Presumption and faith, compromise and balance
Presumption and faith can look very similar; as can compromise and balance. The former are the sources from which the latter spring.
Presumption leads to compromise. Faith is humble and self-deprecating; presumption is proud and self-sufficient. Faith takes the blessings of God and then asks Him how to enjoy them according to His will. Presumption leads to compromise. It takes the blessings of God and gives itself permission to abuse them. Neither does it look to God for advice; it needs none. Presumption dares to use holy principles for its own lusts. When the tempter came to Christ in the wilderness and brought Him up to the top of the temple, he quoted scripture to the Savior. The creator and master of presumption manipulated the Holy Writ in a way that compromised its own principles.
This is how apostasy often happens. God’s peculiar people desire to be less peculiar to the world. They desire a less sacrificing life, and Satan coaches them in how to buttress a new code of ethics by abusing the word of God. It happened to the Jews in Alexandria, Egypt where they congregated to feel safer after escaping Nebuchadnezzar’s desolation of Israel and to feel more comfortable than roughing it in the devastated land. It happened to the Christian church when it survived the 10 year persecution by Emperor Diocletian (303-313 AD) after having allowed the doctrines of Mithraism, for two hundred years, to slowly supplant Christ’s everlasting gospel.
Legalism leads to a reaction. Through legalism the ground work for apostasy has always begun at the opposite end of the devil’s bipolar work that leads to presumption. The truth of God became a galling yoke when the church of God lost its first love for Him. When earnest heart work and obedience to all of God’s commandments are neglected then repentance and conversion cease to exist in the followers of Jesus. The first love dies. Then, the true religion spirals downward into suffocating righteousness by works, a legalistic and punctilious effort to keep a set of rules because the Person behind those rules has been lost sight of.
When that bleak, empty, anxious life goes on for a while, and the soul of the church is dried up, then it must seek something outside of the true religion to tranquilize and soothe the misery of the heart. Thus the group professing the true God moves from a healthy relationship with Him to a corporate fasting devoid of Him, and finally to a drunken party while professing Him. The Lord adjudged the human nature correctly from the top of Mt. Sinai when He was ready to destroy the intoxicated people playing below. And He revealed to the New Testament church His mind by recording the incident 1500 years previously, clearly establishing His attitude toward presumption and compromise. If only the church had looked and learned.
But the death-like condition that came with their Christless, loveless religion had ground so long upon the church’s thoughts that, in their madness, their only desire was to save themselves, and to flee to the intoxicating ways of Mithraism to relieve the dearth that tormented every fiber of their being.
When Israel in the wilderness complained for flesh to eat, the Lord gave them quail in abundance. But love was not their operating motive, and their empty souls flew upon the birds.
“So they did eat, and were well filled: for He gave them their own desire;
They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
The wrath of God came upon them.”
“While the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague.” (Ps. 78:29-31;Num. 11:33).
The Bible is not a fairy tale, but a lesson book for all ages. If only we will look and learn.
Truth opposed to error is easily distinguishable. But truth versus error mixed with truth is more difficult to dissect. It requires a serious study to detect the falsehood; a casual, careless look will never see the difference. And while Satan still runs loose, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will always sit right in the middle of everything God creates to beautify the earth, including the most beautiful of all, His church. Satan will make sure of it.
How is it that the great apostate works so successfully on this issue? How can we escape his well-laid, ingenious snares? When multitudes have fallen into one or the other of the two ditches of presumption and legalism which lay along the narrow path all through the ages, what confidence can we have that we won’t also fall? What hope does the Advent movement have to survive all the way until Jesus comes?
The answer is simple to know, but difficult to do. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Prov. 16:25). “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” (Jn. 14:15). “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Lk. 9:23).
But, to the soul suffering from separation from God, this doesn’t necessarily present comfort for the aching heart. I know, because I’ve been there. For years I dodged these precepts of Jesus in my search for peace of mind. So He let me have my way and He tailored my choices so that I could experience consequences that gave me something to really cry about. Finally, when I had had quite enough of the contemptible “good life” then I found myself begging for God’s help, and ready to take up my cross and follow Him.
“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:24). Nothing can create repentance except the stone cold Law that harshly and firmly reveals sin, and the goodness of a jealous and warm Lawgiver who yearns for the sinner.
At conversion we receive the one and only protection against presumption, and toward legalism, its alter-ego. When we finally go from seeing God as our enemy and Satan as our friend, to seeing God as our friend and Satan as our enemy, then it is that the filter that disregarded righteousness and love but left us wide open to hedonism and selfishness, makes the big shift to filtering out all that Satan bombards us with, and filters in all that the Holy Spirit has been bombarding us with.
With the new heart comes a new principle of action. A heaven-born love, a God-sent wisdom and understanding give a depth of discernment that can never exist in the human heart without conversion.
When men are bound together, not by force or self-interest, but by love, they show the working of an influence that is above every human influence. Where this oneness exists, it is evidence that the image of God is being restored in humanity, that a new principle of life has been implanted. It shows that there is power in the divine nature to withstand the supernatural agencies of evil, and that the grace of God subdues the selfishness inherent in the natural heart. Desire of Ages, p. 678.
That guiding principle of action rightly interprets the written word of God, and alone can save us from the pits the destroyer has prepared from the human race. “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. … The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” (1Jn. 2:20,27).
Without this new principle of self-forgetful love as a guiding light, we are bound to dwell in one of the two camps of Satan, legalism or lawlessness. Lawlessness, out of which springs presumption which runs to compromise.
Faith is in no sense allied to presumption. Only he who has true faith is secure against presumption. For presumption is Satan's counterfeit of faith. Faith claims God's promises, and brings forth fruit in obedience. Presumption also claims the promises, but uses them as Satan did, to excuse transgression. Faith would have led our first parents to trust the love of God, and to obey His commands. Presumption led them to transgress His law, believing that His great love would save them from the consequence of their sin. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions on which mercy is to be granted. Genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures.
Often when Satan has failed of exciting distrust, he succeeds in leading us to presumption. If he can cause us to place ourselves unnecessarily in the way of temptation, he knows that the victory is his. God will preserve all who walk in the path of obedience; but to depart from it is to venture on Satan's ground. Desire of Ages, p. 126
Jesus did not presume on God's promises by going unbidden into temptation. Desire of Ages, p. 129
Only those who know the divine love of Christ and who yearn for the release of sinners from their enslavement to sin, who are in constant communion with Jesus and earnestly follow every commandment of God, will discern the correct course to take in every given moment. They will break down man-made taboos. They will be misunderstood and receive to themselves all the calumny and character assassination that the unconverted multitudes can heap on them.
They will follow the path of everyone who has known the mind of Christ. Prejudices will fall in the hearts of those who have found pretentious men to block their path to the truth and the Savior; and prejudices and suspicion will rise up against them in the hearts of those who don’t want to know the truth. Of the baby Jesus it was prophesied, “Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.” (Lk. 2:34). The same must be expected by those who have the Son and love Him with all their heart, mind, and soul.
Christ led the perfectly balanced life. His joy was never without calm, serious loyalty to His Father’s law of life. Yet, He never bore His heavy burdens without a quiet joy as a result of His Father’s law of life. He dearly loved His disciples. “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” (Jn. 13:1). He loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He loved His mother; He loved the multitudes. He loved the Pharisees and religious leaders. Yet, never did He let that love eclipse His love for His Father’s righteousness. His Father’s will was ever before Him.
Divine love will moderate the actions of those who have received Jesus. When He comes again to execute judgment, He says, “behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” (Rev. 22:12). Yet, many will be rejected because of their good works. (Matt. 7:22,23). His reply to them is the indictment that they really were workers of iniquity. Their life and service looked good and they sincerely believed they were good people; but in reality they were destructive in the worst way.
How can these things be? How can people be so mistaken, so deluded? Because situation and timing have everything to do with true righteousness; and the proper performance of righteousness can only be accomplished through the Holy Spirit. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:... A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up….” (Ecc. 3:1,3).
When bitterness and hatred are the operating motive, the moral predator will rebuke when it is time to comfort, and thus drive the victim into greater suffering or possibly even into permanent rebellion. Satan and his agents come “not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” (Jn. 10:10). When it is time to serve the helpless and stand opposed to the restrictions that are in place due to the commandments of men, legalism refuses to stoop down and to do good.
When it is time to hold the standard firmly and presumption rules the soul, instead of rebuking sin and calling it by its right name, it will work to minimize the standard. It will seek a twisted meaning of the Bible injuctions regarding practical godliness, and divide and misconstrue the obvious and common sense meaning of scripture to circumvent all prohibitions against its parlicular darling sins.
Love, gracious and just, kind yet never doting in familiarity, is the principle which provides the only true guide to serving God and man. “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance”—temperance, which is balance, self-control. (2Pet. 1:5,6). “Let your moderation be known unto all men.” (Phil 4:5). Only through gracious, principled love can we escape the pits of legalism and presumption. We must get with Jesus and surrender to His righteousness and have His balanced love.
When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself. It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan. But unless we do yield ourselves to the control of Christ, we shall be dominated by the wicked one. We must inevitably be under the control of the one or the other of the two great powers that are contending for the supremacy of the world. It is not necessary for us deliberately to choose the service of the kingdom of darkness in order to come under its dominion. We have only to neglect to ally ourselves with the kingdom of light. If we do not co-operate with the heavenly agencies, Satan will take possession of the heart, and will make it his abiding place. The only defense against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in His righteousness. Unless we become vitally connected with God, we can never resist the unhallowed effects of self-love, self-indulgence, and temptation to sin. We may leave off many bad habits, for the time we may part company with Satan; but without a vital connection with God, through the surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome. Without a personal acquaintance with Christ, and a continual communion, we are at the mercy of the enemy, and shall do his bidding in the end. Desire of Ages, p. 324.
Presumption leads to compromise. Faith is humble and self-deprecating; presumption is proud and self-sufficient. Faith takes the blessings of God and then asks Him how to enjoy them according to His will. Presumption leads to compromise. It takes the blessings of God and gives itself permission to abuse them. Neither does it look to God for advice; it needs none. Presumption dares to use holy principles for its own lusts. When the tempter came to Christ in the wilderness and brought Him up to the top of the temple, he quoted scripture to the Savior. The creator and master of presumption manipulated the Holy Writ in a way that compromised its own principles.
This is how apostasy often happens. God’s peculiar people desire to be less peculiar to the world. They desire a less sacrificing life, and Satan coaches them in how to buttress a new code of ethics by abusing the word of God. It happened to the Jews in Alexandria, Egypt where they congregated to feel safer after escaping Nebuchadnezzar’s desolation of Israel and to feel more comfortable than roughing it in the devastated land. It happened to the Christian church when it survived the 10 year persecution by Emperor Diocletian (303-313 AD) after having allowed the doctrines of Mithraism, for two hundred years, to slowly supplant Christ’s everlasting gospel.
Legalism leads to a reaction. Through legalism the ground work for apostasy has always begun at the opposite end of the devil’s bipolar work that leads to presumption. The truth of God became a galling yoke when the church of God lost its first love for Him. When earnest heart work and obedience to all of God’s commandments are neglected then repentance and conversion cease to exist in the followers of Jesus. The first love dies. Then, the true religion spirals downward into suffocating righteousness by works, a legalistic and punctilious effort to keep a set of rules because the Person behind those rules has been lost sight of.
When that bleak, empty, anxious life goes on for a while, and the soul of the church is dried up, then it must seek something outside of the true religion to tranquilize and soothe the misery of the heart. Thus the group professing the true God moves from a healthy relationship with Him to a corporate fasting devoid of Him, and finally to a drunken party while professing Him. The Lord adjudged the human nature correctly from the top of Mt. Sinai when He was ready to destroy the intoxicated people playing below. And He revealed to the New Testament church His mind by recording the incident 1500 years previously, clearly establishing His attitude toward presumption and compromise. If only the church had looked and learned.
But the death-like condition that came with their Christless, loveless religion had ground so long upon the church’s thoughts that, in their madness, their only desire was to save themselves, and to flee to the intoxicating ways of Mithraism to relieve the dearth that tormented every fiber of their being.
When Israel in the wilderness complained for flesh to eat, the Lord gave them quail in abundance. But love was not their operating motive, and their empty souls flew upon the birds.
“So they did eat, and were well filled: for He gave them their own desire;
They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
The wrath of God came upon them.”
“While the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague.” (Ps. 78:29-31;Num. 11:33).
The Bible is not a fairy tale, but a lesson book for all ages. If only we will look and learn.
Truth opposed to error is easily distinguishable. But truth versus error mixed with truth is more difficult to dissect. It requires a serious study to detect the falsehood; a casual, careless look will never see the difference. And while Satan still runs loose, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will always sit right in the middle of everything God creates to beautify the earth, including the most beautiful of all, His church. Satan will make sure of it.
How is it that the great apostate works so successfully on this issue? How can we escape his well-laid, ingenious snares? When multitudes have fallen into one or the other of the two ditches of presumption and legalism which lay along the narrow path all through the ages, what confidence can we have that we won’t also fall? What hope does the Advent movement have to survive all the way until Jesus comes?
The answer is simple to know, but difficult to do. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Prov. 16:25). “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” (Jn. 14:15). “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Lk. 9:23).
But, to the soul suffering from separation from God, this doesn’t necessarily present comfort for the aching heart. I know, because I’ve been there. For years I dodged these precepts of Jesus in my search for peace of mind. So He let me have my way and He tailored my choices so that I could experience consequences that gave me something to really cry about. Finally, when I had had quite enough of the contemptible “good life” then I found myself begging for God’s help, and ready to take up my cross and follow Him.
“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:24). Nothing can create repentance except the stone cold Law that harshly and firmly reveals sin, and the goodness of a jealous and warm Lawgiver who yearns for the sinner.
At conversion we receive the one and only protection against presumption, and toward legalism, its alter-ego. When we finally go from seeing God as our enemy and Satan as our friend, to seeing God as our friend and Satan as our enemy, then it is that the filter that disregarded righteousness and love but left us wide open to hedonism and selfishness, makes the big shift to filtering out all that Satan bombards us with, and filters in all that the Holy Spirit has been bombarding us with.
With the new heart comes a new principle of action. A heaven-born love, a God-sent wisdom and understanding give a depth of discernment that can never exist in the human heart without conversion.
When men are bound together, not by force or self-interest, but by love, they show the working of an influence that is above every human influence. Where this oneness exists, it is evidence that the image of God is being restored in humanity, that a new principle of life has been implanted. It shows that there is power in the divine nature to withstand the supernatural agencies of evil, and that the grace of God subdues the selfishness inherent in the natural heart. Desire of Ages, p. 678.
That guiding principle of action rightly interprets the written word of God, and alone can save us from the pits the destroyer has prepared from the human race. “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. … The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” (1Jn. 2:20,27).
Without this new principle of self-forgetful love as a guiding light, we are bound to dwell in one of the two camps of Satan, legalism or lawlessness. Lawlessness, out of which springs presumption which runs to compromise.
Faith is in no sense allied to presumption. Only he who has true faith is secure against presumption. For presumption is Satan's counterfeit of faith. Faith claims God's promises, and brings forth fruit in obedience. Presumption also claims the promises, but uses them as Satan did, to excuse transgression. Faith would have led our first parents to trust the love of God, and to obey His commands. Presumption led them to transgress His law, believing that His great love would save them from the consequence of their sin. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions on which mercy is to be granted. Genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures.
Often when Satan has failed of exciting distrust, he succeeds in leading us to presumption. If he can cause us to place ourselves unnecessarily in the way of temptation, he knows that the victory is his. God will preserve all who walk in the path of obedience; but to depart from it is to venture on Satan's ground. Desire of Ages, p. 126
Jesus did not presume on God's promises by going unbidden into temptation. Desire of Ages, p. 129
Only those who know the divine love of Christ and who yearn for the release of sinners from their enslavement to sin, who are in constant communion with Jesus and earnestly follow every commandment of God, will discern the correct course to take in every given moment. They will break down man-made taboos. They will be misunderstood and receive to themselves all the calumny and character assassination that the unconverted multitudes can heap on them.
They will follow the path of everyone who has known the mind of Christ. Prejudices will fall in the hearts of those who have found pretentious men to block their path to the truth and the Savior; and prejudices and suspicion will rise up against them in the hearts of those who don’t want to know the truth. Of the baby Jesus it was prophesied, “Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.” (Lk. 2:34). The same must be expected by those who have the Son and love Him with all their heart, mind, and soul.
Christ led the perfectly balanced life. His joy was never without calm, serious loyalty to His Father’s law of life. Yet, He never bore His heavy burdens without a quiet joy as a result of His Father’s law of life. He dearly loved His disciples. “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” (Jn. 13:1). He loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He loved His mother; He loved the multitudes. He loved the Pharisees and religious leaders. Yet, never did He let that love eclipse His love for His Father’s righteousness. His Father’s will was ever before Him.
Divine love will moderate the actions of those who have received Jesus. When He comes again to execute judgment, He says, “behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” (Rev. 22:12). Yet, many will be rejected because of their good works. (Matt. 7:22,23). His reply to them is the indictment that they really were workers of iniquity. Their life and service looked good and they sincerely believed they were good people; but in reality they were destructive in the worst way.
How can these things be? How can people be so mistaken, so deluded? Because situation and timing have everything to do with true righteousness; and the proper performance of righteousness can only be accomplished through the Holy Spirit. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:... A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up….” (Ecc. 3:1,3).
When bitterness and hatred are the operating motive, the moral predator will rebuke when it is time to comfort, and thus drive the victim into greater suffering or possibly even into permanent rebellion. Satan and his agents come “not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” (Jn. 10:10). When it is time to serve the helpless and stand opposed to the restrictions that are in place due to the commandments of men, legalism refuses to stoop down and to do good.
When it is time to hold the standard firmly and presumption rules the soul, instead of rebuking sin and calling it by its right name, it will work to minimize the standard. It will seek a twisted meaning of the Bible injuctions regarding practical godliness, and divide and misconstrue the obvious and common sense meaning of scripture to circumvent all prohibitions against its parlicular darling sins.
Love, gracious and just, kind yet never doting in familiarity, is the principle which provides the only true guide to serving God and man. “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance”—temperance, which is balance, self-control. (2Pet. 1:5,6). “Let your moderation be known unto all men.” (Phil 4:5). Only through gracious, principled love can we escape the pits of legalism and presumption. We must get with Jesus and surrender to His righteousness and have His balanced love.
When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself. It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan. But unless we do yield ourselves to the control of Christ, we shall be dominated by the wicked one. We must inevitably be under the control of the one or the other of the two great powers that are contending for the supremacy of the world. It is not necessary for us deliberately to choose the service of the kingdom of darkness in order to come under its dominion. We have only to neglect to ally ourselves with the kingdom of light. If we do not co-operate with the heavenly agencies, Satan will take possession of the heart, and will make it his abiding place. The only defense against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in His righteousness. Unless we become vitally connected with God, we can never resist the unhallowed effects of self-love, self-indulgence, and temptation to sin. We may leave off many bad habits, for the time we may part company with Satan; but without a vital connection with God, through the surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome. Without a personal acquaintance with Christ, and a continual communion, we are at the mercy of the enemy, and shall do his bidding in the end. Desire of Ages, p. 324.
posted by David | 6:43 AM
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