3 levels of trust

When we trust others, that trust is on 3 different levels.

1. Do we trust their heart i.e. Do we believe and know someone is acting with good and loving intent toward us and others.

2. Do we trust their judgment i.e. Do we believe and know they have the best understanding and wisdom when it comes to how they handle decisions, challenges, and circumstances i.e. will they make the right decision.

3. Do we trust their ability i.e. Do we believe someone can fulfill the promises they make or responsibilities they are given or have regarding us or others.

For us to have complete trust in someone we must trust them in all 3 areas. 

This is not just true of our attitude towards other fellow creatures but also and especially towards God our Creator.  

How do these apply to God? How is He trustworthy? 

1. Heart. Is God good and loving? The greatest evidence of love is when someone sacrifices something they value most for another's benefit. 

The Father gave us the Son of His eternal affection and delight and the Son set aside his ¹glory and perfect union with the Father of His delight. They did so that our selfishness and failures would not be held against us so we might be fully restored to the Father's infinite love and share in it along with the Son in the same way as the Son. The Father and Son gave up what they valued most (unobstructed blissful union with each other) so we might participate in that union of perfect glory and joy. 

2. Judgement. By definition, God must be everywhere present, all-knowing and all-wise...and He is. Therefore only He knows the best possible outcome to any and all given situations. Because He is also love he always chooses the best possible outcome in every situation. Infinite love coupled with infinite knowledge and wisdom assures this.

 

3. Ability...  Is He able to bring His love and wisdom to full fruition? As Creator and sustainer of all things, nothing exists (is) without God. He even uses evil - caused by our distrust of Him - for good. Evil did not and does not have the last word, God does. Nothing can thwart God from carrying out his perfect, all-wise, and loving will, not even our sin. 

*For a futher discussion on God using evil for good click here. 

*For a fuller understanding of the significance of Christ setting aside his glory for our benefit click here.

 

To get the shot or not

Some within the Christian community have encouraged others to take the vaccine (John Piper, who I otherwise respect - and others - would be high-profile examples). Their reasoning? It is the loving (unselfish) thing to do i.e. it is loving our neighbor.

However, the question isn't whether we should love our neighbor or not but how we best do so. The answer is not as black-and-white as we might think or have been led to believe. There are several parts to this.

To be an expert in one area does not make one an expert in all areas. Pastors and theologians, like any other discipline, are generally trained and gifted in their respective fields of expertise but few of them are doctors or medical experts. We should all be careful therefore in advising people on medical decisions or areas outside our field of training. 

That's not to say they should never give advice outside of their training as long as they've done their due diligence in that area. Generally, however, I would not go to a pastor to fix my car or plumbing or ask where to invest my money unless he had expertise in those areas. The medical field is far more involved than cars, plumbing, and investments.

Because technical fields are so numerous and specialized these days most of us depend on experts in other fields. Unfortunately, even experts are not beyond the influence of those with less than noble intentions where money is more important than serving our fellow man. There is a strong indication that strategic members of the medical community are influenced by an agenda. The advice given by some at the top appears to be heavily influenced by money more than hard scientific evidence. Many doctors or heads running these agencies appear to have greater loyalty to the pharmaceutical corporations than to science or the patient.

Most are also not aware of the extent of influence and control over media that "big money" has. This insures that the narrative big money (I call them banksters) wants, is maintained, and factual information contrary to the narrative is suppressed. 

The breakdown of morality in culture is far more invasive than many recognize resulting in many being swayed by personal gains or desires more than by the principle of loving our neighbors. Unfortunately many in positions of influence or power love mammon (money) more than truth or God.

If the vaccine was effective and there was no other way to address this bug then the vaccine would be the loving course to take. However, as time has gone on it has proven to have minimal benefits and *substantial (sometimes **deadly) side effects. Certainly enough to cause us to legitimately pause and ask questions. To be pressured to make such a decision as taking an experimental procedure is unloving at best. More and more information is coming out that the vaccine is not the best option and could also be *extremely harmful.

To mandate it also violates our freedom to address our health according to our conscience and responsibility as a good stewards of the body God has given us. Especially if there are other equally (if not more) effective and proven treatments.

If the vaccine resulted in harm to you or me, impairing our ability to love our neighbor, not aid it, this is not wise or loving. The greater the harm the less I am able to love and serve others i.e. it would result in the opposite of loving my neighbor. The irony is the left side of the political aisle used to argue hardest for the right to choose what we put in us or have done to us and still does but selectively now.

The good news is there are other options (strengthening our immune system, herd immunity, various therapeutic or holistic treatments). But for some reason these options - and those mentioning them - are either being suppressed, hidden (censored), or vilified.

Why is there such a huge effort made to discredit or hide these other options? The deliberate effort to suppress discussion or discredit information should give us pause as to why. To expect us to blindly accept the advice of those who have proven either to be wrong or outright misleading (not Piper but so-called medical experts) is not prudent or loving others well. 

It behooves us to do our due diligence when making such a significant decision or advising others to do so. As the saying goes haste (created by a supposed emergency which in turn creates fear) makes waste. On the coattails of fear deception often rides. The whole push for a vaccine is rooted in fear. Fear is rarely the soil out of which wise choices grow. In this case, what's at stake is far more significant than waste. 

It is becoming increasingly clear our health and possibly our very life - and that of our loved ones - are at stake. No wonder passions run so high on both sides and why sadly this has been such a divisive issue. 

For an excellent panel discussion between highly respected doctors (some highly published - and some have been vaccinated i.e. they are not "anti-vax") who are on the front lines of patient care and treatment, click here.

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*A significant number of ADRs (adverse drug reactions) is listed on the WHO site.

http://www.vigiaccess.org/

To search VigiBase data go to the bottom of the page and check the box, then search for “covid-19 vaccine”

To see the VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports 

Go to 

https://openvaers.com/covid-data or the main page at https://openvaers.com/openvaers

**  For an article on a study of the vaccine's effects of unborn infants click here 

A conversation regarding obedience

In Nov. of 2017 I posted the following on Facebook. 

"Why do we pursue God, out of love or fear? 

Both! 

Out of love because he first loved us. 

Out of fear because operating contrary to God's design (how and why he made us) always has an adverse effect (if not immediately, eventually)."

This resulted in an instructive conversation between Rick (a FB friend) and I. I am posting that conversation below to illustrate the misunderstanding, tension, and confusion around our pursuit of (obedience to) God in the hope of clarifying some of the dynamics of that pursuit.

Now to Rick's response and the conversation that followed:

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Rick: 

You mean you aren't a Christian Hedonist? :/ I'm not either :)

Other valid reasons to seek God...

God exists and is the source of all meaning, purpose, and value. Without God, there would be none of these in an objective sense.

God is the ultimate authority over all creation and deserves our utmost obedience to his will, his pleasure and his purpose.

God is the ultimate worth and he is worthy of our praise and worship. Our surrender to God's will is the first step towards truly worshipping God.

Jim: (In response, I sent Rick the following blog post on the dynamics of what moves us to pursue and obey God)

http://thotsaboutgod.blogspot.com/2017/02/an-anatomy-of-motivation.html

Rick quotes from the above blog article adding his comments below...

Rick: 

"An anatomy of motivation - There are two overall but opposite approaches we observe in scripture regarding our motivation to obedience. All underlying forms of motivation fall under these two. These two broader areas are...

· positive motivation
· negative motivation"

His added comments...

- These two categories of motivation are based on the idea that we can expect something good or we can expect something bad. Another option that I believe is important is to acknowledge the authority of God as a basis of motive. In this respect, it is not so much what we personally expect but who God objectively is that forms the basis. If we believe God exists, we can obey God simply because of God's authority, without even contemplating what we personally expect. For example. We are commanded to submit to God and obey God. I can do this simply because God has clearly commanded it and not necessarily for any other reason. Do you agree?

Jim:

Yes, but I believe there's a bit more to obedience than simple willpower. If you haven't read the rest of the article at the above link it hints at this. 

Paul also points out it is God who enables us to choose and desire to pursue him in vs 13 of the following: 

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Php 2:12-13

How does he do so? By appealing to self-interest. For example, we are told in Heb 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." The appeal of this verse is not just that God exists but OUR (us/self) being rewarded. 

Another example is "to gain your life you must lose it." What's the appeal? Us gaining life. The verse simply tells us the best way that happens is by losing our life i.e. we don't find our life by seeking life but by seeking God who is life. 

There is a difference between self-interest and self-ISHNESS. Not distinguishing these causes confusion. Several posts on my blog touch on this. If interested let me know.

Rick: 

Those are interesting verses and I would not be opposed to reading your articles. Because there are so many scriptural aspects of obedience to God, to me this implies that there are many valid motives that can overlap and are not mutually exclusive. I believe that there is a danger of taking a verse like Heb 11:6 and suggesting that this one verse codifies our approach towards obedience to God. For example, there is the motive of love of God that Jesus stated was a valid motive:

"If you love me, keep my commands." John 14:16

The word love is from the Greek "agape" which is translated as a self-less benevolent and giving type of love. So in other words, our motive for obedience based on this verse is not self-interest but is based on pleasing God.

Jim:

Love is THE key motive to obedience. So the question becomes how and when do we love God i.e. what is the cause of (stirs up) our love for him. Scripture clearly teaches our love (the key motive "behind" obedience) is a RESPONSE to his love for us. 1 Jn 4:10 "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." In 1Jn 4:19 John goes on to say, "We love because he first loved us." We are not the initiators of love, God is.

This is also implied in John 15. It says without me "you can do nothing..." (vs 5) i.e. we can not bear fruit on our own. Fruit in the context is loving God and others (vs 12,17). So our loving God and others is based on and caused by our abiding in his love for us (vs 9). We can not love as God loves - i.e. sacrificially - otherwise. To say it another way, we are not the cause or source of love but the conduits of it.

Re: the Hebrews passage...it is simply an example, not a proof text. Self-interest is implied throughout scripture. His great offer is eternal life to us i.e. our eternal life. Even fear of the consequences for disobedience is the fear of US suffering. We do nothing apart from self-interest. 

Christ's very appeal to loving our neighbor is love for ourselves "...love your neighbor AS you love yourself..." He doesn't condemn our love of self (our desiring what is best for ourselves) he assumes it and makes his appeal based on that assumption.

The issue isn't our wanting what is best for us, it's how is that best accomplished. Through self-effort or in and by God i.e. through his love for us. 

I think the issue is we don't realize our greatest joy is IN God and recognizing the greatness of his glory i.e. our greatest joy (pleasure) and God's highest glory are not in opposition to each other but tied together. To say it another way, pursuing God and his highest glory IS our greatest joy (pleasure).

Rick: 

Jim Deal - "Self-interest is implied throughout scripture. His great offer is eternal life for US i.e. OUR eternal life." ...Christ's very appeal to loving our neighbor is love for ourselves "...love your neighbor AS you love yourself..." He doesn't condemn our love of self (our desiring what is best for us)

I'm sorry, but implications of our self-interest are always subservient to the interest of pleasing God in the whole of scripture, and plainly commanded as such, and to place our self-interest on equal grounds with pleasing God I believe is shown to be actually heretical based on traditional interpretations.

To take your first point, eternal life is epitomized by relationship together with God: "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3) And relationship is defined as "being one" in the spirit: "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one" (John 17:22) --- These verses do not imply that eternal life is based on focusing on the self or that the motive for eternal life is self-interest, rather, the focus is on interrelationship and unity for the glory of God, that is, mainly for GOD'S sake, not our own.

In your second point, you reference the second part of a two-part command and left out the most important first command: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)

Matthew Henry clarifies the primacy of scriptural value:

"As we must, therefore, love God BETTER THAN ourselves, because he is Jehovah, a being infinitely better than we are, and must love him with all our heart, because he is one Lord, and there is no other like him; so we must love our neighbor AS OURSELVES, because he is of the same nature with ourselves;" (emphasis added). Here is Matthew Henry's full commentary on this verse:

2. That the second great commandment is, to love our neighbor as ourselves (v. 31), as truly and sincerely as we love ourselves, and in the same instances, and we must show it by doing as we would be done by. As we must therefore love God better than ourselves, because he is Jehovah, a being infinitely better than we are, and must love him with all our heart, because he is one Lord, and there is no other like him; so we must love our neighbour as ourselves, because he is of the same nature with ourselves; our hearts are fashioned alike, and my neighbour and myself are of one body, of one society, that of the world of mankind; and if a fellow-Christian, and of the same sacred society, the obligation is the stronger. Hath not one God created us? Mal. 2:10. Has not one Christ redeemed us?"

If we try to ignore or deny a direct commandment, that clearly states pleasing God (with others-centered agape love) is the highest commandment, and offer that self-interest is on par with or even above the command to please God, how is this not patently heterical?

"our greatest joy (pleasure) and God's highest glory are not in opposition to each other but tied together."

This is basically a toned-down re-phrasing of Piper's maxim. However, the phrase "God is not most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him" is misleading because the true measure of God's glory is not our personal satisfaction. The highest measure of God's glory is our conformity with God's nature and will, which is most emphasized by conforming to God's nature and will, which is based on agape love and holiness.

Scripture advocates worshipping God in spirit and in truth:

"God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24).

Piper completely discounts many critical aspects of worship, such as affirming and meditating on truth, and heretically demands that the worship of God is based on emotions as an end in and of themselves:

"It can be done only when spontaneous affections arise in the heart. And these affections for God are an end in themselves. They are the essence of eternal worship" (p92 DG)

Jim, I am reading a brief but excellent new book on Piper titled "Christian Hedonism? A biblical examination of John Piper's teaching" by ES Williams, and I believe that it might help you to glean from his research some of the many critical scriptural errors of CH.

Jim:

Rick W Thanks for the feedback.

I don't disagree with anything you said.

Everything must be subservient to God simply because he is the cause of all things (i.e. a more than sufficient reason if there were no other one) "... For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen..." (Rom 11:36)

Nothing in scripture (regarding our obedience) is based on FOCUSING on self.

It sounds like you are equating self-interest with selfishness and that our interests are ABOVE Gods. I've said neither.

What I am saying is our (self's) best interest is IN God. God is our (self's) best interest.

My point is in order for us (self) to know and enjoy God, "self" is not set aside but fully engaged. We (us, self) give God the greatest glory when we (self) find him our greatest joy, treasure, pursuit etc. This isn't putting self above God at all. It is self delighting IN God above all things, vs self delighting in created things over and above God the Creator (our delighting in creation above God is the essence of self ISHNESS. It is seeking to make life work WITHOUT God i.e. through what I can obtain by myself and solely for myself. It is seeking meaning, purpose, joy, etc independent of God for my glory, not his).

However our (self) finding God to be more glorious than anything else "shows him off" (brings attention to his infinite glory, i.e. glorifies him). To believe and then act as if something is more valuable than God, dishonors him. When we find God our greatest delight and pursuit we are telling others, God is more important to me than anything else and therefore could be to you as well.

Regarding the greatest commandment, this actually underscores the point I am seeking to make. Loving our neighbor flows out of loving God first (which is the fruit of his love for us). It all starts with God, is through God and is for God i.e. for his glory e.g. Rom 11:36 

End of our FB conversation. 

In this conversation, we are dealing with very nuanced points. Facebook is generally not the best place for in-depth discussion and contemplation of such things. I say this because after looking this over there are things I did not address that I could have. Therefore I offer these additional thoughts.

Regarding obedience to God out of fear i.e. respect for God, even this is based on "self-interest" i.e. I wish to honor God out of respect for him and because he is worthy of all honor/respect but why do I respect Him?  Because he is all-wise, all-powerful, and just and I don't want something bad happening to me (self) if I don't honor him as such. This isn't selfish. It is rooted in our very being as God's image-bearer. Our being a creature who desires our own best interest is actually necessary in order for us to be able to enjoy and honor God who is most high and most delightful. 

For more on this point click here. 

Rick said, "I'm sorry, but implications of our self-interest are always subservient to the interest of pleasing God in the whole of scripture, and plainly commanded as such, and to place our self-interest on equal grounds with pleasing God I believe is shown to be actually heretical based on traditional interpretations."

This is a common misunderstanding and is hardest to grasp. God's highest glory and our greatest joy are not in competition or opposed to each other and we can only do one or the other. So there are no "equal grounds." They are tied together but not equal because everything must start with God. Nothing happens if God were not all glorious. However, our greatest joy is God's highest glory. The more we exalt him - recognize His glory - the more we experience Him as He is and the greater our joy becomes. Joy is the result of recognizing and acting upon God's greatness - His infinite glory. We find him to be our greatest joy when we lift him up (glorify him) as the highest/greatest (most delightful) being of all beings or things and the only one worthy of our honor and greatest delight. This is not an "either/or" scenario. God's glory and our delight in God go hand in hand but in that order. It always must start with God, not us. If God were not the greatest of all beings, we would not and could not find the great joy that is God himself. And we are wired this way because this is how God designed us, so we might share in His glory as He does as Father and Son in by and through the Spirit. To enjoy God most we have to be most like Him without being God i.e. we are in His image.

Rick said:

Another option that I believe is important is to acknowledge the authority of God as a basis of motive. In this respect, it is not so much what we personally expect but who God objectively is that forms the basis. If we believe God exists, we can obey God simply because of God's authority, without even contemplating what we personally expect. For example. We are commanded to submit to God and obey God. I can do this simply because God has clearly commanded it and not necessarily for any other reason. Do you agree?"

Whether Rick deliberately intends to, the implication of what he is proposing is we have within ourselves the spiritual strength to obey God by simply willing ourselves to do so without God empowering us i.e. apart from his Love/Spirit. This is placing our will as the key (central) to obedience instead of God. However, God is the driving force behind our obedience, not our will. It is God who works in us "...both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Our will is an intricate part of obedience but it is not the central part, God is. Our will is vital in deciding (choosing) to believe God is who He claims to be and does (did and will do) what He promises/claims He will do. But this is choosing to believe is anchored into who God is generally and who He is for us specifically. It is based on faith in the character of God,  not faith based on faith in itself or how great our will is.

For a further discussion on this point click here.

The following verses clearly show the will and desire to obey God come from God, not us. Yes, it is our desires but desires that God "works" in and through us by revealing to us His great glory. 

Philippians 2:12-13 English Standard Version (ESV) 

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Though we are in God's image which allows us (gives us the capacity) to honor and enjoy God, absent God's Spirit/Love we are dead to God. We are not the source/cause/initiators of sacrificial love. Only God is. We can only love sacrificially when we know God loves us sacrificially and "has our back" i.e. God honors and rewards us and all our actions when done for his honor.

For more discussions on obedience click here.  

For more discussion on how our worth is tied to God's click here. 

knowledge of good and evil

Some of the following points are not explicitly stated in scripture, though I believe are cleary implied within the boundaries of scripture. Feel free to add any comments supported by scripture you feel (pro or con) and believe will add to the conversation. In doing so you may further a better understanding for all of us. Truth (vs my being right) is the goal. Now to the discussion at hand.

Possibly God's forbidding Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil didn't have to be - or wasn't intended to be - permanent. Maybe if they had continued obeying God and refrained from eating from the forbidden tree, they would have proved over time - through the regular exercise of faithful trust in God - He could entrust them with the knowledge of good and evil? Or possibly it would have happened organically and eventually became a part of their character through their exercise of ongoing trust in (obedience to) God. At a minimum we know trust is what God seeks to develop in us this side of the rebellion in the garden.

Denying ourselves something we ¹want (the forbidden tree in this case) - or are tempted to think we need - is a ²form of suffering - a kind of knowing good and evil. As Christ learned obedience through the things he suffered, so too might have Adam and Eve i.e. They would have experienced a kind of evil by denying themselves eating from the forbidden tree.

The reason they died when they ate was not that knowing good and evil is bad in itself (it is after all a character quality of God himself) but because they distrusted and disobeyed God by eating. Their problem was not knowing good and evil first hand but seeking it in the wrong way for the wrong reason i.e. Out of rebellious independence. They wrongly concluded in doing so they would be "free" to do whatever they wanted without answering to God. They decided they no longer needed God to make life work but only themselves - or so they thought.

By doing so they turned away from God and broke their connection, union, fellowship, and relationship with the One who is the source of life and love. Instead of experiencing the benefits of self-denial (i.e. exercising greater trust by experiencing good and evil first hand through the suffering of self denial) they reaped the consequences of self indulgence. No wonder things went terribly wrong from that point, eventually resulting in physical death. 

Their death wasn't an act of revenge or retribution by God but the ³natural (organic) outcome of disconnecting from the Sustainer of all things and life itself. This connection to the source of their being (God) was essential for them to continue living at all, much less optimally as God designed. Afterall it was God breathing into Adam His very life that made Adam a living ⁴soul (and like God; in His image) and no longer merely a human shaped piece of dirt. God did not turn away and cut them off. They turned away from God cutting themselves off.

Could it be that their eventually acquiring the knowledge of good and evil, if and when approved by God, was good, not bad? Does it not give us a greater appreciation for good by contrasting it with evil? Maybe God only forbid it because he wanted us to prove over time we were ready - i.e. ⁵mature enough in our trust in God to partake of that knowledge without misusing it and being drawn away from God and spiritually derailed by it i.e. not using it to establish their independence from God but rather in submission to him? The only way to do this was to continue trusting and obeying His directions not to eat until He eventually decided they were ready and mature enough to allow it. Their faithful obedience would be evidence they were ready to partake.

And is this not exactly what Christ did? When Christ came up against the decision to trust or not trust God in the face of death, he said "not ⁶my will but yours be done." 

The "2nd Adam" (Christ) succeeded where the 1st Adam failed (and we all still fail to this day). 

And the most glorious news is the 2nd Adam then assigned his success to us as if we succeeded. As a result we are now looked upon, loved, and received as perfectly obedient sons and daughters of God - when in reality we are not - thanks to Christ and his faithfulness.

Now that we are fully freed from condemnation and rejection for our rebellious unbelief (once we place our full trust in Christ's gracious offer), we can resume and perfect the process of trusting and obeying God as he originally designed us to. Christ made this possible so we could pursue God without the ⁷requirement of perfect obedience hanging over us - something we fail at miserably. We are now free to obey not because we have to but because we want to out of love and a desire to honor God...not out of the need to gain (earn) God's acceptance and avoid His rejection but because Christ was rejected and slain for us so we might be fully (perfectly)  accepted and embraced by the Father in and through Christ.

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¹At the heart of self-denial is loving and trusting the person calling us to it. Lack of love and trust in God was the key downfall of Adam and Eve in eating from the forbidden tree. Eating from the tree was the result, the outward display of an inward disposition of distrust in God and His direction, not the cause of their rebellion i.e. it was already present within their heart before they ate or they would have never ate. 

²The essence of knowing evil is experiencing harm 1st hand. Harm results in suffering but not all suffering is harmful... at least not ultimately. Self-denial is also a form of suffering that leads to good. It is denying ourselves a short-term benefit that can never fully satisfy us to gaining a long-term benefit that does.

³In the same way a light bulb would go out if it were unplugged.

⁴being. - לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ (lə·ne·p̄eš)

Preposition-l | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 5315: A soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion

⁵Did not Christ himself learn obedience through his struggles and suffering? One of the key elements of struggles and suffering is trusting God when circumstances tell us not to. Being forbidden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the circumstance by which Adam and Eve questioned whether God was trustworthy and possibly holding out on them. They believed the latter while Christ believed the opposite. They failed the test. Christ passed it... for our sake.

⁶This suggests Christ having the will not to choose the Father's will was real, just like it was for Adam and Eve. But instead, he chose to follow His Father's will...whereas Adam and Eve didn't.  And this was because he trusted the Father when Adam and eve did not.

⁷It is no longer a requirement in the sense of being the means by which we're justified but it is still vital - "required" - in order for us to operate optimally according to how God designed us. For a further discussion on this point click here.

Experience and wisdom connected

We have all observed that experience (sometimes of others if not our own) results in a more mature (usually more humble) approach to life. But what is it we experience that gives us a more solid and stable outlook? More often then not it is failure, loss, suffering etc.

How so? The struggles and our limitations we encounter in our times of greatest pain have a way of grounding us in ¹reality. 

And yet we often complain about suffering/evil in general and ask "why me" or "why do bad things happen to good people?" Ironic isn't it? We complain about something being unfair that can actually help us become better/wiser.

In reality, painful, challenging ("bad") experiences are one of the primary means by which truly good (humble) people are made stronger, wiser, more mature (assuming we are not embittered by them). The only thing that prevents this is lack of humility; the lack of willingness to learn or be taught i.e. pride.

Why? At the heart of pride is distrust i.e. since I can't (or choose not to) trust, I'll figure it out and do it myself. This is why pride is so harmful; it short-circuits the process that can make us stronger and better, not to mention the harm it causes others.

For a further discussion on the value of suffering and evil click here and here.

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¹Life works a certain way - i.e. according to design. When we or others violate that design we experience loss and suffering. This loss and suffering teaches us (if and when we're willing to learn) to operate according to the way things are; how they work i.e. according to their design. Knowing this is at the heart of wisdom and the essence of maturity. "The fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom" i.e. recognizing God is a certain way and created us to be aligned with Him. To not align ourselves with that way (his way, the way we were designed to be) has dire consequences. To acknowledge this requires both humility and wisdom.