IN PREVIOUS articles we have mentioned our need to compensate for our lack of self-worth and security by using methods that will build a Christian sense of self-worth. How did this all begin?
Man originally was formed in the image of Cod and partook of His nature. What does it mean to par take of the nature of God? The Sermon on the Mount points to that nature which characterizes God's children. Perhaps it is best summed up in the latter part of the chapter: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:43-48).
God loves both His enemies and His friends, and when we partake of His nature we will love as He loves. Verse 48 challenges us to be perfect as God is perfect. This perfection is perfection in love, and as God is love, we are to be come love. That is, as the divine Spirit dwells within our hearts, we are to say with Christ, as He looked down upon those who watched Him being crucified, "Forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
We can only experience this kind of love by being connected with the Source of this love. In communing with Christ we will be able to discern, as Christ discerned, that we as human beings have been both self-deceived and also blinded by Satan's delusions. As we become freed from this darkness through partaking of the Light, our hearts will be filled with concern and pity for those who are still deluded. We will want others to share in the love experience that we have found with Christ.
In Genesis 3:4, 5 we note that Satan promised Eve that she would become as God if she took things into her own hands and made her own decisions. In order for her to make this decision on her own, however, she had to dis trust God and put more trust in herself and her own abilities to make decisions.
Eve gave in to this temptation, thus taking matters into her own hands. Although she was already like God, she believed Satan in thinking that she was not already as God but would become such by trusting in herself. She confused being like Him in nature with being like Him in power, when actually His power is given to those who are like Him in nature.
What was the result of choosing to distrust God? "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons" (Gen. 3:7).
Here is man's first attempt at righteousness by works. Some times this passage is interpreted as indicating only Adam and Eve's recognition that they were physically naked. However, there is a much deeper meaning. The nakedness that they felt included an anxiety about their condition. It expressed self-condemnation and lack of security coupled together with the fear of God and a distrust of Him. It involved a sense of loss of their righteousness.
When God came to fallen man and asked "Where art thou?" Adam replied that he was afraid when he heard God. This demonstrates that trust in God and love for Him had been displaced by distrust and fear. Adam's Godlike nature had so changed that he was willing now to accuse Eve of being at fault, and in so doing tried to turn any responsibility away from himself.
Eve also used the same tactic and blamed the serpent. In so doing she was really blaming God. What she was saying was, "It isn't my fault; it is the serpent's fault, and You made him." This tend ency to reject responsibility and to turn blame away from our selves by pointing an accusing finger at someone else is all too familiar.
How may this condition be changed and how may man be brought back to his original trust and love for God—a trust and love that had been lost because of confusion and misconception of the true character of God? Gene sis 3:15 helps us understand, as it helped Adam and Eve: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The promise is made that the woman will be given an off spring who will bruise the head of the serpent, that is, Satan. It promises a Saviour born of a human mother.
Genesis 3:21 reveals that God made Adam and his wife coats of skin to cover their nakedness. The skins of innocent animals who did not take part in the sin of distrust of God were used as a means to point forward to the Saviour. Only as we are covered by Christ's righteousness and partake of His nature, is our nakedness covered.
Before this can happen we must put away our fig-leaf garments of self-righteous works and allow Christ to clothe us with His robe of righteousness.
Satan's own experience demonstrates what he meant when he promised that man would be come like God. "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. ... I will be like the most High" (Isa. 14: 13, 14).
In these verses Satan's nature is described. Because of sin, Adam and Eve and all of us who are their offspring have become like him. We are self-exultant even as he is self-exultant. He claims God is of this same nature—that He is the kind of being who wishes His creatures to worship and exalt Him, but really has no concern for them.
What Satan really promised wasn't that they would become like God but rather that they would become like him. Adam and Eve did become like him. So did their descendants. Man, because of his confused understanding of God and because he sees God as one like himself, feels hostile to ward God and has feelings of fear and insecurity. He feels estranged from God and therefore lacks self-worth. Because he is estranged from God he also distrusts his fellow beings who partake of the same insecurity and distrust and lack of self-worth with which he is so familiar.
Jesus, therefore, had to come to show us the true nature of God, a Being completely empty of self and full of self-sacrificing love, willing to do anything to save His creatures.
Results of Insecurity
Because of sin, guilt, insecurity, and the feeling of a lack of self-worth, sinful man tries to compensate by using pride or some form of escape. He clings to things—"I have the finest house, the biggest car, the best-looking clothes, or the biggest bank ac count." He clings to the pride of moralism—"I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't do the things that others do; therefore, I am better than they." Note that materialism and moralism are the sins of Laodicea mentioned in Revelation 3:14-20.
Another symbol of selfish insecurity is the oft-heard prideful claim, "I have the truth," as if somehow we are responsible for it, when it is a gift of God and He is responsible. Whatever we have received is only what He has given. We do not have the truth unless love dwells in our hearts. When Christ abides there, there will be no need to cover our selves with the rags of self-righteousness. Nor will we need to use methods of escape to relieve our anxieties such as drug abuse, alcoholism, overeating, or adultery.
Adultery is the use of another person for one's own ends. In fact, any kind of manipulation of another person for one's own ends is sin. These are all false methods of seeking to relieve our anxieties and lack of security by ways other than through a relationship with Christ.
All these compensatory methods of dealing with the anxieties of insecurity and lack of self-worth were brought on by the original sin of distrust of God and are self-defeating because they eventually drive others away from us and involve us in even greater feelings of insecurity and lack of self-worth.
We are caught up in a down ward spiral plunge that takes us deeper and deeper the more fully we engage in these false methods. However, God breaks this downward spiral by impressing on our hearts His tender claim, "You need not fear Me; I love you. I have always loved you. Even when you hated Me, I accepted you. Come to know Me as I really am, as seen in Jesus Christ."
The Bible, of course, defines sin as the breaking of the law (1 John 3:4). But we are also told that any thing which is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23).
Sin brings death—not as a penalty, but as the natural result of self-destruction. We might therefore say that sin is anything that destroys the life forces or causes pain or anxiety or shortens life. Thus, emotional stress when it leads to worry, fear, guilt, and anxiety, is sin. Thought patterns, including that of a poor self-concept, which are self-destructive, may also be classified as sin. This is why this kind of stress contributes to various physical diseases that we have mentioned, such as heart attack.
In using this definition of sin, it is not for the purpose of convincing us that we are all sinners, but rather to help us understand that these things are destructive. This destructive tendency in man began with his distrust of God and his consequent placing of trust in himself. He was given the power to choose, and in choosing to dis trust God he became bound by the anxiety and confusion of sin. The only real cure for this is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who restores man through his own choice to the original position of love of and trust in God.
How We Are Changed
Love changes us at the very core of our being, the seat of our motives, the heart. The polluted stream of our attitudes, thoughts, and feelings must be cleansed at its source. Damming up our anger, fear, frustration, and worry by repression gives us a false appearance of calm. Sooner or later the dam will crack or break completely. A crack in the wall that holds back the rising torrent of our emotional stream will show itself in physical disorder; and if the dam collapses, our emotions may spend their wrath upon us in mental turmoil and collapse, or upon our loved ones in hatred and dislike.
The change in our thoughts and feelings through personal involvement with Christ brings about true character change. As was mentioned in a previous article, a change in our feelings must take place because the physical responses to stress are controlled by our emotions and feelings acting through the autonomic nervous system, which is not under the direct control of the will. We cannot control them any more than we can control blushing when we feel embarrassed.
The Ten Commandment law of love will be written on the seat of our motives, the heart, and the fruit of this character change will show forth in our actions. "True character is a quality of the soul, revealing itself in the conduct."— Child Guidance, p. 161. The method of accomplishing this change is foreign to the self-reliant, works-oriented, mind of man. God's love must be under stood at the deepest levels of the mind rather than just at the intellectual, superficial level.
As the self-sufficient one looks with astonished surprise and deep sorrow at his crucifixion of the Son of God, his heart fills with love and anguish. His rebellious, self-satisfied heart is broken. He knows that of himself he can do nothing, and he throws himself into the merciful, loving arms of his Saviour and asks Him to direct his life.
At this point, please notice the diagram that accompanies this article. It demonstrates how God returns to His temple, the mind of man. "He has prepared this living habitation for the mind; it is 'curiously wrought,' a temple which the Lord Himself has fitted up for the indwelling of His Holy Spirit."— Special Testimonies on Education, p. 33.
Our personal values and standards become God's values and standards. The self-depreciation that has been concealed by the fig leaves of pride and self-righteousness is replaced by a self-respect dependent upon our worth in God's sight. Our fears are replaced by the security of trust in our all-powerful heavenly Father. Perfect love and peace be gin to flood the heart as our eyes are opened to spiritual understanding through the eyesalve of spiritual discernment. Our most important experiences become those that we have with God.
All our needs, whether they be physical, biological, or psycho logical, are met in Him through faith and cooperation with His will. The false self-protective emotional tendencies are replaced. The false strength of dominance and the false humility of dependency are replaced by the true strength and humility of God-given courage and self-forgetfuiness.
Trust in God
The false peace and calmness of avoidance is replaced by an abiding peaceful trust in God, and apathy is replaced by genuine concern for others. Our minds are returned to true self-control dependent upon faith as we progressively, through Christ, allow Him to gain control over our carnal desires and temptations.
Our thoughts and attitudes are backed by the "invisible commit tees" of holy angels. We become one with them in desiring to serve God. The apostles and prophets help to direct our lives through prayer and the study of their writings inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Angels use us to speak words of love and encouragement to others and to point them to the cleansing power of Christ.
Christ's knowledge, joy, peace, and love can be ours! This is the only possible way that stress and its effects can ever be overcome in our lives.
