In John 1:32-34, John the Baptist asserts Christ’s exclusive authority to baptise with the Holy Spirit when he gives this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and stay on Him. I still did not know that He was the One, but God, who sent me to baptize with water, had said to me, ‘You will see the Spirit come down and stay on a man; He is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen it,’ said John, ‘and I tell you that He is the Son of God.’”

In the Old Testament, the Lord promised to make a new covenant with His people – not like the covenant He once made with their fathers and to which they were unfaithful, but a covenant which they would not break. For God Himself would see to it: the keeping of this new covenant by the people of God would be attained thanks to the circumcision of their heart by the Lord. Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, God would put an end to the hardness of their heart and cause them to walk according to His precepts. Furthermore, in His steadfast love, God promised that He would forgive their iniquities and cancel their guilt. Jeremiah 31:31-34 reads, “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD. ‘For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the LORD: ‘I will put My law within them and write it on their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I will forgive their wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember’.”

Ezekiel 11:17-20 gives us a promise parallel to that made by God in Jeremiah. It reads, “This is what the LORD God says: ‘I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries among which you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it. And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.’”

God's promise in the Old Testament to circumcise the heart of men and to blot out their sins is not limited to the people of Israel but is extended also to those outside of the Mosaic covenant. The Lord promised in Joel 2:28-32, “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.” In Isaiah 44:3-5 the Lord declares, “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, ‘I am the Lord's,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord's,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”

Before His crucifixion, followed by His resurrection and ascension to glory, the Lord Jesus promised His disciples the coming of the Holy Spirit, saying, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:16-20). Christ had been with His disciples physically during His earthly ministry and would be in them at the coming of the Spirit of promise. For the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, sent by Christ to bear witness about Christ – as Christ Himself says in John 15:26, “when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me.”

On the Day of Pentecost the Lord fulfilled the promise He made to His disciples – “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). This was the first instance where the Holy Spirit came upon many believers at once, about 120 Jewish believers who were gathered together in one place. This primary event, which marked the transition from Israel to the Church, is an expression of God’s design to ensure the faithfulness of His people to the new covenant He has made with them, a covenant sealed with the precious blood of His own Son. It was followed by similar instances which involved Samaritan and Gentile believers. In Acts 8, the Samaritans who received the Word of God spoken by Philip also received the Holy Spirit when Peter and John – sent from Jerusalem by their fellow Apostles when they heard that Samaria had received the Word of God – laid their hands on them after an offering of prayer to God. In Acts 10, the Lord poured out His Spirit on Cornelius, his relatives and close friends – these were all Gentiles – while Peter was preaching the Word of God to them. All these events are a partial fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. For Joel’s prophecy will be completely fulfilled at the return of Christ, when He comes to establish His millennial Kingdom.

The Lord is the pillar and sure foundation of His Church. He has charged His followers to make disciples through the preaching and teaching of His word and to baptize them with water. But no one but Christ Himself has the prerogative, the power, and the authority to seal sinners into the family of God. The Lord is the One who baptizes sinners into His body; He baptizes sinners with His Spirit according to His definite plan and the riches of His grace.

#be born again #be reconciled to god #spiritual baptism #graciousheaven

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