It
comes down to the fact that God's creatures are finite. If (before
sinning) we were able to know all things, see all things, understand
all things, we would not turn from God. However, our minds are
finite. We do not see all things at once. We do not think about all
things at once. We do not consider all things at once. Therefore our
minds are bottlenecked. There is limited space. Now, if our minds are
constantly filled with God's Word, our actions reflect that. If they
are filled with lies, our actions will reflect that. Yes we have free
will, that is the ability to do what we want. However, in our finite
minds, what we want can be perverted by what we put into our limited
space.
Consider
how God the Son, who became finite, was tempted by Satan in Matthew
4:1-11. How did He respond? Immediately He rebuked Satan with the
Word of God. He left Satan's lies no time to fester in His mind.
Immediately rebuking him with God's Word, which Jesus meditated on
day and night.
Now
consider how Adam responded to Satan's temptation in the garden. He
let Eve respond to the lie. Eve was not the one who had been given
the command by God to not eat from the fruit of the tree. Adam had
told Eve what God told him. Yet now, when the very Word of God is
being thrown in to question, Adam remains silent. He considers the
words of the Serpent. He lets them fester in his finite mind. Like a
car salesman fills up your mind with talk, not allowing you time to
consider all things, so the Serpent worked perverting the Word of God
and Adam did not immediately rebuke him. And so in his limited mind
all he considered were lies and because of this he desired evil, that
is lies.
Take
heed from how Adam fell and how Jesus stood. Rebuke sin immediately,
do not allow it a second to fester in your mind. Rebuke lies with
truth, that is the Word of God. How are you then better able to
resist lies? By knowing the truth. Read God's Word and meditate on it
day and night that Satan may not fill your finite mind with lies and
cause you to fall into sin.
Now
this doesn't answer how Satan fell. Satan had no "tempter"
persay. I look to 1 Timothy 3:6, "He must not be a recent
convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the
condemnation of the devil." Paul is speaking of the
qualifications of elders/teachers. Again, Satan's mind is finite,
albeit far more blessed by God in craftiness than ours. Now you might
say the verse I quoted is just saying that we shouldn't sin or we'll
be condemned like Satan. But why would Paul phrase it this way if
that was the case? Why would he not just say, "he may become
puffed up with conceit and fall into sin"? He's pointing out a
similarity between the conceit of new teachers and how Satan himself
fell. Lucifer's name also helps us. It roughly means "bringer of
light." What is light that Lucifer could bring it? Light is to
mean understanding. God is the one who casts the light, or
understanding out. Many verses state that God is the one who gives
wisdom. That is, we can only understand because God gives us sight.
Consider the sun during daytime. It's only by the light of the sun
that we see things as they are. Without the sun we are blind,
stumbling in the darkness. So then, Lucifer is a bringer of
understanding, i.e. a teacher. However, praise from the pupils filled
Lucifer's finite mind and he did not rebuke them. Slowly, the lies of
his own glory apart from the very One who gave him this glory in his
ability to understand truth perverted his mind. For what is truth?
God. God is the way, the truth, and the life. Therefor what wisdom
was Lucifer teaching and therefor being glorified by his pupils for?
He was teaching about God! Pride filled his finite mind that had
festered with the praises of his pupils, thus perverting his desire
to glorify God to one of glorifying himself. Thus Satan did freely
fall, just as Adam freely fell. Not because God put a desire to sin
in their hearts, but because he gave us finite minds and within
finite minds there is room to sin if God hides His face from us. Why
do I add this last requisite in there? Because God could have stopped
it. He could have came to Lucifer and confronted him. He permitted
for these things to happen. He hid his face from Lucifer and allowed
lies to fester in his mind. Why? Because He willed to do so. It is
all apart of His divine plan.
We
must turn to Romans 9, which is basically just explaining the book of
Job. How does God answer Job's question? He tells Job who He is. He
tells Job His attributes, specifically His goodness. On it's face
this is a call for Job to trust God. It is also the answer to the
question why. What is God after, that is, what does God desire? God
desires to glorify Himself. Colossians 1:16, all things were created
by and for God. God desires to make Himself known and therefor
glorified, for He is glorious. His love, mercy, grace, and justice
all fully on display in the glory of the cross. What is the way God's
grace can be most fully magnified? Saving sinners. And how do sinners
fully recognize the grace they've been given? By seeing what they
deserved (the non-elect). And so it drives us to be even more
thankful, glorifying God for the grace He has so lovingly poured out
for us on the cross. Now, we are to be a holy priesthood for God
forever. That is, God's representatives to the rest of Creation. What
else does God plan to create? I have no idea. But I know it will be
glorious and we'll get to know God more fully through it. We will
never exhaust God. 10,000 years after we're in Heaven we'll still be
learning more about Him. Unfathomable, uncontainable, all-mighty. It
gets me excited to think about what God has planned, and it humbles
me that I was and am and will be a part of His plan.
For
those who are unsatisfied with this answer, as if God has slighted us
as a tyrannical dictator, what I will share next is what gave me
peace in it. The key is actually Desiring God's slogan. The above
answer is still correct, but it lacks the display of how much God
loves us I think. Generally people try to define free will as the
ability to do what you want without outside influence. This is a
flawed definition. God did not create us to be autonomous beings. He
created us as dependent beings, dependent upon Him. He created us
with a purpose, to love and worship and glorify Him. Think about it,
we are very good at what we were created to do, that is worship. We
just worship the wrong things. Also, if free will was defined to be
autonomous then no one has it but God. We are all influenced by
things outside of ourselves; who our parents are, what culture we're
in, our experiences, etc. No one but God has free will if free will
is to be without outside influences. What is free will then? Consider
Galatians 5:1, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free."
Now consider Matthew 11:29-30, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn
from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest
for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” In
Galatians we are told that Christ brings freedom. But in Matthew
11:29-30 Jesus offers us slavery, slavery to Him. "For my yoke
is easy." True freedom then is not to be autonomous. True
freedom is the ability to fulfill the purpose for which you were
created. We were created to love and glorify God. When sin entered
the world we were cut off from our purpose, being cast out of the
presence of God. We were cut off from our joy, our reason for being. To fill the hole we worshiped created things instead of the Creator. Thankfully the story doesn't end there. Heavenly news, God sent His
Son to take our punishment that we deserved on Himself on the cross.
Our union with Him in His life, death, and resurrection gives us the
way back to God. God circumcises our hard hearts to desire Him again! He comes down and breaks the idols we've made for ourselves and opens our eyes to see Him! We
can be in God's presence again! We can fulfill our reason for being
again! We can have full joy again! Wonderful news. It finally clicked
in my mind when I heard Desiring God's slogan in Piper's book "Let
the Nations Be Glad." God is most glorified in us when we are
most satisfied in Him. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. In my
opinion I think we got the good side of the deal. All He gets is a
wretched creature like me loving Him because He first loved me. And
oh how He loves me... an unfailing love...
"He
is jealous for me,
Loves
like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending
beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.
When
all of a sudden,
I
am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And
I realize just how beautiful You are,
And
how great Your affections are for me.
And
oh, how He loves us, oh,
Oh,
how He loves us,
How
He loves us all"
