In the last BLOG we looked at how in the past it was believed that the text below (Ezekiel 28:13-17) in some way spoke of Satan. It was by pride that he fell and it is by pride that he continues to work against God. The pride of Satan is such that he wants the glory himself and works so that human beings will not do all to the glory of God. He wants to work self-centeredness and pride in human beings along with the corresponding attitudes and perceptions of self-love and self-esteem. He wants human beings to be self-centered and self-focused in all they do because it is then that they are like him rather than God.
One way of looking at this is to see that God is triune. He loves Himself and is focused on Himself as triune. Since God is God, it would be sin for Him to be anything less than self-focused within the Trinity. However, Satan is not triune. He is not perfectly holy within himself in his self-love as God is, but instead is perfectly wicked and unholy in his love for himself in his singularity. When God loves Himself He also does what is best for those that are united to Him by faith and love as well. When a believer loves God with all of his or her being, then that believer loves the glory of God more than self or anything else. So when God manifests His glory in His love for Himself He is also doing what believers love the most as and that is what is good for them for all eternity. When Satan does what he does for himself his actions are hatred toward God and human beings.
“You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. 14 You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I places you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fir. 15 You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you. 16 By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you” (Ezekiel 28:13-17).
When Satan (as in Ezekiel 28:17) was lifted up because of his beauty and his wisdom corrupted by that as well, he was focused on himself rather than the One that had created him. Satan became enamored with himself rather than as one that displayed the glory of God. That is pride. When God beholds Himself within the TrinityPr He beholds His image in the Son and the Son beholds the Father. When God’s love for Himself as triune is displayed that is the holiness and love of God displayed in the highest and most beautiful forms possible. When Satan manifests love for himself that is the most hideous form of evil and hatred for God and human beings possible. I John 4:8, 16 sets out for us that God is love. Yet John 8:44 tells us that the devil is the father of lies and was a murderer from the beginning. The contrast cannot be starker. The God who is love puts His love in the hearts of human beings and so they love because He first loved them (I John 4). Yet the devil puts the poison of his pride and self-love in the hearts of human beings and that leads to murder and all sorts of evil. When God loves Himself as triune it is a holy love and it is how He loves others. When the devil loves himself it can only end in hatred for God and others.
We must begin to see that love in us does not start with self-love since Satan is full of self-love. Love begins with God who is love. It is pride that thinks that human beings can love others and even God based on a love for self. It is pride in human beings that want to be the center of it all. It is pride in human beings that want to seek honor for themselves rather than live for the honor and glory of God. It is pride in human hearts that want all the attention of others. This pride in the heart has a source and it is Satan himself. He deceived Eve and then Adam sinned and the poison of self and pride took over in their hearts. The history of pride is seen in its origin and in all human activity since sin entered the human race. While Satan is not omnipresent and so cannot work directly in each human heart every moment, his poison of pride and self-love is in each and every heart because as the serpent he bit the first humans and injected his poison into them. It is now in us all. And as Moses was directed to put a serpent on a stick and hold it up so that all who saw it would be saved from the bite of the serpent, so Christ has been put on the cross and is the only deliverance from the bite of the serpent which is seen in our pride and self-love. A proud heart will never be humbled by its own efforts. That takes the power of God and He only does it by grace.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment