Living Before the Face of God
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This morning’s Scripture lessons are from the books of Genesis and Exodus. The first is...
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
The second is...
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Finally, from Exodus 20:3:
“You shall have no other gods before me.
May God bless this the reading of His holy and infallible Word.
The Westminster Divines correctly taught that the reason God gives for us not to commit idolatry is because “God sees all things and takes notice of them.” The whole of our lives are lived under the gaze of God. It is not only our actions that God sees, but our thoughts and motives as well. Everything is laid bare before the all-seeing eye of God! However, there is more here than just this. God in seeing judges all things and declares them either good or evil. This brings us to the first point:
Seeing is Judging
Seeing is Judging
We see this reflected in our Scripture lessons from Genesis today. God is the only one who has the authority to judge what He sees as good or evil, and we must depend upon His judgements. Notice what is happening in the Genesis 3 narrative. Eve knew that the fruit upon this tree was evil, because God said it was. What Satan did was to suggest that God’s “seeing” and thus His “judgements” were defective. He then suggests to Eve that see could be “like God” and judge for herself what is “good and evil”. It was at this moment that she “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise”. In other words, she chose to “see” apart for God’s revelation, and in doing so she made herself into a false god. In other words, she was breaking the First Commandment!
Living before the face of God is choosing to see and judge reality through God’s eyes. How, you may ask, do we see and judge reality through God’s eye? We learn God’s judgements in His Word. Remember we learned several weeks ago in this series that one of the terms Moses uses to describe God’s Law is “judgements”.
Sadly, our society refuses to do this. Most Americans, and this includes the majority of Americans we claim to be Christians, lives their daily lives as if God does not exist and that there is no transcendent standard of truth. Authenticity is no longer seen as conforming to an eternal, transcendent standard of “the good, the true, and the beautiful”, now each individual must look into themselves and conform to their innermost desires and emotions. This is what people mean today we they speak of being “authentic”.
This is idolatry and it is a black hole!
The Black Hole of Seeing Without God’s Revelation
The Black Hole of Seeing Without God’s Revelation
A black hole is a star that collapses in on itself. As it collapses in on itself, the gravitational pull is so great that light cannot even escape it. This is why it is called a “black hole”. This is what happens to us when we attempt to “see” without God. This is what Jesus was speaking of when He said:
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Apart from God’s revelation, our eyes are “unhealthy”. We are no longer able to make sound judgements. The first sin was not Adam and Eve eating the fruit. The first sin was when Adam and Eve choose not to live before the face of God by seeing and judging apart from God’s Word. Eve’s judgements gave her away, for the tree was not good for food, nor was it a delight to the eyes, and was not to be desired to make one wise”. Why not? Because God said so!
Modern man assumes that we are born innocent and what is found in our innermost beings is good. This according to God’s Word is not true. When the Apostle Paul examined himself by the light of God’s Word, this is what he found:
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
Earlier, I used the analogy of a black hole. Deep inside each of us is a evil, dark place. This is what Paul means by “the flesh”. In other parts of Scripture this rotten inner core is referred to as “the natural man” or “the sin nature”. To venture into this dark and evil place unaided by the light of God’s Word is foolish and dangerous. We will come out of that dark place of our innermost desires and emotions not as a more authentic person, but rather as a devil. Again, hear the words of Jesus:
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
There are a couple of resources I would recommend to help you better understand how we arrived at this place as a society. The first is How Should We Then Live?by Francis Schaeffer and Strange New World by Carl Trueman. I have posted links to these two books on our church’s Facebook page; but enough of this talk of darkness, I want to move on to speak of the light. The place to find true authenticity is in God’s Word, especially the Word made flesh—Jesus Christ.
Discovering Your Authentic Self Through the Eyes of God
Discovering Your Authentic Self Through the Eyes of God
John’s gospel opens with a wonderful promise:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Self-examination is necessary to be a healthy and whole individual, but we must do so in the correct way—in the light of God’s Word, especially in the light of Jesus Christ.
The Psalms for example are filled with examples of people examining their thoughts, desires, and emotions, but they did not venture into the dark places of the inner person blindly; they lite their way with the light of God’s Word.
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
And of God, David writes:
For it is you who light my lamp;
the Lord my God lightens my darkness.
Not only is the Word of God a lamp, it is also a sword by which we put to death the monstrous desires and emotions we find there:
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The goal is not simply to look inside in order to slay the evil we find there, but to lift our eyes unto heaven and conform ourselves to Christ. Our true selves, our true humanity is not found inside us, but rather outside of us. Jesus is called the Second Adam because He is the standard for true authenticity. In Hebrews 12:2, we are told to “look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith”. When God the Father, made His plan of salvation, we are told in Romans 8:29 that the end goal is to “conform [us] to the image of His Son”.
All of this illustrates the folly of idolatry. The idolater tries to be a “god”, and in doing so becomes a devil. On the other hand, those who live life before the face of God, become more and more like God as they conform to the image of His Son! What a great salvation we have through Jesus Christ! As we come to the Lord’s Table this morning cast off the foolish ways of idolatry and turn your eyes upon Jesus, for He is the Light of the world!