7.2 Nor Were Thankful
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things (in actuality, the serpent) (Romans 1:21-23).
We must understand the root of all sin and rebellion. The source of all sin is the rejection of the weakness of human flesh and the lust of the human heart to be “strong” in itself. Sin is the hatred of the way God made us, the hatred of being like God.
Adam Was NOT Deceived
Paul said that Adam KNEW God. Paul also claimed to Timothy that Adam was NOT deceived. That means that at no point was Adam tricked, at no point did Adam not see the entire picture from beginning to end and all the realities of his own being and purpose, at no point did Adam not know the full consequences that would flow out of his actions.
Adam looked squarely at God and knew God. Adam looked squarely at himself and knew himself and his purpose. Adam looked squarely at the serpent and knew its glorious being as well as all of its deceit.
The Source of Sin
I intend to develop this picture more fully in Session 12: What Went Down in the Garden; here I want to deal only with the root of sin out from Adam.
Paul gave us the progression. Adam, looking squarely at God and KNOWING that God had created him as he found himself to be as the very image and likeness of this God whom Adam knew, Adam despised what he was, and in so doing, despised God. Adam rejected God IS. The pivot for Adam, the source of sin, however, is: UNTHANKFULLNESS
Rebellion
Unthankfulness is a negative word, however, the absence of thankfulness. A vacuum never exists. The absence of one thing IS the presence of something else. The presence inside unthankfulness is rebellion.
But Paul lays out this progression then.
- Rebellion, the absence of thankfulness.
- The human mind, taken by imagination, conjuring up endless things that are not true, pretending, pretending, pretending, that is, lying.
- The human heart, now foolish and DARK.
- And out from these three – all human sin.
It is the HOW’s of God that deal with this anti-progression, the means of God by which He fulfills His motive. The fifth most important verse in the Bible, the Cross, deals first with the deceitful and wicked heart of man. The sixth most important verse in the Bible, the Blood, deals with the empty story humans tell themselves about themselves. The seventh most important verse in the Bible, the Resurrection, replaces the rebellion of man with the thankfulness, that is the glory, of God.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God (2 Corinthians 5:17-18b).
Look Again in the Mirror
I have marked more sessions, four in total, to the application of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to our lives, that is giving thanks, merged always with the expectation of God, that is, God IS, than to any other of the “most important verses.”
Here I want to hit you, and me as well, right in the forehead with sin, no-sin. Look in the mirror. What do you see? And when I say “mirror,” I mean that which shows you ALL that you ARE in your present human weakness. Understand, you are looking at two very different things, always together. You see appearance, and you see substance, both entirely together all the time.
Your Appearance
Difficulty, confusion, painfulness, and failure. Everything going wrong in your human frailty. Lack of strength, feebleness of health, losing everything. Endless wrongs committed against you by others, mental injury, having been mocked, betrayed, and persecuted by those you first trusted. Humiliation and sorrow, dire calamity, extreme trouble. The definitions of the five words Paul used in 2 Corinthians 12:10. (partial definitions – that is, I have removed some of the awfulness of what you see in the mirror.) Asthenia - Hubris - Anagke - Diogmos – Stenochoria
Your Substance
Behind all appearances there is an invisible Substance. The appearance is never the reality of the substance. Never. Yet the substance is the only thing real. When you look in the mirror, you have a choice of which substance to see.
There are two choices only: God OR Not-God. Which substance do you see?
Accusation
God as substance is forever invisible. Not-God as substance is not a vacuum, but has a positive name, that is, Accusation, sometimes called the serpent. Yet this accusation, though a real person, remains 100% the delusion of the mind, that is, not-God. Rejecting God IS cannot remove God IS. Adam, knowing God IS, knowing also that God is invisible, looked squarely at himself, the image and likeness of God. And Adam, out from his heart of daring boldness given Him by God, ACCUSED God of falseness. “I hate what You made me to be.”
Unthankfulness
Jesus said, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” He meant, “I am the appearance; God IS the Substance.” That’s the entire reason why they killed Him. Mankind HATES being the image and likeness of God. No human being I have ever known has ever wanted to be like God, hanging bloody, bruised, and naked, without shame.
Unthankfulness RULES the darkened heart of man, fashioning all the imagination of a pretending mind that believes with all devoted fervency that God IS-NOT! You screwed up, God, when You designed me, formed me, and set all the circumstances of my life. I HATE being like You.
We Give Thanks
But we do not. When we look in the mirror at ALL of our human appearance, as it is for real, at all the circumstances of our lives, we see God. And in seeing God, we give thanks.
Those who lust after power, after the ability to be and to do something other than what they are, cannot give thanks.
We who give thanks for all things, getting excited when everything that can go wrong does go wrong, rejoicing in our momentary affliction, see God only with no need for pretense. We believe only one thing. God IS; God reveals Himself through us.