Hebrews 2:10-18
When we look at humanity we see so many radically different groups and we wonder how we will ever achieve any harmony on earth. We see the ancients and the moderns; the communists and the capitalists, the Hindus and the Muslims; the young and the old; the good and the bad and hundreds of other breakdowns. I wonder though, in light of verse 15 if their may just really be two categories of men; those who are free and those who are slaves. It says that it is the fear of death that the devil uses to subject men to slavery. How does he pull this off?
Fundamentally, the devil is a lying spirit and by propogating his myths, errors and distortions, he earns his title as the father of all lies. His power rests in his capacity to deceive. He works to convince many that God does not exist. For the rest who believe that He does exist, satan simply works to distort God’s nature and His ways.
What would you say is the greatest lie being told on the the earth in this hour? Wouldn’t it be that particular lie that does the most damage over the longest period of time? Other ways of asking the same question would be; What lie do you think the Prince of Darkness works the hardest at promoting? Or; What deception, if it were exposed, would do the most damage to the kingdom of darkness? I am proposing that Satan’s worst nightmare is that the sons of God who are currently living as slaves will discover God’s provision of life in Christ and begin living as sons and daughters – children of light – fearless citizens and credible representatives of an eternal kingdom. So, in this scenario, Satan’s most strategic lies are the ones holding the body of Christ in check – the ones you and I entertain unwittingly in our own hearts.
When we do break into freedom, and we will because he is bringing many sons to glory, light will be released through the Church not just through better Sunday sermons but in the Word that has been made flesh in Jesus’ many brothers and sisters who are spread out in strategic networks located throughout the earth ready to shine our light into the darkness around us.
Slavery within the church is not a popular topic. How can a pastor speak to his congregation who are, in theory, free in Christ and insinuate that lies being entertained in their hearts are perhaps the place Satan, more than any other, is working to promote the most damage over the longest period of time? If these lies exist, as I have proposed, what would they look like?
Since they are lies, and deceptive by nature, they are not going to be obvious to us. It is more likely that we, and others especially, will just see the outcome of the lies such as an absence of the fruit of the Spirit which we have just come to terms with as normal. The evidence of lies will also show up as a shortfall of the power of the Spirit – a vacuum where we have come to terms with the absence of the supernatural and even formed doctrines and beliefs to explain that condition as normal. Promoting a lie until it is crystalized in a an individual or corporate belief system is how the enemy enslaves men.
Jesus, better than us, understands the temptation to sell out to the devil. He was posed with various lies in His 40 day wilderness exposure to the father of lies. If you recall these temptations all began with, “If you are the son of God, then you will……..”. Many of Satan’s most effective lies attack our identity through our souls. We allow these often negative thoughts and feelings about ourselves to take precedence over God’s words and feelings about us. I know from experience that some of this thinking can become so engrained and normal that deep down in our hearts we can quietly entertain questions about our legitimacy, God’s existence and, amazingly, even His goodness. It is surprising how well we, even as Christians, can serve the father of lies.
Father, since, through Your suffering, You have removed the basis of any fear we might have of death, let us give ourselves unreservedly to Your Life. Go after the half-truths and blatant lies the enemy has sold us that have enslaved us. Liberate us into the freedom of the sons of God which we and all creation are longing to see. Amen.
Which is why Paul would have to say we are not illegitimate children…to remind us we are sons and daughters with a Father who loves us. All to often the lie is bought that we are unloveable, unworthy. That God doesn’t care about me, why would He? And if He doesn’t care, then that would explain my suffering, whatever form it may come in….reconciling a loving Father who chooses not to stop or change suffering when He has the power to do so…it must be me because it can’t be Him. Thats a lie and one thats hard to explain…but when you take into consideration that this is a golden opportunity to walk by faith and not by sight….to compare my sufferings with Christ’s they become but a small thing. It doesn’t ease my pain nor make it less, but it strengthens my hope that just as you said somewhere down the road there is a reward. I cry to Him in my distress and I wait patiently for Him….without suffering I would not need Him like I do….He is my silver lining and someday there will be no more mourning, nor out cry nor pain!!