by Neil Anderson

September 12

Genesis 3:4, 5
The serpent said . . . “you will be like God, knowing good and evil”

Adam was the first to be tempted by the notion that he could “be like God” (Genesis 3:5), which is the essence of the self-centered worldview that Satan promotes. Millions have been seduced by Satan into believing that they are God. The New Age Movement is promoting this lie on a grand and international scale.

However, the biblical account of creation clearly establishes that only God the Creator is truly God. Adam and his ancestors are not gods; we are created beings which cannot exist apart from God. The diabolical idea that man is his own god is the primary link in the chain of spiritual bondage to the kingdom of darkness.

The problem with man’s attempt at being his own god is that he was never designed to occupy that role. He lacks the necessary attributes to determine his own destiny. Even sinless, spiritually alive Adam in the Garden of Eden before the Fall wasn’t equipped to be his own god. Contrary to what the New Agers tell us, the potential to be a god never was in you, isn’t in you now, and never will be in you. Being God is God’s capacity alone.

If you desire to live in freedom from the bondage of the world, the flesh and the devil, this primary link in the chain must be renounced. The self-centered worldview which Satan and his emissaries are promoting must be replaced by the perspective that Jesus introduced to His disciples in the wake of Peter’s self-preserving rebuke in Matthew 16: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it” (verses 24, 25). In the next several days, we will examine the view from the cross.

Prayer: Father, forgive me for the occasions when I have usurped Your place in my life. You are my Lord and my God.