Hi Doves,I did not intend on writing a follow up or a “part two” to what I wrote last week in my reply to Craig Opal
But I wrote something in that post that I feel the Holy Spirit gave me further clarification on.
I had written about angels saying - “God does not offer them salvation, I suspect because they entered the state of damnation with full knowledge, willingly, knowing what they were leaving - whereas we were born into a cursed state, not knowing why or having made the choice to reject God - it is our default becasue of our first parents so I suppose God draws a distinction there and takes greater mercy on us than the angels who became sinners willfully with knowledge. (You might argue that our first parents Adam and Eve were also in a state of perfection at one time and this is true - but their condition was slightly different in that they were deceived from without and tempted to leave their state of perfection whereas Lucifer was tempted from within as were all of the other fallen angels who had no reason to not believe God since they lived constantly in His presence)“
For full context of what I am about to talk about you might want to watch the video that I did on this subject several months ago when I began my study in the book of Genesis.
In this study, I explained that Adam was a type and a foreshadow of the Messiah who saw his bride fall into sin, and loved his wife so much that he would rather die with her, than live without her, making him the earliest picture of the Messiah who was willing to dies for us, His bride with our sin, rather than to live in Glory in heaven without us.
So here is the the further clarification that I feel I received from the Holy Spirit. I was in prayer the other day, praying in the Spirit and as I often do, I was meditating on our creation and how great a God we serve, Who had every right to destroy us when our first parents rebelled against Him in the garden of Eden, yet instead He chose in the fullness of time to reveal His mercy in the form of His only one unique Son, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
As I was praying and thinking on these things, I feel that the Spirit gave me a little more clarification on just what happened there in the garden about 6000 years ago and why we are so much different from the angels.
Here is what the Spirit caused me to consider: What was the motivation of the 3 sinners in the garden? Adam, Eve, and the serpent- fallen angel Lucifer?
Let’s start with the serpent - fallen angel Lucifer. His motivation was purely selfish, he wanted to ascend and be like God. He had no pure motive in any of his actions from this point forward. Pure selfishness, and all of his actions moving forward from this point are also pure selfishness. He wants worship, undeserved, unwarranted worship and in his selfishness he deceives other angels to follow him in his rebellion. The other fallen angels also think they can be like Satan and are self deceived thinking they can be God. They likely think that if Satan can topple God from the throne, then the cosmic struggle will continue as the fallen angels then all try in their own turn to topple Satan from the throne. It is a kingdom of selfishness which is diametrically opposed to the character of God, whose very nature is selflessness.
Everything God does is self-less. Obviously we see that in its fullness in the giving of Himself in the form of His Son to take the penalty of all of our sins. But that is not the extent of His selflessness and good and giving nature. We get into discussions about keeping the commandments and whether one can lose one’s salvation by breaking the commandments and sinning, but one of the best evidences of the Spirit living within you is when the Spirit reveals to you the truth that all of those Old Testament commands that we all think are so hard and some think are done away with - everyone one of those is a command from a selfless caring God and every one is actually for our own good! Not just so God can give us a list of dos and dont’s. So God’s character is totally selfless as opposed to Lucifer and his followers who are all selfish.
So now let’s look at the next subject in the garden Eve - Eve is what I would call a neutral party - did she sin? Yes of course, but what was her motivation? God judges by no only our actions but also by our motives, thoughts and intentions of our hearts.
So what was Eve’s motive? While the serpent was being selfish, looking for others to worship him because he wanted to be God, was Eve also wanting to be God?
No - Eve was deceived and she was wanting to be “like God” which is actually what we were all designed for - to conform to the image of Christ, but Eve was deceived and in her innocent state I kind of picture her a little bit like what we might call a “bimbo” a beautiful lady without a lot going on upstairs - so she was easily manipulated and might have even justified what she was doing was the next logical step to be “like God” but she certainly did not have the same motivation as Satan - to “be God” - so let’s just leave her here as a neutral party for now.
So now let’s look at our last subject, Adam. While the serpent was totally selfish and evil in his rebellion, and while at best we might call Eve neutral in her sin and rebellion, what was Adam’s motivation? Let’s ask the question, what did Adam have to gain by his actions? Because Scripture is very clear ”And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.“ 1 Timothy 2:14
So Adam sinned very willingly - so we have to ask the question, if Adam was not a neutral party, deceived like Eve - was Adam like Satan thinking he would dethrone God? If not then what was his motivation in his sin? Adam had nothing to gain by his action and he entered into it willingly and with full knowledge. Adam knew he would not be God, and Adam knew that he would in fact be separated from God, so why did he do what he did?
Adam saw his beloved Eve, duped into sin, too late to turn back and at this point he had one of two choices - he could have left Eve with the consequences of what she had done and he could have said to his Creator, “God, I’m lonely, I have 23 more ribs left - can You take another so we can try again, I promise I’ll keep the next one away from the tree”
In other words, Adam could have walked away and I am certain that God would have provided him with another wife - but that’s not what Adam did and he had no logical reason to do what he did but he did it anyway and this is the clarification that I feel the Holy Spirit gave to me the other day.
Sin is sin and cannot be justified no matter what the reason, but motives can be different and even in human courts we see things called “aggravating or mitigating factors”. In other words Mitigating circumstances include, but are not limited to, the defendant's age, extreme mental or emotional state at the time the crime was committed, developmental disability, and lack of a prior criminal record.
Adam had no criminal record, was certainly very young, and perhaps had a good reason for the crime he committed - such as when a woman being raped kills her assailant - she just committed murder, but for a “good” reason.
So let’s consider the “mitigating’ factor for Adam’s sin - I think Adam’s motives for sin were perhaps not at all like the serpent or his wife, it may be that his motivations were purely selfless. I think he knew that he could walk away and leave his wife to suffer the consequences of her actions alone.
All alone, no hope, no future, only death natural and eternal - hell.
Adam could not bear that - he was her protector, her lover, her husband - he reasoned that he would enter her suffering and death to continue being her protector, becasue he really had no other motivation other than this, and in so doing, while what he did was most certainly sin and rebellion, God looked at His heart and saw something worth saving, a man, made in His own image, not at all like the selfish Lucifer who could only think of himself, but a man made in His own image, capable of being selfless and willing to suffer for others besides himself - truly someone who had the potential to be redeemed and conformed to the image of Christ, whereas Lucifer and his angels never would.
So anyway, just further clarification that I thought all might be edified as to why we as humans are so much different than the angels. I could be wrong in all of this but I strongly feel that this is what the Spirit impressed upon my heart while I was in prayer a couple of days ago
Your brother in Christ,Derrick Drew