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Thursday, August 20, 2009

"The Great Sin" part two hmmm and part three (this will be another long one) ;)

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Proverbs 1:7

What action did Adam and Eve partake in disobedience to the Lord? They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil--the only tree in the entire garden that God told them to avoid eating from. Why did they choose to disobey God? Because they wanted to be like God (Genesis 3:4-6) in His omniscience. I would venture to go one step further and say that they wanted to BE God.

From the very beginning it is clear that humankind has struggled with wanting to be like God--with wanting to be God. To some degree the "great sin" of pride is present in every human. What does the Lord say about pride?

"When pride comes, then comes disgrace..." Prov.11:2

"The Lord tears down the house of the proud..." Prov.15:25

"Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured He will not go unpunished." Prov.16:5

"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Prov.29:23

"YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME." (emphasis mine) Exodus 20:3

Pridefully raising ourselves up to be our own self-sufficient gods clearly presents distinct consequences. We will be punished. We will be brought low.

Check out CS Lewis' thoughts:
"Any of us may at any moment be in this death-trap [of being eaten up with pride]. Luckily we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good--above all, that we are better than someone else--I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether....Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call 'humble' nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what YOU said to HIM. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all." p.127-128

We have great reason to be humble.

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood if his cross." Colossians 1:15-20

I don't understand all of that but I know that THAT is the Lord and that I cannot compete with Him!

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ...For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:4-9

We can't even save ourselves.

We have no reason to be proud. But we have great reason to be humble. We receive wonderful blessings when we embrace who God is and thus humbly recognize who we are:

"...to the humble he gives favor." Prov.3:34

"...with the humble is wisdom." Prov.11:2

"...humility comes before honor." Prov.15:33

"...He adorns the humble with salvation." Ps.149:4

"...God gives grace to the humble." 1 Peter 5:5

That's just to name a few! Favor, honor, wisdom, salvation...that's amazing!

One more quote from Mr.Lewis:
"If one would like to acquire humility...the first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed." p.128

I hope my random train of thought made sense to you. It did in my head!

1 comments:

beccaellis said...

I was thinking today that maybe the opposite of wisdom is pride. (Not according to Webster, but Bibically). And maybe humility and wisdom are synonyms... sort of. Again, just a thought and I'm going to start looking to see if the Bible supports my theory.

Is this what your deep thinking was producing when I sent you that horrible website?