11.2 The Original Accusation
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
They overcame him.
We will look more closely at “they” in Session 13: Overcome and Subdue. (Hint: “They” are very Much-Afraid, stumbling every step of the way, clinging to Sorrow in one hand and to Suffering in the other, never turning away from their unquenchable pursuit of the Shepherd.) – Feel free to start reading Hind’s Feet on High Places.
In this lesson, we want to expand on the “him.”
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him (Revelation 12:9).
The Accusation
That serpent of old. The word “old” means the original serpent, the serpent in the garden. Here is the original accusation. “Yea hath God said? – Did God indeed say? – Did God really say that?”
Notice very precisely. The accusation is not first against God. Satan did not “rebel against God’s authority.” There is NO “war” between God and the devil, how absurd! The serpent, closing his heart against the good speaking of Christ always sustaining him, accuses the Word God speaks, the Lord Jesus Christ, of being false.
Accusing Jesus
But the where of the accusation is as important as the what of the accusation. The serpent accused Jesus of being false in the ears of the image and likeness of God, in the ears of the human race, in the ears of Adam and Eve, right here on this earth.
Every shadow of every voice you have ever heard whispering darkness against your soul is an accusation in your ears against the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is false. Every time you have repeated those words with your mouth, speaking about yourself things God does not say about Jesus, you have joined your heart to that same accusation claiming that Jesus is, in fact, false.
Setting the Stage
We will not go back to the garden until the next session: One Day in the Garden. Here we want to understand story. There is no story without an enemy and without an accusation.
Simba might have been a king of the African plain, but you would never watch The Lion King if not for Scar. Maximus might have been a great gladiator, but you would never appreciate Gladiator without Commodus. Jesus might be faithful and true, but you would never know it except for the Accuser.
It is God alone who sets the stage. God set the accuser against Jesus that we might KNOW God.
Victor and Victory
We know the Victor by His victory. But in all good story the enemy, the accuser, must be the equal of the hero in every way. Word against word. The good speaking of Christ against the accusation of the evil one. If the hero cannot lose there is no story.
We . . . have a High Priest who . . . was in all points tempted as we are . . . – He Himself is also subject to weakness. – Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death and was heard because He feared (Hebrews 4:15 – 5:2b – 5:7a).
Proven through Weakness
We do NOT understand it, but we must accept with all of our hearts this absolute reality. God requires His Word to prove itself true against the fury of the accuser with meekness of heart and in a vessel of weakness. Without the Word proving itself true in us by our faith operating within our utter weakness, defeating the accuser and casting all accusation down, we and all creation would never know the Father and we would never know Jesus Sent.
Story. – It’s just the way it is. The woman, you and me in utter weakness, bringing forth the proof of the Word God speaks in fullness, before the very jaws of the dragon. – The Covenant Fulfilled.
Story
All story follows a basic pattern. There are many variations found in each element of the pattern, but the pattern is consistent. The Lion King is a useful example.
The enemy is a member of the king’s household. He accuses the heir to the throne falsely. The heir, the hero of the story, flees. The hero wanders through far lands, finding companions, fighting side battles, and enjoying havens of rest. Then, it is the mentor who points the hero back to who he is, with the words of the mentor confirmed by some form of divine visitation.
The Task
The hero, the heir, the king returns to find what belongs to him ruled over and blighted by the enemy. (Think of Simba, Jane Eyre, Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, Maximus in Gladiator, Jesus in The Great Story of God.) The companions who were once a silly distraction now give their all to the returning hero.
The hero faces the enemy; the task is to expose the lie and to cast down the accuser from his place of domination by that lie. The point of the lie, the moment of exposure, when the hero establishes the truth, is the primary focus of the task. Defeating the enemy follows immediately after that task.
The Lie
The Quest, then, is the restoration of the kingdom, bringing all things back to their original state, fresh and new, setting creation free. Here, however, we want to look at the original problem, the speaking of and believing in the lie.
The Lion King is just perfect in its application to the great story of God. If you have not watched it, or did so long ago, get a copy and watch it now. All the destruction that came to the animals of the African plain, all the confusion and loss, all the triumph of the enemy, came entirely and only because Simba BELIEVED the lie he was told.
Two Gardens
In The Lion King, the two most important moments in the story are the believing and then the exposing of the lie.
The first is the moment when Simba, crouching in horror at what he thought he had done, believed the lie told to him by his uncle, Scar, and then fled the kingdom convinced that everyone would see his shame and his guilt. The second is when Simba is hanging between heaven and earth, facing defeat before the fury of the enemy, Scar. In that moment the falseness of the lie is revealed for all to see. By that strength, Simba defeats Scar and restores the kingdom. In His great story, God placed each of those two moments in a garden, the first garden Eden, the second Gethsemane.
Psychosis
“Did God indeed say” rules the world and everything in it. “Did God indeed say” rules the psychosis of the human race, the false story everyone tells themselves in their own minds and hearts. “Did God indeed say” rules in the church, an essential element of Christian theology.
Then the Lord God called to Adam . . ., “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:9-10).
Adam’s words are the story of human psychosis; Adam’s words are the premise of “Christian” theology. We will explore this reality more in the next session. – “Simba” and the lie.
Establishing the Word
By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established (2 Corinthians 13:1 & Deuteronomy 19:15). By the mouth of two or three witnesses, Jesus, the Word God is always speaking, shall be established, shall prove Himself true, shall return to the Father having found and having saved ALL that was lost.
This truth is essential for knowing anything in God or the Bible. You have magnified Your word above all Your name (Psalm 138:2). God intends to prove His Word true in this earth and in this present age, to establish the Lord Jesus, that He IS the proof of God in all that He speaks in those who believe in Him.
Two or Three Witnesses
Placing the goal of the believer as “going to” heaven after you die IS the “Hakuna matata (no worries)” of The Lion King; it is the perpetuation of the lie, running and hiding from, dishonoring the Word God speaks.
God set the accuser to speak against the Word God speaks for the sole purpose of providing the setting, the backdrop, the context in which that Word, Jesus, proves Himself as the highest reality in God and in the universe. And Jesus does that, specifically, through two OR three witnesses. The first witness, Adam in Eden, failed. The first true and faithful witness, Jesus in Gethsemane, drank the Father’s cup.
Two Witnesses
Jesus in Gethsemane and the resurrection is not sufficient, however, for God in the proving of His Word. The accuser has continued to accuse by claiming that “since Jesus was ‘God,’ His witness does not count.” God requires two witnesses; God requires a second witness of Christ; God requires a second proof to all the universe that the Word that He speaks is true, that the Word God speaks is fulfilled in all fullness through vessels of weakness in the face of the dragon.
Three times the dragon stands before the woman to devour her child as soon as it is born (Revelation 12:4). The first time the accuser wins; Adam believes the lie.
The Second Witness of Christ
Here is Jesus’ statement concerning the dragon’s gaping maw.
I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me (John 14:30). – The accuser has nothing in Me.
And here is the second witness of Christ, you and me, weak and very much-afraid, stumbling and falling along the way, proving in the face of the accuser that God speaks the truth.
For the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
The Great Story of God
It is impossible to know God’s purpose, what He is doing in creation and in our lives, apart from knowing the full extent of the Great Story of God as it is told all through the Bible and all through the history of man on this earth.
The fourth most important verse in the Bible roots you and me, vessels of utter weakness, as the very CLIMAX of God’s story, the moment when the Winner wins and His Victory is made visible for all to see. You and I are caught in the grip of the greatest story Teller in the universe as the final proof that His story is true. God intends to prove all that He speaks in all that He means, the Lord Jesus Christ, through you and through me.