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January 14, 2024
- By Ed Powell
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"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Genesis 1:26
Man was created uniquely in the image of God, after His likeness--able to discern good and evil and able to exercise his own will accordingly. He was created as a free moral agent, put in an environment that abundantly met his every need, blessed beyond measure in walking with God in the cool of the day...WHAT HAPPENED? Given all of these abundant, positive blessings, how could anything go wrong?
Satan used the same approach with Eve that he uses in the lives of so many today. He planted the insidious "seed of doubt." Eve was beguiled by the subtlety of Satan. Did he try to persuade her to turn her back on God? No, he simply said, "Hath God said?" He caused her to doubt the truthfulness of God's Word. Surely, God has made some mistake by directing you not to eat of "this tree." Surely, with all that God has provided, He would not inflict such a heavy judgment on you for so slight an offense. How could God forbid you to eat from this one tree, when countless other trees are here? "Surely, you shall not die." Oh, how clever and beguiling Satan was. How cunningly he diverted her attention from God and all of His provisions to thinking that God was withholding something good from her. What was Satan trying to do? He was instilling doubt in her heart that "God would not do what He said He would do."
People say today, "A good God would not send people to Hell. After all, look at all the good things people do. He certainly wouldn't inflict so great a judgment on someone for the few things a person might do that are just 'little' sins." See how this same argument, this same insidious approach by Satan, invades mankind today?
What is our problem? Man seeks to bring God down to his own level, to cast God in his own mold of finite, corrupt thinking. He lifts his proud heart and says, "Really, God doesn't mean what He says literally." Man makes a mockery of sin, lives as if God doesn't exist, and doesn't hesitate to exercise his will in fulfilling the desires of his lust.
WHY? Because he has no concept of the majesty of God, His holiness, His righteousness, and His justice. Man casts aside the immutability of God's Word. He does not accept or believe that God has a standard of truth and justice that will not be violated. He chooses to violate and voluntarily transgress the very love, grace, and mercy by which God seeks to redeem him from his sin. He is consumed with only one consideration--"personal gratification"--without any thought of God who created him.
David, meditating on the infinite greatness of God, exclaims, "What is man that you art mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" Who are we that we should even enter the thoughts of God? But mankind is persuaded by his own foolish ego and pride, and does not even take God into the equation of his life. How absolutely foolish! Unfortunately, what people think will not alter God's plan or purpose. They will only suffer the consequences of their own choice, meaning eternal separation from a loving, merciful, and gracious God and eternal condemnation in Hell.
© 2007 by Ed Powell. Used by permission.
This page was reprinted by permission from: http://litmin.org/dare.php?date=2024-01-14
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