Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The Angelic Conflict. Part 44. A new individual around whom the greatest battles of the invisible war would be fought.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Point 10. The Pseudo Victory of Satan in the Original Fall of Man.
When Satan and the fallen angels rebelled against God, God still could not permit a rebellion without showing His hatred for sin, rebellion, and independence from the Creator.
His attitude toward rebellion and independence from the Creator had to be proclaimed even though He would permit Satan and the fallen angels to prove their case before all creation.
ROM 1:25 “They exchanged the doctrine from God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator”
2TI 3:4 “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”
In eternity past, before the creation of the human race, because of the rebellion of Satan and the fallen angels, God spoke the Word of judgment and the entire world we call planet earth, the domain of Satan, was blasted into chaos with a single breath from God.
We do not know how long the interval took place, but it finally came to an end, and the next act of this universal drama was ready to begin - the creation of man!
Satan, the one who had claimed to be equal with God, was about to be revealed as the liar and deceiver he really was!
The divine command went forth and when the light pushed back the curtains of darkness, the stage, planet earth, which had been reset, was seen to be empty.
A new individual would be created around whom the greatest battles of the invisible war would be fought.
Finally after six days of preparation, the new character stepped on the scene: homo sapien or man, a new creature made lower than the angels!
The very place which had been the scene of the challenge to the authority of God was now to see His victorious vindication.
Out of the fall of Satan and the subsequent fall of man, through the redemption provided in Christ, God would bring a mighty company of believers and sons who would live with Him forever without the remotest possibility that any one of them ever claim any power in his own right.
God is the one true God, there is none like unto Him, He is the source of life and power, and to Him shall be ascribed all of the praise and the glory.
DEU 23:5 “The Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you.”
It becomes evident that the creation of man was a deliberate move of divine strategy in the invisible war.
Out of this creation and the fall and out of the redemption which was to follow, there was to come the complete revelation of the depths of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, ROM 11:33.
This has been called “the paradox of the fortunate fall.”
God created man below all of these angelic orders and tied him to earth with the law of gravity, limiting him in space, in time, in intelligence, and in power.
Out of the lowest, God shall bring the highest.
Out of the insignificant, God shall bring the significant.
He shall Himself condescend to be a member of this lower creation called humans!
Out of that creation, even out of man’s fallen condition, God will reach down below the level man was created and bring new sons who shall be associated with Him forever and ever for all eternity.
ROM 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
Out of the creation of a lower creature called man will come the greatest glory to God and the full and total victory in the invisible war or the angelic conflict.
The battle of the garden of Eden, though on the surface a victory for Satan, was in reality the beginning of his ultimate defeat.
This is where the angelic conflict or the invisible war, the drama begins on the stage of human history.
He first attacked the Word of God when he said, “Indeed, has God said?” which was a subtle question of doubt concerning the authenticity and validity of God’s word.
LUK 8:12 “And those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they may not believe and be delivered.”
The battle of the garden of Eden, though on the surface a victory for Satan, was in reality the beginning of his ultimate defeat.
Doubt comes from not having enough doctrine or not believing that which you have.
MAT 14:31 “O you of little faith [doctrine], why did you doubt?”
MAR 11:23 “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain [major obstacle], ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him.”
ROM 14:23 whatever is not from faith is sin.
Beginning with Eve, Satan has been successful to the extent that the majority of believers have been detached from the only source of spiritual life, the Word of God.
Here we see the divine explanation of the present fallen state of man and the ruined condition of our race.
He was making the blunt suggestion that man had rights and should declare his independence from God.
Gen 3 - the subtle devices of our enemy, the devil who possessed the serpent and deceived the woman, as he out-rightly denies the word of God, GEN 3:4.
Here we also see the universal tendency of human nature to cover its own moral shame by a device of man’s own handiwork.
Here we also discover the spiritual effects of sin - man seeking to flee from God.
Gen 3 - we see God searching for fallen man while fallen man hides from God.
Here we witness the utter powerlessness of man to walk in the path of righteousness when divine grace is withheld from him, GEN 3:11-12.
Here we are taught of the gracious provision which God has made to meet our great need through His seed, TLJC!
We also see the attitude of God toward the guilty sinner.
Many passages in Scripture indicate the great interest of the angelic hosts in all of the events which concern the earth, mankind, and the whole plan of God.
The first thing Satan tries is to deceive the new creature called man into following him and rejecting God.
The invisible war, which had remained in a quiet phase throughout an unknown period when the earth had been in ruin, was now renewed in great intensity.
He began to move through seductive temptation to get man away from God, but more than this, he was seeking to get man to give allegiance to himself.
Everything that has ever come out of mankind for good since the origin of the human race was contained in Adam and his bride.