5.3 The Lie and the Curse
© 2019 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
We can see that the accusation the serpent spoke against Jesus, that God lies, and against God, that He knows evil, is very much in tune with the hardness of Adam’s rebellion. Indeed, man is the master, and the serpent’s words were crafted entirely to appeal to the human heart empty of God. Jesus said that we find exactly what we seek. The serpent did nothing more than offer Adam the means of his rejection of being the image and revelation of God through weakness.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us (2 Corinthians 4). “Fixing sin” has no part in this reality of God with us; this is how God made us from the start, to reveal Himself through us.
A “New” Human Identity. But if Jesus as every Word God speaks, that is, God’s thoughts inside His Pro-Knowing becoming us in all our identity through the good-speaking of Jesus, if that identity is not acceptable to Adam, a different identity must take its place in Adam’s soul.
Adam’s problem is that he comes out of the good-speaking of Jesus regardless of whatever story he wishes to spin inside his head. For that reason, the “new” identity Adam embraced could be only one thing – the fantastical imaginations of the mind. If Adam were to forge his own identity, his own story of self, if Adam were to create a “self” all his own, he would have to pretend with all of his might. The words of the serpent gave Adam precisely what he needed to wear his chosen masks.
Escaping Being like God. Here are the words by which a Christian fantasizes in his mind that he has a sinful self all his own, an identity of separation from God, and that he is not, in fact, coming out from God’s thoughts concerning him through the speaking of Jesus.
“You shall be like God.”
Since Adam was already the image and likeness of God, the form through which God desired to be seen and known by all, these words at first glance seem meaningless. But we know that being like God was the very thing Adam was trying to escape. A Man hanging bloody and naked upon the tree of life was simply not in Adam’s plan for himself. Yet this ability to spin one’s own identity, that is, to pretend, we now know to be the greatest curse borne by the human race.
To Be Like God. Neither the serpent nor Adam nor any human I have ever known wants to be like God. To be like God is to love one another, it is to humble one’s self, it is to lay down one’s life even for those who are offensive, it is to stumble under a cross you cannot carry.
If this high angel had wanted to be like God, the Father would have been pleased, and He would have said, “Wait and watch my image, these weak humans in whom I dwell, watch them love one another, God among them, and they will teach you how to be just like Me” (see Ephesians 3:10). No, the serpent wanted his new-found self-exaltation to be the image through which all would define “God”; that is, the highest of heavenly glory wanted himself to be “what God looks like.”
Immense Power. So, what is the immense psychological power of these words to turn Adam away from his being already like God?
First, in the moment that Adam became fully aware of them, he was already sensing deep inside a contempt for the weakness in which he had been created. Yet that sense could not form into meaning apart from words. The serpent’s words, then, gave Adam exactly what he needed to connect his heart to his forehead and to seize domination and control. By those words he could spin any identity he wanted. – You shall be.
Not “you are,” but “you shall be.” And the first meaning of “you shall be” is an emphatic and absolute, “you are not.”
The Lie and the Curse. Here is the lie, the very lie Adam needed before he could create “himself” in fantasy. – You are NOT coming out from the good speaking of God; Christ is NOT your life.
But the second meaning is even worse for us, though perceived to be the most valuable treasure by Adam and by almost all of our fellow humans. You see, if you are NOT, then what are you? If you are not like God, then what are you like? If you are not coming out of the good speaking of Jesus, then from whence do you come? Since Christ is NOT your life, then YOU have a life of your own.
The “Christian” belief that he has a life of his own is the greatest curse inside Christian’s soul; that belief is always at war with the Jesus of his heart.
“You Shall Be.” Here is the real meaning of “you shall be.” Christ is NOT your life; you have a life of your own. – And you can pretend yourself to be any identity you wish to imagine; you can wear any mask you can design.
God says “You are”; the serpent says, “You are NOT, but you can be – if you try.”
I want to be very clear on this. When the serpent said, “You shall be like God,” He was NOT tempting Adam to “want to be like God,” except in one way – and that is, as the serpent himself in the place of “what God looks like.” In regard to the Father, however, the serpents’ words, “You shall be like God,” were an open repudiation of man as God’s image.
Words for Rebellion. The words, “You shall be like God,” MEAN – “You, Adam and Eve are NOT God’s image and likeness (I am).”
Adam, of course, was not deceived. He knew that he was, already, the image and likeness of God, the appearance of God as He shows Himself to creation. But Adam despised weakness as God’s image. And thus the serpent’s words introduced into Adam’s mind a possibility that the words of his innocence had not given him.
Words are needed to give shape and form to unthankfulness, that is, to rebellion. And the serpent’s nonsense gave to Adam the idea, in words, that he “might be something else.” – That Adam could create in his mind anything he wanted to be.
Hiding and Pretending. Adam wanted control, that is the thoughts by which he could exercise domination over those whom he deemed to be weaker (that is, everyone else). The Lamb upon the cross offered no thought of controlling others. The highest angel of heaven offered Adam an unending story of words by which he could pretend to be “in charge.”
“Christ as life laid-down and love poured-out through weakness is NOT my life; I have a life and an identity of my own.”
Every single element of human psychosis, then, can be found in full in Adam’s words and reactions in creating his own fake self. – They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings… Adam and his wife hid themselves… among the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:7-8). – Every form of pretending, of hiding, and of the wearing of masks.
“Should Be.” How, then, does this same psychology of the serpent work in Christian’s mind as he reads the wonderful truths of the gospel? God says, speaking as Paul, “I am crucified with Christ.” The serpent, often speaking through pastors, says, “Amen, brother, Amen. You most certainly should be crucified with Christ.”
Why does Christian allow such obvious deceit into his entire framework of thinking about himself and about Christ? Christian is open to the serpent’s blither because he hates what he is. Christian thinks in his mind, “It is clear to me that I am not like my image of the “super-Christ,” therefore I must be something else, something awful, something I alone must drag to the cross, even though I always continue as a low and sinful self.”
“Look at Yourself.” We will talk more about the horrific image of the “super-Christ” that Christian aspires to be like in the next chapter, an image that also comes directly out from the serpent’s words.
Then God, speaking as Paul, says, “Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ – Christ who is our life” (Galatians 2:20 & Colossians 3:4). And the serpent is right there, preaching the “gospel.” – “Oh yes, oh yes, Christ should and ought to be your only life. But look at yourself; it is clear to everyone that you are something very much not-Christ. Our question, then, is how do you make your image of “Christ” to be your life? That’s easy. Here is a commandment for you to try to obey, to perform, to pretend, to lie, and to cry. Oh, you miserable worm, you are so fallen short.”
The Serpent’s “Logic.” Christian, inside his mind, accepts the serpent’s reasoning, even though he knows full well the Jesus of his heart. And he accepts the serpent’s reasoning because he despises his low and vile form. Christian hates the way God made him for the exact same reason Adam did, because God did NOT make Christian like his preferred image of the “super-Christ.”
But, consider the logic coming from the serpent’s words into Christian theology. “Since Christ is not your life, as is evident to everyone who sees your outward performance, then you have a life not-Christ.” – “Jesus might have redeemed you, but God, by His “will” and His “plan,” left you inside a sinful human frame. You, oh Christian, have a fallen sinful nature all your own.”
“Sin,” not Christ. We must understand the horrific fruit of such satanic thinking inside Christian’s mind and imposed upon his heart.
You see, Christian imagines that the serpent’s words are “God speaking,” in the same way that Eve did. Christian is convinced that it is “God’s will” for him to possess a sinful human nature all his own, that God wills for him to remain inside of sin, far away from Christ right now. Yet Christian is also convinced that God commands him and expects him to obey. Yet, even though he is convinced God commands him to obey, he is also convinced that it is contrary to God’s will for him to walk with no consciousness of sins.
But the worst thing of all is that, by obsessing over “sin,” Christian fails to see the wondrous Lord Jesus alive in his heart, already carrying all that he is through death and into life.
Sisyphus and Tantulas. The existentialist philosopher, Albert Camus, wrote a piece called “The Myth of Sisyphus” based on Greek mythology. Sisyphus was given the task by the gods to push a stone up to the top of the hill. Just as he almost completed his task, the stone slipped lose and rolled back down to the bottom. Thus he was condemned to repeat the same task over and over without hope.
This is how Christian defines “the Christian life.”
Then the Greeks also had another myth, in which Tantulas was punished by the gods by being chained to a rock while food and drink were right there always beyond the reach of his fingers. He would draw his hand back and the food would come close; he would reach his hand out and the food would pull away.
This is how Christian defines “Christ my life.”
“The Christian Life.” Here is how Christian thinks. “God commands me to obey, and I try really hard, but the moment I almost ‘obey,’ I fail and have to start all over again. – Christ Jesus should be my life, and oh, how I want to devote myself to Him, but the Christ-life is always just beyond my reach. And anyone who claims that Christ is already their only life is so obviously deceived.”
“It is God’s will that I remain a sinner.”
And if you spend a while inside Christian’s thoughts, you will hear a whole lot of “Curse me, curse me, curse me.” You will hear a whole lot of self-cursing on the one hand and self-exaltation on the other. “I am so obviously better than all those other pretending Christians.” This way of thinking is what Paul called “the carnal mind always at war with God,” but that Jesus called, “Gehenna.”
What you do not hear in Christian’s mind is “Jesus and I are one.”
Severed from Christ. You see, in order to maintain this empty charade in Christian's mind, the serpent needs the commandment, God’s word as mental ideas under human control, that is, “the law,” or the “Bible” as intellectual ideas.
By the law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). – The strength of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). – There is no law given that could ever impart life (Galatians 3:21 – paraphrased). The law, that is, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is pure and holy and good. Yet, for the human, it serves only to replace Christ. – You are severed [separated] from Christ whoever seeks to be justified in law {that is to live by “knowing good and evil”}; from grace {that is, from Christ your only life} you have fallen away (Galatians 5:4).
The lie – “Christ is NOT your life (though He should be).” The curse – “You have a life NOT-Christ.”