We Become Disorder
What we do is not who we are. When we embody that which we do to such a degree that it becomes who we are and we become what we do, this creates a problem. At this point we are become dis-order as we are not supposed to be what we do.
“And God blessed them. 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 every living thing that moves on the earth.’”
Genesis 1.28
We were created to be agents and representatives of God. In our original state we were the epitome of God’s order in the universe. God took the non-order/chaos of the universe and ordered it. When God said, “Let there be light,” that was an order. When God said, “Let the earth bring forth herbs, grass and trees…let the waters team with life…let there be animals,” these were commands given which generated order from “non-order.”
This was God’s command and order for humanity. Whether Adam understood the repercussions of his actions he still had a choice to continue in this state of order or not. His choice resulted in all humanity joining in rebellion against the One True God and becoming enemies of their Creator, introducing for the first time “dis-order.”
“Hold on” you say. “How can I be held accountable for Adam’s choice?”
“I didn’t choose to commit treason against God. I didn’t eat any fruit.”
“Why should I have to pay for something someone I don’t even know did long ago?”
The answer is, you’re not accountable for his choice. But you are responsible for yours’. And in all actuality you have sinned against God. Like Adam we often do not grasp the severity of our actions other times we do and we just don’t care, that is flat out rebellion, not caring about the repercussions.
“The soul who sins shall die.
The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father,
nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son.
The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself,
and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
Ezekiel 18.20
“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children,
nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers.
Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.”
Deuteronomy 24.16
We Are What We Choose
Adam’s sin was his and his alone, we don’t inherit his sin or incur his guilt. What we inherit is the sentence of mortality which he received when he ate of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and was cast out from the garden. Having lost access to the “tree of life” Adam and all his seed became mortal and subject to death just as God promised.
“Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.
Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore, the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.”
Genesis 3.22-23
This reality is what drives us to seek after immortality in whatever form we can conceive. There are slogans, songs and TV shows that we repeat, engage with and attempt to live by so as not to pass away unnoticed, if only for a little while in our little sphere of existence. “Live life to the fullest,” “live like you are dying,” “grab life by the horns,” “YOLO,” “Live Hard, Play Hard,” etc. the lines and mentality go on and on. Energy drinks, aging creams, cosmetic surgery, hair alterations, augmentation procedures, all futile attempts at physical immortality.
Is there anything you would not do for the remotest possibility to live forever? How about just one more decade? If you were dying of cancer or a terminal illness, what would you give for another year? A season? A month? Even criminals prefer life sentences to death penalties.
So what’s wrong with seeking immortality? In essence nothing is wrong with it as King Solomon states “God has put eternity into man’s heart.” However this pursuit of eternity is motivated by selfishness as he further states, “yet so that [man] cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3.11)
Why can we not find out what God has done? Because we’re to busy doing for ourselves to ever consider what God has done. But you’re not that bad right? It’s not like I’m evil or anything. Consider what God said concerning the condition of man prior to the flood. “The thoughts of man’s heart was evil/wicked continually”…sounds like we are that bad. Check this out, it’s not like it’s something that has happened to us, it is self chosen. We choose it.
Consider what the following passages reveal about our self perception.
“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!”
Isaiah 5.21
“There are those who are clean in their own eyes, but are not washed of their filth.”
Proverbs 30.12
“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”
Proverbs 12.15
“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.”
Proverbs 21.2
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”
Proverbs 14.12
“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,…”
Romans 3.23
We Become What We Think
Our thinking about mortality and immortality is flawed. We believe that if we can create a kingdom, a legacy here and now large enough to have an impact on future generations we have obtained eternity. We think being remembered by future generations in a sense is becoming immortal but immortality has to do with real individual life. News flash, everyone dies and everyone gets forgotten…everyone, no exceptions.
Parents often attempt to steer the course and direction of their children’s lives, living vicariously through them. Hollywood puts these tales to screen frequently. The washed up dad who was the High School somebody who is now a small town nobody pushing his son to be the star athlete so as to fulfill his dream of making it someday, if only he’d not injured himself or had that accident, or popped on that random at work, or knocked up his High School Sweetheart, etc.
We think we’re pushing our kids to be better, have better, do better, and not make the same mistakes we did. It’s all selflessness on our part, right? Our lives are over (so to speak), we missed our big break, if we haven’t done it by now chances are decreasing every year that it will never get done, now we want what’s best for them, right? I would contend that we are not teaching them selflessness but we are training them how to be more selfish. How’s that you might ask?
We hound it into them that they have to make better decisions, they have to make right choices, they have to choose to rise above, they have to want better and more for themselves. Their friends aren’t gonna be lookin’ out for them, they have to look out for number one. We tell them, they’re hanging with the wrong crowd, they’re better than that lot, they need to choose their friends better, etc.
This “teaching” is not necessarily wrong as it becomes a mindset, a thought pattern, a worldview. But without an the key ingredient it is flawed, it is “dis-ordered,” it is selfish and sinful and ultimately it becomes a preferential choice for our children to be “better than thou” as it has with us, their parents. When we become number one than there is no room for God. When there is no room for God there essentially “is no God” and what fills that void is self.
“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.
God looks down from heaven on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.
They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good, not even one.”
Psalms 53.1-3
We’re Thinking the Wrong Way
“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.” Ezekiel 18.30-32
Our original purpose was a high one, representatives who were to live forever as imagers of our perfect Creator. But Adam discovered a higher calling, or so he thought. Through lust and desire our first parents chose their own knowledge and wisdom above God’s. They exchanged the glory of God for the glory of themselves and began to pursue the fulfillment their own selfish will rather than the will of God. They introduced “dis-order” into God’s order.
When the ultimate representative and express image of God (the man Jesus, the last Adam) appeared he introduced a new order, a new command, “The time is fulfilled! The Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent! And believe the Gospel!” (Mark 1.15)
Because we are subject to death (whether consciously or subconsciously) we make decisions and choices based solely on our own self preservation. We are selfish beings because we choose to be. Our thoughts are only and always of ourself, this is the problem and this is what is brought to light through the command of repentance.
Repent; Think Differently
Repentance comes from the Hebrew word shuwb, and it means “to turn back, turn hence, turn away.” In Greek it is made up of two words meta and noieo i.e. metanoeo which means “to think differently or reconsider.” The word meta denotes “accompaniment” and noieo is “to exercise the mind (observe), to comprehend, heed:–consider, perceive, think, understand.”
What we are and what we do hasn’t worked, isn’t working and will never work in gaining immortality. “We are our own worst enemy.” The constant seeking of self pleasure, self gratification, self justification, a lasting legacy, a dynasty, etc. always leaves one lusting and desiring more of what can never be attained.
Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matt. 12.34) We have a heart/mind problem. In Part 1 I stated “sin” is not attributed to some “sin nature” that we are born with or an “original sin” that we inherit. It is not a flesh problem, it’s a moral issue, it’s a choice. It is in learning “what we have become” compared to “what we were meant to be” that we discover the free will agent of choice once again.
The greatest commandment is “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, body, mind, and strength (my rendition) and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Deut. 6.4-5; Lev. 19.18) With all this outward focused love there is no time or place for it to be focused inward on self. Not to say that we shouldn’t love ourself but rather to “love our neighbor AS ourself.”
I write this from the supposition that many of my readers are Christian, or at least to profess as much. The changing of our mind about what we think we are is the key to discovering who we truly are meant to be. This is not a mental assent, self-help procedure in order to become a better you it is a necessary condition to obtain salvation and eternal life. Without true repentance one is just going through the motions of being “who” they profess.
More to come later but for now know that we have a heart/mind condition which through the exercise of our own free will and choice has earned for us a state and condition of “dis-order.” Free will choice is one of the strongest forces that exists in our world today, we should be more careful with it…and we can, if we choose to.
Those Who Can't 