There is always a cost when we believe wrongly. For example,
“I deserve to be blessed.” Instead, God will humble the proud, like Simon the
magician who had “believed”:
Acts 8:18-24 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”
What an indictment of Simon’s mistaken belief! What comes out of our mouth is an indication of what is in our heart. It is our delusional, narcissistic self-righteousness that underlies our belief that we are able to purchase or earn anything good from God? Instead, our Savior wants us to know that His mercy is His gift to us. Our belief in our righteousness and entitlement results in our alienation from the truth about ourselves and even from others including Christ. How does this happen? By placing out inflated self-esteem and our pleasures above God and His will:
Ephesians 4:17–19 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
It starts with our hardened heart and will. According to Jesus, when we are centered on our own desires rather than God’s, we will love the darkness of self-deceit over the light of God’s truth. Consequently, we suppress any truthful thoughts that might interfere with our self-serving agenda, like the knowledge of God’s judgment upon us (Romans 1:32):
John 3:19–20 “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
Our love of the darkness enables us to pursue our desires without the exposing and inhibiting light of Christ’s truth. Consequently, our love of the comforting darkness will determine the ultimate fate as it had with the grandson of Herod “the great” who apparently hungered for increasingly greater positive affirmations.
He had been visited by an entourage of diplomats from Phoenicia who needed to buy grain from Israel and the reluctant Herod, but they understood how to win Herod over:
Acts 12:21–23 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
Herod’s fate might appear to be an extreme example of the fate of all Who have devoted themselves to the lie and have hated the painful light of truth. However, it seems that perhaps all the kings of Judah and Israel (except for the kings of northern Israel who had been following an idolatrous religion) had been faithful to God until pride, self-deceit, success, money, and women got the best of them so that they proudly began to turn away from God. King Uzziah of Judah was the typical example of this. He was appointed king at the age of 16:
2 Chronicles 26:4–5 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.
If we are honest with ourselves, we know that we are all susceptible to these temptations but deceive ourselves that we are above these, especially when it comes to self-glorification and trusting in ourselves:
1 Corinthians 10:12 anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
Temptations often come in incremental steps. Love of the comforting darkness often comes in the disguise of self-trust instead of God-trust:
Proverbs 3:5–8 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
How does God reverse self-trust, arrogance, self-righteousness, and the blinding pride? He prunes us back (John 15:4:1-2). Inevitably, this process will be painful—no pain , no gain:
2 Corinthians 4:8-11 “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
Must we be continually
humbled? Even Paul, who had been greatly humbled through the hardships he had
to endure required additional humbling to keep him from pride because of the
many revelations he had been receiving. Therefore, God allowed him to be
afflicted by Satan. Paul prayed for deliverance, but God refused to heal him:
2 Corinthians 12:8–10 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Blessings come to the humble. Therefore he even boasted in his afflictions to affirm that they are blessings in disguise. Jesus’ Beatitudes also highlight the necessity for humility:
Matthew 5:3–5 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Without the discipline, the painful pruning of the Lord, we are sure to go the way of Herod and Uzziah: Hebrews 12:5–6 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
James 1:2–4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Consequently we should regard our humbling hardships as a gift! Instead, if we choose the darkness of self-deceit, we are self-condemned:
Revelation 6:15–17 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath.
Why is the face of Christ so terrifying? Is it possible that, instead of suffering from a low self-esteem, we suffer from a narcissistic addiction to a high self-esteem, which requires constant feeding and dreads exposure to the light of Christ? Is the final judgment a self-condemnation, the ultimate escape from the light, the truth about our need for the One we hate! Perhaps we too are Simon and believe that our “goodness,” money, or accomplishments entitle us?
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