(See here for Part Four – Original Identity)
Every epic story has an epic villain.
Something Sinister this way Slithers
The Enemy has been competing for our identity long before he enters stage left into that fateful Garden scene. What the satan successfully accomplished was to insert a strategically placed “if” into the equation set into place by God Himself. “If you want to be like God, then . . .” But remember, according to Genesis 1:26, God-in-Three had already fashioned Eve and Adam to be like Him. They had already been created in the very image and likeness of Yahweh for the purpose of enjoying intimate love within the Trinity. Adam and Eve already bore the stamp of Eternity on them and in them, the objects of Divine Love enjoying the beauty of sweet fellowship in their garden paradise, with every craving, every pleasure fully satisfied within the loving provisions and prohibitions of intimate relationship with God and with each other.
As we study the original strategy of the Adversary, we’ll see rather quickly that it’s the same dastardly lie he now holds out to us, regurgitated in thousands . . . millions of different ways. He was able to convince the first couple that what they had been given was not quite enough, that they needed something outside the current equation in order to be fully themselves, to find real satisfaction, meaning, and pleasure. In other words . . . you lack something, and you must do something to get what you really desire. The Evil One offers us the same fatal deception today, questioning God’s provisions and tempting us to explore and ‘taste’ His prohibitions. And he extends his hand with a warm smile and offers us a pomegranate, knowing that the infinite inward force from the Black Hole within us will kick into high gear as it perceives the possibility for pleasure and purpose.
- “God is holding out on you. He is not as Good as you think He is.”
- “You can never be fully free if you tie yourself down with God and religion.”
- “If you try _______, you’ll find real meaning and satisfaction.”
- “God is too theoretical. If you want “life”, you have to pursue it in ways you can see and touch.”
In the garden, the Deceiver injected into humanity a poisonous “IF” and it’s effects include darkness, fear, confusion, shame, and uncertainty. See it? His main goal is to reorient and filter the way we perceive God so that other options become attractive. With this poison inside us, the Black Hole deep within acts as a giant vacuum, and we become convinced to suck “Life” and “Identity” OUTSIDE of the affirmation, shalom, and pleasure that God Alone desires to provide. This killer toxin then soaks in and creates fertile soil in the soul out of which sin grows and manifests. Yes, this poisonous, fertile soil is evident as we look across the sin-soaked landscapes of our world today. We have injested the poisonous “IF” and it has done exactly what the Fraud has anticipated. We believe that God is only pleased with us when we’re good, but when we mess up, He’s ready to pour out His wrath on us . . . so we run and hide in fear of punishment.
It has kept us from discovering the Truth about God and about ourselves.
As we continue to operate within the Great Deception, making it our own, we look right past the invitation into the Great Trinitarian Dance. In our Great Confusion, we allow our inner Black Hole to suck Life and Identity from multiple alternatives apart from our Creator.
Inner Black Holes
Deep inside each of us is a
non-negotiable need for
value, significance,
belonging,
worth.
If we don’t fill those needs with
the One Who created us,
the One Who wants
to be our Source
of Life . . .
We become vicious human vacuums,
Black Holes deep within, attempting to suck life
from everything around us, and we will even resort to violence
in order to satisfy these cravings.
We turn to money,
pleasure,
work,
experiences.
Without knowing it,
we turn to other people
trying to suck life
from our relationships.
All of us were hand-crafted to
draw our Life from Christ.
He alone can satisfy the deepest cravings of our soul.
Don’t rely on the counterfeit
When the Genuine
Wants to set your heart
On Fire.
Relentless, Trinitarian Pursuit
Adam and Eve lacked nothing in the garden before Gen 3 in the Creation narrative, the ideal situation in which to mature and grow in Truth. The original Paradise! They had everything God had dreamed for those created in His image and likeness – intimate and authentic relationship (with God and each other), lavish provision, divine health, beautiful surroundings. Reality in the story was that Adam and Eve were the objects of God’s eternal affection, living in perfect love and freedom, participating fully within the life of the Godhead. If anyone could make a claim of ‘having it all’, they were the ones.
Again, the lie presented by the Satan found its ‘weight’ by introducing the subtle possibility that God did not really have their best interest in mind . . . and when they believed this, it blinded them to the truth about God’s love and about themselves as the recipients of that love. Now, instead of living in an environment founded in trust and freedom, they now believed that God was withholding something that would REALLY make them free, fulfilled, and able to trust Him completely. Perhaps this wasn’t the first time they had considered this possibility? They were questioning His goodness.
Remember how God designed Adam as a 3-part being meant to live from the “inside-out”? The Deceiver reversed this design by introducing his poison and it’s possibility of “outside-in” living . . . the Black Hole of the spirit being fed from external sources . . . and this externally-driven identity will lead mankind down the path of an externally-driven story.
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Consequences
Now . . . were there consequences for believing and acting on the enemy deception that what they had was somehow not enough, that God was holding out on them, that they needed something more than what they already had? Yes!
- The first consequence is that they were no longer able to see God accurately. They immediately perceived that God had changed His view toward them, so they ran to hide, covering their guilt and shame with fig foliage. The cancer of sin had severely altered their vision. They now “saw” a god that they thought was angry and frightening . . . an image projected through their own filter of shame and fear.
God did NOT change after man’s disobedience,
but man PERCEIVED that He had changed . . . so he ran and hid.
Man has been hiding in shame and fear from his projected “God” ever since.
- The second deadly consequence was that they were no longer able to see themselves accurately. They quickly resorted to fear, shame, and blame rather than seeing themselves as participants in the Great Dance. The poison of his deception took root immediately within their souls, and devastated the way they were able to perceive what was true and accurate about themselves. They now identified themselves as fearful, shameful, and unworthy before God. Once we lose sight of God for Who He truly is, we can NEVER see ourselves as we truly are . . .
Christ is humanity’s only accurate mirror
Now, we know that God dealt with them firmly for stepping out from His loving umbrella of intimate protection and provision. But He did NOT turn His back on them because of their sin, and NEVER stopped loving them. He did NOT alienate them. He did NOT immediately change to become cold and condescending, listing consequences and then storming away in disgust. He let them know that their actions had consequences, then came towards them and covered their shame.
Sin always, in every instance, has its consequences. They are designed into the equation from the onset. Deception leads to sin which contains its own built-in consequences, which ultimately and eventually lead to destruction. We musn’t blame electricity if we grab a downed power wire, or blame gravity if we step off a 25-story building. There are physical laws associated with electricity and gravity that have direct consequences as we interact with them – and so it is with the law of sin and death.
Stay with this a moment longer. I missed this interaction for several decades though I’d read it hundreds of times. Can you picture this scene, really get a vivid image of the tenderness here? It is not the furious judge pounding his gavel and saying “away with you!!” It’s the Three-in-Love quickly killing an animal before them, purposefully designing clothes from its skin, and tenderly helping them get dressed as means of addressing their shame and guilt. His fury towards the deception/sin and His love for His children motivated a response to invite them OUT of the deception and BACK into fellowship. See it?
Gen 3 (MSG) 21GOD made leather clothing (long coats or tunics of skins) for Adam and his wife and dressed them. GOD said, “The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never – this cannot happen!”
What an amazing act of Love, a striking shadow of what was to come on the Cross!
What kind of God does this? . . .
. . . the One that continues to initiate, to reveal Himself, to invite us back into the original Paradise-like relationship within the Trinity that He’s always dreamed for those created in His image and likeness. He recognizes the overwhelming force of the Black Hole within us, and offers Himself as the Reality that will satisfy. The One that loved us and gave Himself for us . . . Immanuel, God With Us. Again, the key take-away from this scene is that God did not change after man’s disobedience. Man saw God through different lenses, now affected severely by the poison of the enemy . . . a God-projection formed from his own inner fear, shame, darkness, and confusion.
The mistake “we” made after eating the fruit is thinking that our fear, shame, guilt and confusion allowed us to accurately recognize God’s holiness FOR THE FIRST TIME. Do you see the logical flaw here? It was Sin and Deception that resulted in our first accurate perception of the Creator?? We mistakenly assigned to God a character trait (holiness) that we defined AFTER sin entered into the picture, not realizing that their fear of this “holy God” was completely unfounded – as we just saw, God pursued and covered them.
Meanwhile, this counterfeit “God-projection”, a result of the deadly poison in the soul, would continue to shape man’s view of God and cause humanity to be severely seduced by a sinister cycle of sin and sickness as the Story slowly unfolds.
_________________________
If we can pause long enough to see that our lenses have been affected by our own shame, confusion, insecurity, darkness and sin, and that we have had counterfeit images of God as a result, then we are in a position to humble ourselves and come to Him as He truly is, and there find Truth. Now, instead of running FROM God in shame and fear . . . we can run TO the One Who loves us – not out of fear or dread that we’ll be severely punished, but out of confidence that His burning desire is to heal those broken parts within us – parts that are steeped in lies which keep us from Freedom.
We might picture Him with an arm around our shoulder, looking with us at that interior pile of shame, fear, confusion, and sin . . . and whispering with confidence . . . “Let’s you and I handle this together. I am the Great Physician and I have the remedy for this deadly poison. It’s keeping you from living out your Real Life. Here . . . let me show you the Truth.”
REPENT, and come to Jesus for your Life
Infused with this brand of Heaven’s Affirmation, we are fully able to operate in the Freedom and Identity that we were designed to enjoy as part of His original dream for each of us. Our Identity is found wholly and completely in the Love and Life of Christ – and out of that Identity, we can express this Love and Life fully into every area of our lives.
We are not in process of becoming someone or something else. We are discovering who and whose we truly ARE, and asking God to give us in our experience what He has already made true in reality.
Once we know who we are, we are equipped to respond to the Rabbi’s call –
“Come, Follow Me.”
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