“There is
none Like Me!” Is God an Egotist?
Does God have a double standard? On the one hand Jesus
explains to us that the principles of His Fathers Kingdom require selflessness
and humility. On the other God speaks of His greatness and requires our
worship. What is the answer?
Jesus reveals that the
First
let’s look at why God rejects selfish motivation. Self focus is valued
here on earth. There is even a system of reward and encouragement for such
motivation in this world. It is treated as a virtue. Emulation and self
exaltation has long been the method of success. Jesuit schooling, drawing from
this very motivation for instance out did the reform education movement of
Protestantism and brought about the decline of the success of Protestantism
prior to the midnight cry in 1844. As stated, one of its main tenants of
education was to appeal to emulation as one of the greatest forces in human
improvement. It borrowed such earthly wisdom from the great civilizations such
as
In
Philippians’ 2 Paul contrasts the nature of Christ with mans selfish
nature. He says let nothing be done through strife and vain glory and pleads
with us to accept the mind of Christ Jesus. Note he does not say “have it”, or “develop it” but “let
it be in you”. It comes from without!
Contrast
this with Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:13-19 where we see the character of
Satan personified in human rulers.
Both texts shift from earthly kings to describing Satan himself and the
core of His nature and revolt. It is the “I” complex. Self focus
and egotism was and is the nucleus of all sin and suffering. I recently
listened to a recorded interview with Hitlers
sister. She spoke affectionately of him but noted that he, as a child, always
commanded first place. His friends knew better than to vie for position with
him around. It is not bad to seek to be a leader. It is however another thing
to seek always to be first. Since this desire is the dynamo of our fallen
nature we are innately powerless to operate by any other drive. Even our
“love” draws its origin from self gratification. Yes, even
Romeo’s love was most likely drawn from the hope of self gratification.
Sorry ladies!
Therefore
Jesus tells us we must be reborn from above. We must die and take His life in
place of ours. Our old nature is not educatable, or
repairable in terms of righteousness. It is bereft of true goodness. On the
other hand we can know pure love, for the Holy Spirit is constantly at work to
bring true love into our hearts. He does not only work with professed
Christians. Christ though the Spirit draws all men to know God’s pure
goodness. If they will not resist they will be drawn by Christ to the Father.
“No man comes to the Father but by me.” Jesus stated. So although
we are innately only selfish we can know a love that comes from without. By
God’s grace, through His forgiveness and restoration we can know true
righteousness.
But
back to the question about selflessness....God uses a lot of “I”
statements does He not? If we were to view God as identical to us we could see
Him as an egotist. God uses the “I” word as well as Satan. He
requires our worship and if we resist we will be lost. He wants us to worship
Him alone. He wants us to be focused on His greatness and awesomeness. He wants
to be seen as the greatest!
Have
you read the book of Job? If we read without understanding it might seem that
God is actually stuck on Himself? There seems to be a contradiction here!
However if you will allow the sweet Spirit of God to explain Himself, He will.
“Come let us reason together” says the Lord. He has left us His
word and His Cross to explain Himself to us. That
alone tells us something.
What
All Powerful Being has to answer to any fleeting mortal? But God does. He sent
His Son Who was the express image of Himself. I love to say that the greatest
art was hung on a nail and framed in wood, but that art did not hang in
well-to-do gallery walls. He hung at
So why does He require our
worship? He does not force it but we cannot remain in His kingdom without it.
Why? For the same reason there are rules about which direction to drive on the
freeway. If you don’t heed them you endanger your life and others. God
wants our worship for the same reason a mother desires her helpless infant to
receive her breast milk. God actually compares Himself to nursing mothers and
states that even though their love may fail in the most extreme circumstance
His love for us will not fail.
Isa 49:15,16. KJV. Can a woman forget her sucking child,
that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea,
they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven
thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before
me.
He says this. “Look,
can’t you see I have engraved you upon the palms of my hands. “ You
see at Calvary God eternally scarred Himself with the sacrifice of Life for us
that we might know Him. That we might know He is devoid of self interest and
all for his Creatures, even for those who are His enemies by nature. That was
the answer to Satan’s accusations. That was the proof. It was a selfless
act that God did not have to do. He could have started over with the loyal
subjects He had. He could have erased us all in and instant. But instead he
offered His own personal sacrifice by selfless love.
So we worship for the same
reason a baby sucks. The God who nurses us longs for our happiness and mutual
love. He longs for us to grow into His image. He enjoys our enjoyment of
Himself because He knows it is the only way for us to have perfect happiness
and to perfectly love one another.
In short you are to
worship God because it is the means to your own wholeness in Him. His worship
will bring you to a painful realization of you deformity and you will cry out
in horror. “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death.” Romans 7:24. But Jesus is presented as the hope of all
mankind. Wholeness is impossible without His worship for He is the only source
of wholeness. He is not in it for the glory. He simply does not need it. He
already has it within Himself. He is actually looking out for you in all this
as a mother looks to benefit her child. He simply is worthy of worship because
He is selflessness. He alone is worthy. He is God. Worship cannot corrupt Him
for there is no self in Him to corrupt. Christ took our self prone nature but
added to it the divine. Self never once found expression in Him but Jesus had
to literally resist the temptation to yield to self survival in a way that he
would not have had to resist if he had not taken our frame. He knows our frame
and what we struggle with and He knows how to lead us to victory in Him.
(Rom 8:3 KJV) For what the law could not do, in that
it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
We can by grace become “partakers of the Divine
nature.” 2 Peter 1:4. “Christ in you the hope of Glory.”
“What
wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for
my soul?”
Brian Dunne