Slaying the Me Monster - How to Live a Self-Less Life
Slaying the ‘Me Monster’
12”How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer….
13 For you have said in your heart:
“I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God,
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
on the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.” Isaiah 14:12-14
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
The above scriptures describe mankind’s problem. The following scriptures give us the solution to mankind’s problem.
20 “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20
14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died: 15 and He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 2Corinthians 5:14-15
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Romans 6:6,18
From the above verse in Isaiah, one can see that the devil (Lucifer) became full of himself and aspired to be equal with God. He obviously fell into pride. Notice his “I” or “I will” statements. He said these things in his heart. Along with the pride, these statements indicated he was going to break out from under God’s authority and act contrary to God’s will and plan. This was rebellion.
Then Adam and Eve aspired to be like God. They wanted to know good and evil. In other words, they wanted to determine for themselves what was good and what was evil. This is the essence of the sin nature mentioned in Romans 6:6. The heart of the sin nature or flesh is our CAPABILITY and willingness to make decisions independent of God’s leading. Our various lusts work hand in hand with this capability. Adam and Eve passed down to us this sin nature which, I repeat, is the capability and desire to think and act independently of God. There is in all of us the inherited desire to break free from God’s rule and lordship and do our own thing.
It should be noted that Adam and Eve really didn’t wake up that fateful day on pride trips, all full of themselves, and deciding this was the day for them to cut loose. The reason Eve initially considered eating the forbidden fruit was because the serpent basically told her that God was lying to her in order to keep something good from her (Genesis 3:5). Then, afterwards, she noticed the multiple allurements of the fruit.
Read the rest of the post about Slaying the Me Monster on TheLordsSupper.org by Chris Tento