God Loves… Himself

It appears from the account given of his [Adam] first offense that it essentially consisted in loving himself supremely. He voluntarily partook of the forbidden fruit, from the motive of increasing his own knowledge and happiness, in opposition to the glory of God and the good of all his posterity. This was freely and voluntarily turning from benevolence to selfishness, which is the essence of moral depravity. He became morally depraved in the same manner that Satan, the first sinner in the universe, became depraved. Satan had no corporeal instincts or appetites to tempt him to rebel against his Maker. He loved his own glory more than the glory of God, and aspired to become independent and supreme, which was the essence of selfishness, or moral depravity. The prevailing notion that Adam became morally depraved by the mere want of holiness is repugnant to the very nature of moral depravity, and to every dictate of reason and Scripture. (Nathanael Emmons, Selfishness, International Outreach)

The selfish heart is opposed to and at enmity with God and His glory and so is at war with all the attributes of God. There is nothing about God that the selfish heart loves. While the believer loves God and loves all the attributes of God as they are revealed to him or her, the unbeliever loves nothing about the true God. The heart of the unbeliever is full of self and as such is opposed to the true God and all things that are true of Him. Perhaps the greatest example of this has to do with the holiness of God and the love of God.

The vast majority of people who speak of God as a God of love and then they go directly to how He loves all human beings and desires nothing but their good. This is far removed from the truth. Scripture does speak of God as a God of love and in fact says that “God is love,” but what does that mean? Are we to understand that because God is love that He loves all beings and cannot do anything but love them? What does that do to the sovereignty of God? Love is sovereign as all things about God are sovereign. God is under no obligation to set His love on any person and He is free to do so or not to do so in accordance with His eternal plans. Yes, God is love. However, the triune God is love and as such God lives in perfect and infinite love within Himself. The phrase “God is love” describes how God is within Himself and makes no demands upon Him that He must love all beings.

The selfish heart loves itself and all that loves it and as such is willing to think that God loves it. This selfish heart will believe that God loves all beings and will always think that God will love him or her because s/he is not that bad and thinks of self as basically good. When the selfish heart hears someone preach about the truth of God, that selfish heart will hate that God. It will not think that it hates God but will deceive itself into thinking that the true God is not like that. After all, the selfish heart reasons, God is love and as such God must love “me.” This surely shows that the selfish heart opposes the truth of the love of God. In fact, when the love of God was incarnate on earth and was perfect love in action and in example, the world hated Him and put Him on the cross. Selfish hearts, even very religious hearts, hate true love and the freedom God has to set His love on humans or not as He pleases.

As we think of the truth of Scripture, we do not see God as loving all men and doing good to them all. What we see is that He commanded the Israelites to go into the land of Canaan and destroy it and the inhabitants of it. How did God view the sons of Aaron when they offered strange fire? He struck them down by fire and killed them. How did God view the sons of Eli who were priests? When their father warned them, the Scriptures tell us that they did not listen to their father because God desired to put them to death. Is this the God of love that selfish hearts long to hear about? Is this the God of love that so many hate and believe that this could not be the true God? Yes, the true God lives in love for Himself and His own glory. Selfish hearts want God to be all about them instead of Himself.

Joshua 11:18 Joshua waged war a long time with all these kings. 19 There was not a city which made peace with the sons of Israel except the Hivites living in Gibeon; they took them all in battle. 20 For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them, just as the LORD had commanded Moses

Again we note that Israel went to battle against many cities and yet the cities did not make peace with them. Why is that? Because the LORD hardened their hearts because He wanted to utterly destroy them and that they would not receive any mercy. This is not what selfish hearts want to hear. This is not what selfish hearts can abide by and meditate on. The true God is perfectly sovereign in all things and that includes His love and His grace. His grace could not be free if He must love all people because of who He is. Oh how selfish hearts cannot tolerate the true and living God who lives in perfect love within Himself and sets His love on those whom He pleases. Oh how selfish hearts hate the true teaching of free-grace because they have nothing in them that will attract God to show grace to them and because they can do nothing to move Him to show grace to them. Selfish hearts will adjust what they want in order that they may have a god that they are pleased with. They do this because they hate the true God and so come up with one they can control.

It appears from the account given of his [Adam] first offense that it essentially consisted in loving himself supremely. He voluntarily partook of the forbidden fruit, from the motive of increasing his own knowledge and happiness, in opposition to the glory of God and the good of all his posterity. This was freely and voluntarily turning from benevolence to selfishness, which is the essence of moral depravity. He became morally depraved in the same manner that Satan, the first sinner in the universe, became depraved. Satan had no corporeal instincts or appetites to tempt him to rebel against his Maker. He loved his own glory more than the glory of God, and aspired to become independent and supreme, which was the essence of selfishness, or moral depravity. The prevailing notion that Adam became morally depraved by the mere want of holiness is repugnant to the very nature of moral depravity, and to every dictate of reason and Scripture. (Nathanael Emmons, Selfishness, International Outreach)

The selfish heart, whether Satan’s or a human’s, is in direct violation of the commandments of God, but more importantly is in direct opposition to God Himself. The selfish heart loves itself as its supreme love rather than God and makes up its own commandments rather than obey the commandments of God. The selfish heart lives to please itself rather than find its pleasure in pleasing God. The selfish heart makes its own morality whether in outward sin or in adjusting the commandments of God to allow it a self-righteousness. The selfish heart desires to be honored and praised rather than desiring for God to be honored and praised. The selfish heart, then, is an idol to itself and worships itself since it pays homage to self rather than God. The selfish heart is so wicked that it wants to use God to obtain honor for itself and uses the things of religion to obtain praise for itself. The Westminster Larger Catechism sets out some tremendous teaching that exposes our hearts. It is quoted just below.

Q. 107. Which is the second commandment? A. The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Q. 108. What are the duties required in the second commandment? A. The duties required in the second commandment are, the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath instituted in his Word; particularly prayer and thanksgiving in the name of Christ; the reading, preaching, and hearing of the Word; the administration and receiving of the sacraments; church government and discipline; the ministry and maintainance thereof; religious fasting; swearing by the name of God; and vowing unto him; as also the disapproving, detesting, opposing all false worship; and, according to each one’s place and calling, removing it, and all monuments of idolatry.

Q. 109. What are the sins forbidden in the second commandment? A. The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and anywise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself, tolerating a false religion; the making any representation of God, of all or any of the three persons, either inwardly in the mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever, all worshipping of it, or God in it or by it the making of any representation of feigned deities, and all worship of them, or service belonging to them, all supersititous devices, corrupting the worship of God, adding to it, or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, good intent, or any other whatsoever; simony; sacrilege; all neglect, contempt, hindering, and opposing the worship and ordinances which God hath appointed.

It is important to note that a selfish heart violates all aspects of the 2nd Commandment. Until the light of the Scriptures and meaning of them are brought to bear on our hearts, we don’t see the filth and selfishness in our hearts. We violate this commandment in what we do and in what we don’t do because a selfish heart always operates according to self. The selfish heart may do the religious duties prescribed by God in an outward manner, but it does them from a self-love and self-oriented way. The selfish heart may oppose false religion, but not out of love for God but instead out of love for its own opinion. It can fast and preach and hear preaching, but it does so out of self-love rather than love for God. This selfish heart is its own idol and so it is in constant worship of an idol in the presence of God. The selfish heart corrupts the worship of God by adding to it and taking away from it, but the worship of self. Oh the vileness of a heart of self in the things of religion, even true religion. The selfish heart opposes the Gospel of free-grace as the true Gospel strips self from all hope in self and the selfish heart clings to self.

It appears from the account given of his [Adam] first offense that it essentially consisted in loving himself supremely. He voluntarily partook of the forbidden fruit, from the motive of increasing his own knowledge and happiness, in opposition to the glory of God and the good of all his posterity. This was freely and voluntarily turning from benevolence to selfishness, which is the essence of moral depravity. He became morally depraved in the same manner that Satan, the first sinner in the universe, became depraved. Satan had no corporeal instincts or appetites to tempt him to rebel against his Maker. He loved his own glory more than the glory of God, and aspired to become independent and supreme, which was the essence of selfishness, or moral depravity. The prevailing notion that Adam became morally depraved by the mere want of holiness is repugnant to the very nature of moral depravity, and to every dictate of reason and Scripture. (Nathanael Emmons, Selfishness, International Outreach)

At the heart of the fall is Satan’s fall into selfishness and then his temptation to man to be like God which was Satan’s great desire. Satan hated the glory of God at this point and so he tempted man to become like himself (though he did not tell them that) in opposition to the glory of God and man’s greatest good. In setting this out we can see this through the lenses of who God is and of His manifestation of Himself and His true holiness in the Greatest Commandments and the Ten Commandments. If you think of the Ten Commandments as nothing but a system of laws, then this point will be missed. If you think of the Ten Commandments as setting out God and His glory as how He is toward Himself and then human beings, then the Ten Commandments are not seen as legal commands but how we share in His love for Himself and His own glory. The two positions are diametrical to each other and that to the extreme.

The 1st Commandment is not just an arbitrary command that God gives, but instead it reflects how He Himself is within the Trinity. This command is given to men in order that they would be like God in all they do and that His glory would be manifested in and through them. This does not mean that man has the ability to even start to keep this command, but man can only keep this commandment (though far from perfectly) by the free-grace of God. It is not legalism to say that man is to be like God and yet man can only do that if grace enables him. This grace in man points to the life of Christ who is in man and since Christ keeps this God-centered command perfectly in the Trinity and in His incarnate life on earth He will work this command in men.

The selfish heart does not like the 1st Commandment since it is consumed with God and His glory. The command to man is not to have any other God in the presence of God. Since God is everywhere (omnipresent), this is a command not to have any other gods at all. It flows out of the Great Commandment to love God with all of our being, yet this Great Commandment can only happen when man is united to Christ by grace and has Christ living His live in the soul. The problem, however, is that the selfish heart has itself as its god and it seeks self rather than the true God. Fallen man wants to live out of love for self and deceive himself into thinking that he loves God. Fallen man wants to think that he has the ability to love God and it is a matter of choice, but true love has its origin in God and can only come to and through those who are born of God and know God (I John 4:7-8).

The 1st Commandment, if we think of the Commandments as flowing from the nature of who God is, teaches us how God is within Himself. The triune God has no other gods in His presence and as such He always does all He does for His own glory and out of love for Himself as triune and love for His own glory and the manifestation of His glory. God, as the only perfect Being in the universe, must love Himself as His chief love. The 1st Commandment, then, shows us who the true God is and how He is within Himself.

The 1st Commandment also teaches us our utter inability to love Him perfectly and so how desperately we need Christ to take away our sin of falling short of His glory. Our utter inability to keep this also teaches us our desperate need to have Christ as our perfect righteousness and He is the only perfect righteousness in the universe. But it also teaches us that for us to love God and have Him as our only god, we need a source of perfect love that will be able to share that love with us. The Commandments are not just some legalistic requirements, but they teach us how God is and how we are able to share in that. All sin, then, in light of that is so horrible. It is nothing but a selfish heart seeking self and the glory of self by the strength of self. It is diametrically opposed to God, all He is, and all He does. A selfish heart is to be like the devil who tries to be like God in loving Himself, but self-love is an evil love without love for God.

It appears from the account given of his [Adam] first offense that it essentially consisted in loving himself supremely. He voluntarily partook of the forbidden fruit, from the motive of increasing his own knowledge and happiness, in opposition to the glory of God and the good of all his posterity. This was freely and voluntarily turning from benevolence to selfishness, which is the essence of moral depravity. He became morally depraved in the same manner that Satan, the first sinner in the universe, became depraved. Satan had no corporeal instincts or appetites to tempt him to rebel against his Maker. He loved his own glory more than the glory of God, and aspired to become independent and supreme, which was the essence of selfishness, or moral depravity. The prevailing notion that Adam became morally depraved by the mere want of holiness is repugnant to the very nature of moral depravity, and to every dictate of reason and Scripture. (Nathanael Emmons, Selfishness, International Outreach)

In this short account of the very heart of the fall we can see that the explanatory value of this position is very powerful. We can see the reasons that Satan fell, how he deceived Adam and Eve, how this is passed on to future generations, and the nature of sin today and for all time. We also see that the very nature of sin is not so much behavior as it is the reasons that things are done, though indeed this does not deny that many things are sinful and cannot come from a heart that desires good. Eve was deceived first, but Adam appeared to be either deceived at the same time and by her action, or he simply and coldly decided that he could be as God. Either way, without being forced Adam ate of the fruit that God had commanded him not to eat and the results of that one sin meant that all humanity for all history was fallen into sin.

As we think through what Adam did, instead of walking with God and loving God and thus all humanity that was in him or represented by him, he took of the fruit and ate it in complete disregard for God and all humanity. This was a completely selfish act and all sin follows this pattern. There is nothing wrong with eating fruit in and of itself, though indeed we are told that we are to eat, drink, and whatever we do we are to do to the glory of God. But Adam ate of the fruit in rebellion against God and with a disregard on the rest of humanity. He was seeking things for himself and so he set himself up as an idol and as his chief love. Adam fell from the upright nature he had by creation and was now the child of the devil.

In John 8 we are told that when the Pharisees lied they acted like their father the devil in that he was the father of lies. Adam because a child of the devil in that he is the father of selfishness with a heart that is directly opposed to the glory of God and the true good of humanity. Why did Satan fall? Well, the Scripture points to his pride. As a being without corporeal desires he did not have an apple or food to be deceived by. However, his deception of Eve shows something of how he fell. He could not imagine being greater than God, but if he loved his own glory more than the glory of God, then that is a horrible pride and it would show that he had fallen. He wanted to be independent and to be the supreme moral decision maker in his own existence and as such he would have wanted to be like God. It was this desire which he had and which he had fallen from his high position that he learned how to deceive human beings. Thus, by deceiving Adam and Eve they fell and became like him in their moral nature. It is a nature of selfishness which is a nature full of self, sinful love of self, and always seeking self in all that is done. It is seeking self rather than the glory of God and using others to seek self rather than using self to seek the true good of other human beings in accordance with the glory of God.

It is here that we see fallen human beings following the pattern of their father (the devil). They are like him in seeking the glory and honor of self rather than the glory and honor of God. They are willing to cause all other human beings trouble in order to obtain their own desires. They are willing for others to sin if that will help them get the desires of their hearts. They are willing for others to suffer if they can gain some leisure and riches. They will follow the ways of the world rather than the ways of God. They seek the honor of others rather than the true good of others which is to know and love God. These horrible creatures (all fallen human beings) want to be loved and respected more than they want God to be loved and respected, which is really not at all unless they think that if another respects Him that they can gain an advantage by that. These horrible creatures love works rather than free-grace. They hated preachers of truth and love those who deceive them with lies. They hate free-grace and those who preach it because free-grace can only be to the glory of God and His glory is what they seek for themselves.

It appears from the account given of his [Adam] first offense that it essentially consisted in loving himself supremely. He voluntarily partook of the forbidden fruit, from the motive of increasing his own knowledge and happiness, in opposition to the glory of God and the good of all his posterity. This was freely and voluntarily turning from benevolence to selfishness, which is the essence of moral depravity. He became morally depraved in the same manner that Satan, the first sinner in the universe, became depraved. Satan had no corporeal instincts or appetites to tempt him to rebel against his Maker. He loved his own glory more than the glory of God, and aspired to become independent and supreme, which was the essence of selfishness, or moral depravity. The prevailing notion that Adam became morally depraved by the mere want of holiness is repugnant to the very nature of moral depravity, and to every dictate of reason and Scripture. (Nathanael Emmons, Selfishness, International Outreach)

The nature of selfishness is generally thought of as a person that disregards others momentarily in order to obtain something s/he wants. Emmons tries to show that selfishness is the very essence of sin and that it is at the heart of all that a person does. The reason that it is at the heart of all that a human being does is because we inherit this from Adam. Each human being is born dead in sins and trespasses and as such they are born with a selfish heart and all that they do comes from this selfish heart. This answers the question of why did a simple eating of a piece of fruit cause the whole human race that came from Adam to be born dead in sins. When Adam took the piece of fruit it was a very selfish act and he did that out of a supreme love for himself rather than a supreme love for God and a love for his posterity. His act was moved by nothing but a love for himself. When Adam loved himself in that way, the posterity that he represented would fall into sin and be the enemies of God. With blatant disregard for the command of God and his posterity he ate the fruit.

When Adam took the fruit and ate the fruit, he was not doing so out of ignorance, but he had watched (evidently) Eve being deceived by the snake (Satan) and she was told by the snake that she could be as God. Adam took and ate the fruit wanting to be like God himself, which in accordance with the deception of the snake he wanted to increase his knowledge and make his own moral choices. This is to say that he wanted to be like God. In this Adam did not want to be in complete dependence upon God for all things and instead wanted to depend upon himself and make his own moral choices. This is precisely what the human race does today. Instead of seeing the commands as God sets them out, human beings want to do what they want to do and they want to set their own standards for right and wrong. The ramifications of the fall continue to this day and apart from being rescued from the dominion of darkness that is precisely what all men will do.

Once again, however, we must be very careful to point out a few things in light of the present religious climate. Man will see the commandments and set his heart on keeping them. He thinks that he can be righteous if he will just keep the external commandments and will even be proud in doing so. What we must note, however, is that the commandments of God cannot be kept by man in his independence from the heart. Religious man can be at least as independent and self-sufficient as the more obvious person of the world. Man will even see the greatest commandments and think that he can keep those in his own power if he wants to do so. Man thinks that he can have faith in Christ as he pleases, but again this is just more of the power of self thinking it can do as it pleases. Adam wanted to be as God and so he thought he wanted self-sufficiency and independence to make his own choices. That is precisely what religious man does as well in the religious realm. Religious man is in rebellion against the sovereign God who shows free-grace and religious man wants to be able to do something on his own so that God will show him grace because of what he has done. Adam received all from God until the fall and then sought to gain it by self, so religious man wants a religion of self where he does not have to receive all from God.

It is the very nature of sin for man to do all he does from a self-centered and self-seeking heart. Religious man does all of his religion from his self-centered and self-seeing heart. When the religious man is a minister he will preach and all that he does of his religious work is done from the power of self. In doing so he is just like his father the devil. Religious man will attend church and become quite the religious worker and even become leaders in the church, but all he does is from a selfish heart and as such he is just like his father the devil. Religious man will sit in the pew on Sundays and be moral at work and at home, but again he is doing it all from a selfish heart and is like his father the devil. Religious man hates free-grace because it demands that he repent of his selfish heart and look to Christ alone, but even more because he cannot do those things. Repentance and faith are what man must do, but no one has the power or ability to do them. Free-grace must save a man so that he can repent and have faith. How terrible it is for religious man to hear that he cannot please God and cannot work repentance and faith up by his own power. He must wait on God to do those things as He pleases.