The Bias Of Degeneration
Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. ROMANS 5:12
The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin; but that the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race by one man, and that another Man took on Him the sin of the human race and put it away (Hebrews 9:26) — an infinitely profounder revelation. The disposition of sin is not immorality and wrong-doing, but the disposition of self-realization — I am my own god. This disposition may work out in decorous morality or in indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my claim to my right to myself. When Our Lord faced men with all the forces of evil in them, and men who were clean living and moral and up right, He did not pay any attention to the moral degradation of the one or to the moral attainment of the other; He looked at something we do not see, viz., the disposition.
Sin is a thing I am born with and I cannot touch it; God touches sin in Redemption. In the Cross of Jesus Christ God redeemed the whole human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a man responsible for having the heredity of sin. The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but if when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “And this is the judgment” (the critical moment) “that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.”
From My Utmost For His Highest / October 4, 2022
Comment by Immanuel:
What a down-to-earth insight! The author has no interest in placating our delusional ways. He rather pricks them and spurs them, expecting that we come back to our senses and be authentic or real with the substance of our belief and our spiritual state.
Indeed, let us pray that none of such so-call “believers” be found in our midst! Such is the perfect yeast for spiritual corruption. The ones defile our love feast!
“And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!”
Matthew 18:3-7 NIV
Moreover, cursed indeed is one who lends arms and offers excuses for such a deadly practice.
Allow me to further expound on Jesus’s teaching a bit in order to highlight how stern and serious His judgment toward such teachers is. In essence, He is saying that they would be better off by degrading themselves into elements ready for decay or consumption by unclean creatures rather than leading His disciples (little ones) astray. Also let us remember, without a proper burial place, they would be like the scapegoat sent into the wildness on the Day of Atonement or Judgement. Worst of all disapproved and despised or hated by God. A token of God’s ultimate and absolute rejection.
A bit like Judas Iscariot, such a person is clearly a target of God’s curse. I don’t know it for sure, but we can imagine, in the hearing of a sea people by the Lake of Tiberius or Mediterranean, it might be one of the strongest denouncements that an honored rabbi could cast over a person in terms of damnation or punishment in the Name.
For us, this brings us to a much-needed spiritual discernment and awareness: we must be extremely aware of the message of cheap grace or easy salvation.
It is the great ill that will deceive many in the end time as Jesus, Peter, Paul, Jude and John explicitly forewarned us. It is the very cause for the great falling away: many believers will refuse to get acquainted with the message of righteousness and the requirement of discipleship or God’s discipline (training) for their spiritual maturity. As a result, God’s people will suffer sweepingly the spirit of lawlessness (sin) or godlessness (spiritual or natural carnality), like sheep without a shepherd.
“But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.”
Matthew 13:21 NIV
“Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.”
Bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my trust in him.
Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.
When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning.
If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.”
Isaiah 8:15-22 NIV
A key principle for spiritual discernment and wisdom is to know in a clear and practical way that the good will of man (love of self) oftentimes is not the will of God (love of God). It is NOT an issue of different opinions; it is an issue of different spirits, THE issue of spiritual life or death. “No one could justify himself.” Yet somehow we would do only lip service to such truth when the teachings and practices of the faith of modern-day Christianity would shamelessly and obliviously grant us a license for spiritual deception and decay in the name of grace and love of God!
“We are righteous in the sight of God by just believing it and claiming it, and without the sanctification of the word of God or the ministration of genuine discipleship.” What an absurd delusion! We are our own judges! We are our own god. We thus are our spiritual demise. We have put the curse of spiritual death upon ourselves! Who has bewitched us? Indeed.
Obviously, God has a different opinion towards such false teachers: their end is absolutely worse than the unbelieving. Truth and reality seem few of modern-day Christianity want to reckon with. But we as God’s chosen must reconcile with God on this basic truth.
There are sins that God made provision for us in Jesus Christ to find forgiveness; but let us remember, on very clear terms, there are also sins that can not be forgiven. How arrogant or willfully ignorant some believers could be: they think there is nothing really matters on God’s scale of judgment. Run away from such teachings and teachers.
It would hard to envisage a good explanation of what are unforgivable sins. I won’t venture to do so here. But in my assessment, one sin that would be included inevitably is our refusal of spiritual regeneration as the quotation from Brother Oswald Chambers indicates.
I have this parable in my heart:
Being a goat and never a sheep, such believers would accuse Jesus our good and wise shepherd being too hard or too strict on them: Have not we “believed” you? Have not we “followed” you? Have not we “devoted” our life to you and do everything for you? While all this time the Lord’s instruction and verdict are loud and clear: I can’t and will not be your shepherd unless you be changed into a sheep.
In essence, He was never their shepherd. Not that he doesn’t want to, but the fact of their being a goat in effect DISABLEs Him. He would be dishonoring and disobeying His Heavenly Father if He presumes He could do so. Think about that.
So what is the difference between a goat and a sheep? Indeed: it is THE issue of our spiritual disposition or the attitude of our heart.
Let us remember: before Him, none, absolutely no one, can exalt himself and claim right or honor when not approved or granted. That would amount to being a god to ourselves. Yes, all knees have to bow; all tongues have to confess that Jesus Christ is LORD. If He is our sovereign, and we His subject and servant, then certainly it will be where the shepherd is going, the sheep will fellow; where the master is, the servants will gather.
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.”
John 12:24-26 NIV
Right (insist in my claim to self)? Wrong!
Right (choose to let go of my right to self)? Right!
Indeed, who would encourage us even imagine otherwise? The modern man? The American spirit? A bill of rights? What nonsense when put them before the blazing light of the truth that shines valiantly forth from the Word of God! Let us be honest, simple, and truthful: the love of self and the world is the real reason for my claim to MY right. And what kind of right? My right to be an Eve, a Cain, an Esau? We know the list is long and going on and on, yesterday, today, and till the end of days. God have mercy on us, blot us from this list of death!
Death to self; life in God. To gain Him we must lose our shabby and miserable “lovely” self, discard it like a filthy (smell of death) garment, a worn and torn old wineskin, as Jesus puts it.
No one shall glory himself before the holy God; not any of us, not forever and anywhere.
Let us pay attention to those who truly have a heart for God and for us:
“And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”
1 Peter 4:18-19 NIV
“In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.”
1 Peter 5:5-6, 8-11 NIV
“Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them. Woe to them!
They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion. These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”
These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”
Jude 1:10-13, 16-21, 23 NIV
“I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh , have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.”
2 John 1:7-11 NIV
Appendix: A Note by Immanuel on 2 John 1:7-11
Different interpretations have been applied here. But obviously, this is a constant theme in John’s contest about the legitimacy and authority of his apostolic mission. Please refer to 1 John 3:1-6: 3:19-4:6 for more clarity and context. Simply put, it would be rather absurd, in the context of church history but more importantly, John’s writings themselves, to assume that the author is only addressing Jesus Himself in his earthly life or Christ came only in the person of Jesus.
Historically, that would be almost a total dismissal of the effectiveness of the gospel taught in the early days by some effective apostles. Obviously, it was through them that the ones John was concerned about came to believe in Jesus. This background seems to be undisputed.
John most likely was addressing the churches in Asia Minor, esp. the church of Ephesians, whose initial leadership was Paul and Timothy. The Ephesian church was one of the most well-taught churches during that time. Hard to imagine that the foundation and potency of the Gospel preached and nurtured by Paul and others would lose its main stay in a such short span of time (less than 30 years), to the point to dispute with John himself on the basic tenants of the Gospel. That is the fact God in the fullness of His deity or godhead had come to reveal Himself to the world in the person of Jesus, the Christ, and the Son of God. True, the influences of mysticism and many other religious and cultural traditions abound at the time, but it would be hard to imagine such elements would evolve into such a stronghold formidable enough to resist John’s representation of the Church and the validity of his apostolic ministry. Seems to me, over-exaggerating the influence of the gnostics at the time by later scholars would only distract us from discerning John’s true intention. This reading is spurred most likely from the proposition and argument of the doctrine of Trinity in a later time. But in raising up such an issue in the context of his epistles, John was obviously contending for his spiritual leadership and legitimacy of his apostolic ministry, rather refute a false doctrine that denies that Christ is fully God and fully man at the same time, a heated topic only later introduced as the only lens through which we interpret John’s intent here. The poison of Greek thinking here is easily detected. Indeed, the sons of Greece had stealthily usurped the spiritual authority and its approach to understanding the scriptures by the sons of Zion, or sons of God by the power and life of the Spirit rather than human intelligence or reasoning abilities.
“I will bend Judah as I bend my bow and fill it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and make you like a warrior’s sword.
….
The Lord their God will save his people on that day as a shepherd saves his flock. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. How attractive and beautiful they will be! Grain will make the young men thrive, and new wine the young women.”
Zechariah 9:13, 16-17 NIV
From the time of Paul as the gentiles church began to expand, contests and defenses for apostolic leadership and its legitimacy constantly became a heated issue in different local churches. We can easily find such traces in almost all the major epistles.
Most likely, as Paul warned in Acts 20, false shepherds would rise up with their natural abilities and personal charisma to draw the flock to themselves and from God’s sent and entrusted leadership. John as an overseer over the church in Asia Minor at the time would have to continue to wrestle with local leadership and some influences from the Jerusalem Church (believing Pharisees) on the merit of His ministry. Think about it; how the yeast of man’s pride and the spirit of lawlessness that drives it would be ready to prey on God’s people. Assured salvation by mental ascension or self-claiming? May that never be a delusional preposition on our part! With our eternal well-being, I’d rather be safe and sound than slippery and sloppy. We know it by our spiritual maturity and fruits.
In sum, John here is defending his apostolic ministry in representing the church the firstborn or the son-priests of God in the Name of Jesus Christ, on earth as it is in heaven. Please refer to 2 John 1:4 for clarity.
This is what is entrusted to him and other apostles in what we later call the great commission:
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20 NIV
“Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.””
Matthew 16:17-19 NIV
“Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.
For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.”
Acts 13:46-48 NIV
“Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
2 Corinthians 3:1-6 NIV
“Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.
On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”
2 Corinthians 4:1-6 NIV
In other words, like Paul, John was fending off arguments and pretensions of man’s mental or religious strongholds trying to disable and discredit their ministry as God’s sent apostles.
“By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.
On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
You are judging by appearances. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do.
We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you.”
2 Corinthians 10:1-7, 12-13 NIV
If you have time, please read 2 Cor. 10-13 for further context.
You can find in the Gospel of John many places where Jesus had to defend His ministry. And not surprisingly, mostly before the Pharisees, interpreters and teachers of the Old Testaments, and the Sadducees, the lawyers of the Law of Moses.