I often say, “Your biggest problem is that you don’t love God”? We had a good discussion about this in the Men’s Discipleship Study on Tuesday morning. I usually emphasize how we love the creature rather than the Creator — and some people have wondered, “what about selfishness? Isn’t our problem that we love ourselves?”
In one sense, I would agree that loving the creature is self-serving — namely, we think that we will get what we want — but in that sense you could also argue that loving God is self-serving, since we will certainly get the best thing by loving and serving him!
My overall point is that we were created to worship — and very few people actually worship themselves. You could look at this in terms of prophet, priest and king.
As prophets we are meaning makers. We were created to interpret and explain God’s world and word. But instead we listen to other voices and explain ourselves and our world in terms of other gods and their words [lies]. And so we wind up speaking lies to others as we speak on behalf of our gods. As prophets we trust the idol, and assign meaning or value to the idol. We think that it is capable of helping us achieve our goals. An athlete may believe that an Olympic gold medal will give him fame, importance, etc., and so he trusts in the gold medal–he sets his heart upon it.
As kings we use authority and power. We were created to use God’s authority to serve others. But instead we wield the authority of other powers to dominate and control others. Ironically, we end up enslaved to the very powers we sought to control and manipulate. And so we obey the idol’s demands. The worshipper is under the authority of the “god” he serves; he rules for the sake of the god. The athlete obeys the idol of the gold medal by strict training, and forsakes all other “gods” so that he might obtain the desired blessing. Power is exercised as trust becomes active.
As priests we mediate blessings. We were created to receive God’s blessing and give it to others. But instead we seek blessing and happiness from created things. Of course, the opposite of a blessing is a curse — and so we wind up under the curse of our gods, and mediate those curses to others. We receive the idol’s blessing or curse. The athlete wins the race, and receives the gold medal, with the supposed blessings and peace which he sought. But such blessings are illusory. It does not satisfy. If he fails, and loses the race, he receives the idol’s curse–he has no peace because he has failed his god.
As you begin to understand the idols in your own heart, you can begin to understand patterns in your life. Often, what we call “personal development” is actually the refining of our skills as idolaters! The athlete will someday learn that his body will not let him pursue the gold medal anymore. So then he turns to relationships, and tries to find meaning and purpose in his wife. He trusts her to provide a warm and caring home which gives him security and happiness (prophet); so he then obeys her demands and his whole life is consumed with attempting to make her happy (king); when he succeeds, he receives her blessings, but when he fails, he receives her curse! (priest) ESPN interviews him a few months after his retirement, and does a special feature on how the great athlete has become such a devoted family man. The sportscaster even makes a comment about how beautiful it is to see him exercising the same devotion to his family that he used to have for his athletics. What they could say is that he has simply refined his idolatry and has merely switched gods. The heart hasn’t changed.
Because honestly, is his wife capable of providing everything he wants from her? Of course not! She will fail him–just like his pursuit of the gold medal couldn’t satisfy, neither will she.
Only faith in Christ can break the death-grip of fear and bondage to idols. But how?
First we need to understand the nature of idolatry better:
Idolatry as Defiance–Gen. 3:5
We were created to imitate God for his glory–instead we imitate God to defy his glory (Rom. 1:21)
Imitation as son became perverted into imitation as rival (“you will be like God…”)
Why do people sin? Some people suggest that sin is a misguided attempt to find satisfaction, happiness, etc. Others suggest that sin is selfishness–putting self at the center, and trying to gratify the self. But if people were really seeking happiness, if people really wanted to find contentment, what would they do? Wouldn’t they turn to the truth?
Prov. 8:35-36–sin is folly. Sin is irrational. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is the love of death.
Only a covenantal perspective can make sense of this. Man is a priest who expects blessings from his covenant partner. He has a purpose for his sin. Hence there is an element of rationality involved. But this priest serves idols rather than the true God. His goal is unattainable, self-defeating, disordered, and inconsistent. Hence the irrationality of sin.
Idolatry is not merely something which arose from fearful people who were attempting to deal with the human dilemma (evolutionary portrayal of religion), idolatry is a deliberate, hateful, rebellious provocation of the Almighty God (Jer. 7:17-18)
The fear of punishment, fear of rejection, and fear of failure do not explain sin–rather, they describe the experience of those who are sinners.
The psychological confusion which so many people experience is not the unavoidable, pitiable lot of the weak and misguided–rather it is an expression of defiance against God. There is not a human being on the face of the planet who is innocent. Rather than respond to their situation with trust and obedience toward God, they prefer to follow their worthless idols–who inevitably lead them in a downward spiral.
And yet, if we are to be sons of God, imitating our Heavenly Father, then we must have compassion on these people–showering them with the peace of Christ, the Word of God, and Power of the Holy Spirit. But compassion may be expressed in numerous ways. These people think that they can have their lusts, and yet not be ruled by them. But the sinner is a slave of sin.
The solution is the gospel — Christ, the prophet who has spoken to us the Word of God and show us the way of salvation, the king who has subdued us to his will and rules and defends us from all our enemies, and the priest who has blessed us with every blessing in the heavenlies through his once-for-all sacrifice which has removed our sin!
A Religion for Everyone?
The following link is an intriguing proposal from an atheist as to how to create a “Religion for Everyone.” He suggests that the death of religion has resulted in the death of community. I especially appreciated his comment that “A church gives us rare permission to lean over and say hello to a stranger without any danger of being thought predatory or insane.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204883304577221603720817864.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
All around us are people who are disconnected and alienated from one another (and from God). When we understand that the human problem is not merely ignorance (the prophetic symptom), nor merely rebellion (the kingly symptom), nor merely sin and misery (the priestly symptom), but that all of these things are the constituent parts of idolatry — loving and worshiping the creature instead of the Creator — then we can also see how the solution is not education (by itself), nor good order in society (by itself), nor simply the forgiveness of sins (by itself), but a return to worshiping the living and true God!
And where the living and true God is worshiped and glorified aright, you will find true knowledge, good order, and the forgiveness of sins, as the prophetic, kingly, and priestly ministry of Christ is exhibited in the life of the church, unto the salvation of the world!
