The Basis For Sin

But you said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.”
–Isaiah 14:13

In Isaiah 14, we find a blow-by-blow description of the war that Lucifer began in heaven. Just like Ezekiel, Isaiah was told to deliver a prophecy against a human king, but then God once again addressed the power behind the king–Satan. Look at what He said in verses 12-14: “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” Perhaps these feelings had been building for a long time, and they erupted one day when Lucifer was attending a positive thinking seminar. We do not know. But at some point, Lucifer began to ask himself, “What do I really want in life?” As he let his imagination run wild, he thought to himself, “Instead of visiting heaven occasionally, I would like to live there permanently. Instead of ruling over one class of angels, I would like to rule over all the angels. Instead of bowing down to that spoiled Son of God, I would like to sit on the throne and make Him worship me. When I think about it, what I really want in life is to be God Himself.”

Up until that point in time, there had only been one will in the universe, the will of God. But now there were two wills–God’s will and Satan’s will. We do not know how it is that a perfect creature like Lucifer suddenly had these thoughts of rebellion. In theology, we call it the “mystery of iniquity.” But the basis for the first sin and every sin since then is the insidious thought, “I want something different than what God wants for my life.”

In your life right now, every sin against God is based on that same foundational thought: “I want something different than what God wants for my life.” Whenever we ask ourselves, “What do I really want in life?” we are asking the same question Lucifer did, and we are dangerously close to falling into the same rebellion. “What do I really want in life?” is not the question for a Christian. The question should be, “What does God want for my life? What is His will for me?” Yes, God can work through our desires. As Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” If you are walking with the Lord and obeying His will, God often gives you His direction through those desires He places into your heart. But even though God can work through our desires, there is a cancer cell of rebellion in every human heart that we have inherited from our father and our father’s father, all the way back to Adam. It is that cancer cell of rebellion that says, “I want something different than what God wants for my life.” That was the basis for the first sin.

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “The Purpose-Driven Strife” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2010.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.