The Good Of The Father (The Lie That Could Be God)

 

"There is no independent, self-operating self in the universe, except the One Who calls Himself the I AM {Exodus 3:14} and says, "I am the Lord and there is none else, there is no God Beside Me" {Isaiah 45:5} 

~No Independent Self, Norman Grubb~ 

God was pretty specific.  There will be NO God before Him {Isaiah 45:5}.  The Israelites learned that lesson upon Moses' return from the mountain {Exodus 32:7-8}.  One of my excuses for not buying into Christianity when I was younger was that I could not believe in a God that I could not see.  Was this how the Israelites felt as well?  What is it that makes us desire to worship the image but not the spirit?  Walk into any mainstream church and you will likely see the image of the cross of Jesus.  Walk into any Catholic church and you will see far more symbols than that.  Jesus has proclaimed that to worship God is to worship Him in spirit and truth {Johns Account 4:23}.  Adam and Eve, the first creation, bought into the lie of the accuser that they themselves could "Be like God" {Genesis 3:5}.  Think about it, who wouldn't want to be like God?  But Satan, as crafty as he is, had another motive for wanting to instill in the minds of the Lords creation that they could be like God.  That was to drive a wedge between God and His creation.  But for the grace and love of the Father, he would have succeeded.  Indeed, Adam and Eve fell for the lie spoken by the accuser and fell into sin.  That is, they fell short of glorifying God {Paul to the Romans 3:23}.  I refer to this as the lie for two reasons.  First, Adam and Eve, being created in Gods likeness, were already like God.  Second, as the Lord has proclaimed, there can be NO GOD beside Him.  They may have thought that they could be like God were they to eat of the forbidden fruit, but in the end it would be a false image of the original.  I am created in the Fathers likeness, yet I am not Him.  My life is in Him, yet I am still not Him {Johns Account 14:20}.  So it is that thinking one is like God and actually being Him are definitely two completely different things.  Yes, my life is in Him, but I am not Him.  I'm guessing that Adam and Eve could have learned from that very lesson.  

Th whom God wills to make known what are the glorious riches of this secret among the nations, which is: Christ among you, the expectation of glory

Paul to the Colossians 1: 27, Concordant New Testament 

For their part, the mainstream church has adopted the narrative that mankind is indeed sinful.  This is based almost entirely upon the events of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden.  They point to the words of Paul in Romans that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Yet what is forgotten in these conversations are Paul's words in the following verse.  That, once being in sin, that we have been justified by the grace of God through the deliverance which we have in Christ Jesus {Paul to the Romans 3:24}.  For his part, Paul understood what he was talking about.  For he himself had been redeemed through Christ.  The narrative of the mainstream church for centuries has been to preach of the death and forgiveness of Christ, but to continue with the sin narrative which Paul speaks of in Romans 3:23.  I have been in many a conversation with a believer where that verse is used to illustrate that sin continues to be the issue between ourselves and God.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Added to that is the lie which proclaims that our sin has separated us from the Father.  Again, not true at all.  In the narrative of church teaching, Jesus dies for the forgiveness of our sin, but all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Therefore, sin remains an issue between ourselves and God.  How is it that Christ could give Himself for us to liberate us from sin yet still have sin be an issue?  Did Jesus fail in His attempt?  If so, we're not told that in scripture.  So it is that the man-made, mainstream church continues speaking to the sin lie.  But, in the words of Paul, our hope is in the expectation of glory which we now have in Christ Jesus {Paul to the Colossians 1:27}.  

~Scott~