The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1Corinthians 15:56,57
Being “perfect in beauty” he looked at himself instead of to Him who gave him this perfect beauty; and began to contemplate himself, and to admire himself. Then, as the consequence, he grew proud of himself, and began to think that the place which he occupied was too narrow for the proper, profitable, and full display of the ability which he now gave himself the credit of possessing. He concluded that the place which he occupied was not fully worthy of the dignity which now in his own estimation merged in him.
True, he did have the perfection of beauty, fullness of wisdom, and height of dignity. But he had received it all from God through Jesus Christ who had created him. He had nothing, to his very existence itself, which he had not received. And when he would boast of it as if he had not received it; when he grew proud of his beauty, and gave himself credit for it as if it were inherently of himself; this, in itself, was but to ignore his Creator, and put himself in His place. Yea more, when he boasted of that which he had received as if he had not received it; when he exalted himself because of that which he was, as if it were inherently of himself; this was only to argue for himself, self-existence. And this was, in itself, only to make himself, in his own estimation EQUAL WITH GOD. When he had thus “corrupted his wisdom,” it is not strange that he should follow, and even be charmed with, a line of false reasoning. Being only a creature, he could not fathom at once “the eternal purpose” which God had “purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:” and he now began to measure all things by his own perverted conceptions, and to reason only from what he could see. And, having separated from God, all that he could see was only in the perverted light, through the gloom, of his own corrupted wisdom. Thus again, in the nature of things as they now were, all his reasonings were altogether from himself; and so, measuring all things by his own confused conceptions, beginning and ending all things in himself, this was still to put himself in the place of God, and to make himself equal with God. But he saw no token that the Lord thought of him as he thought of himself. He could see nothing to indicate any purpose on the part of the Lord to exalt him to the dignity and the place which alone he now considered worthy of himself. He therefore concluded that this failure was only because of a set purpose on the part of Christ, who was equal with God (which set purpose was shared by the Father), to keep him down, and not to allow, in the presence of the heavenly hosts, the full display of his powers lest He himself should be eclipsed. Then it was that he conceived the idea and formed the purpose to supplant Him who was equal with God, and to make himself indeed, and in place, equal with God. Then it was, and thus it was, that he thought it a thing to be seized upon, a usurpation to be meditated, a prize to be contended for, to be equal with God.
We have now all been stung with this same sting of death, and as we participate in the self examination that our prophet recommended in her New Year messages to us, we see the problem with the world, the denomination, the society, the family and our own personal lives. Not only are we dealing with our own set of inherited and cultivated tendencies to evil but we can see from this article what we are dealing with as we encounter the behaviour of others in the church and the world.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1Corinthians 15:57
