"When a man sins, he thereby brings a covenantal lawsuit against God. His action violates all five points of the covenant. First, he denies that God is who He says He is: the Lawgiver and eternal Judge. Second, he declares himself no longer under God's hierarchical authority. Third, he says that God's ethical standards do not apply to him. Fourth, he denies that God can or will apply His sanctions, either in history or eternity. Fifth, he asserts that covenant-breakers shall inherit the earth."
- Gary North, "Tools of Dominion"
What North describes here is autonomy, the false belief that mankind is or can be free of God's government. It is the same thing that Satan offered in the temptation of Adam and Eve: "Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5). We tend to see these words and think of knowing about good and evil. However, Adam had already been taught about good and evil when God gave him the commandment not to eat of the tree and the consequences if he disobeyed. Rather, Satan is lying to Adam and Eve, promising them that eating of the forbidden fruit will give them the power to decide good and evil. Satan was offering autonomy to Adam and Eve, autonomy from their previous creaturely status, in which they received God's interpretation of good and evil. That is the way in which they would supposedly be like God, having power and authority to interpret for themselves what would be good and evil.
That brings us back to North's comments above. In the reception of Satan's interpretation, a man repudiates his status as God's creation, and seeks to dethrone God as Lawgiver and Judge, imagining, falsely, that he will then be promoted to sit in God's throne.
No comments:
Post a Comment