God had not created Satan, God had created a beautiful, wise, sinless and perfect angelic being, which He named Lucifer. In the Word of God he is described as „The King of Tyrus … full of wisdom and perfect in his beauty” (Ez. 28:12). It is written in the following verses how he was in Eden, the garden of God because God gave to Lucifer such a high position in His Kingdom and in the whole of His Creation, which none of the angelic beings had. He was an anointed Cherub, which covers… he was established on the Holy Mount of God where he was walked among the stones of fire. HE WAS PERFECT in his ways since the day when he was created… UNTIL AN INIQUITY WAS FOUND IN HIM! (Ez. 28:13-15) Until he sinned for the first time, when his heart was elevated because of his beauty and he corrupted his wisdom because of his splendor. Then it is written about multitudes of his iniquities, unrighteousnesses and finally about his infamous end (Ez. 28:16-19). Prophet Isaiah also writes about it where he names this cherub Lucifer and describes his fall from the high heavenly position into the very depth of hell and the bottomless pit (Is. 14:12-15).
Why do I actually write this part, which seemingly has nothing to do with our Salvation? Well, this part is so important and has so much to do with our fall and Salvation that we possibly cannot even imagine and apply to ourselves. It will explain to us not only the fact that God had not created Satan, but that Lucifer, that exceptionally wise and beautiful and perfect cherub honored with that high position in the Creation of God BECAME SATAN BY HIS OWN WILL! It was the first sinless being in the whole Creation of God, which opened itself to EVIL and slowly descended into it. Sin had not existed until that time and nobody even knew what it was.
So, what is it that the Lord desires that we see, understand and take into consideration upon ourselves and our Salvation? The case of Lucifer is giving us a stunning light for our understanding of God and His view upon us and our Salvation. It provides us with the basic explanation why God established THE WAY of our Salvation as He did, and not another way which would have been “more acceptable, more pleasant, less painful…”, and what reasons He had for it. This case shows us unimaginably attractive, alluring power and danger, which EVIL contains in itself and these features of evil affect every man every day since Adam and Eve. As soon as man touches EVIL and “opens to it the door to his soul”, he is LOST! Evil will seize him and will never let him go again, hence, such a man becomes totally defenseless against that evil. This is the case of Lucifer – and this is also the case of Adam. In fact, Lucifer was comparable to the first Adam except that he did not have a physical body from the “dust of the earth”, rather, he had a spiritual body as all the other angels.
Lucifer was comparable even with Christ – the Son of God Himself – in his beauty, wisdom and perfection. And in his position and authority before God, he was only “one degree” lower than Christ (I believe). And that became the very “seed” of his jealousy against the Son of God and the beginning of his end. His fall into evil was possible because, though he had a sinless spirit at his creation, his sinless spirit had nothing to do with the Spirit of Christ. The second and basic reason for his fall was that Lucifer was created by God, but the Son of God was never created! What significance does this have?
The significance of this spiritual fact is fundamental and decisive and it DETERMINES THE WAY FOR OUR SALVATION! It also determines the REASONS why that road of Salvation is exactly as it is and not other. Everything that is created by God is subjected to the temptations from the powers of darkness and evil and thus it has in itself abilities to sin! Hence, the perfect Lucifer was also able to sin and he sinned! The first Adam as well as the last Adam – Jesus – were able to sin and thus become slaves to evil and to Satan, the representative of evil, who himself became slave to evil after being created as Lucifer, who sinned and fell and became Satan. God created EVIL and DARKNESS for His Own Reasons (Is. 45:7), so that He could try His created beings because no created being is immune against evil and thus against the danger of sinning and death. Only God Himself, the Creator of evil, cannot be tempted by evil (Jam. 1:13). As well, no one born of God can be tempted and then sin (1Jn. 3:9). Hence, here is that fundamental and decisive fact, which DETERMINES THE WAY FOR OUR SALVATION and that fact is as follows:
1) We, created human beings, once we fell into sin through the first Adam, cannot stop sinning and thus be saved in our earthly (natural) creation! Therefore we had to be BORN AGAIN and this our “New Man” in whom we were “born-again” cannot be tempted and thus cannot sin, because he is BORN OF GOD! (Jn. 1:13).
2) Therefore, if we refuse to “put off that old man” (Eph. 4:22) and to “put on that New sinless man” (Eph. 4:24) then WE CANNOT BE SAVED EVEN IF WE BELIEVED IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! Our Salvation exists only in our New Man, which was born into our spirit from where he is to govern and direct our soul, which will then govern and direct our new spiritual body. This is our perfection as the fruit of our overcoming and this is the only way we become true sons of God (Rev. 21:7). There exist some passages in the Word of God where it may seem that man can only “call on the Name of the Lord” and he will be saved (Lk. 23:42,43/ Acts 2:21/ Rom. 10:13). Yet, nowhere in these passages is it written when and how shall such people be saved, because “saved” in these and similar passages means “redeemed”, not “perfected”! Whosoever, even just in despair, will call on the Name of the Lord may be redeemed and his name written into the Book of Life, but he cannot be perfected. Therefore, the meaning of the word “saved” here is “redeemed” and it applies in other passages of the Bible as well (ex. Rom. 10:9,10/ Mk. 16:16, etc.).
This Part 2b is thus very important since it shows us clearly that the true Salvation, which is the perfecting of a redeemed sinner, is based not only on the forgiveness of sins, but on the CHANGE of his being from the one created by God to the one born of God. It means, on the change from a being which could yet sin anytime in eternity, as Lucifer did, to a being which could never ever sin again and thus God would have no future problems with such a being for ever and ever!
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To be continued next week
brother Hanola
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