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THE MIND OF SELF

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 5, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 45.

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THE MIND OF SELF.

“God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them;” and He intended that they should ever and forever reflect the image and glory of Him who created them. And if our eyes could have looked upon that divinely formed pair, as they stood in the garden of Eden before they sinned, crowned with glory and honor, we should have been irresistibly reminded of Another than themselves. There was that about them which would have suggested some one other than themselves, yet inseparably connected with themselves. In fact, as themselves, we should not have seen them at all; because they fully reflected the image and glory of God.
And so long as they had hearkened to the words of God, and had walked in the counsel of God, they would have ever reflected in every characteristic, and to all beholders, the image and glory of their divine Head and Creator. But they sinned. The glory departed. The image of God was gone. They no longer reflected the image and glory of God, but the image and shame of another.
God had given them His word clearly spoken. The word of God is the expression of the thought of the mind of God. If they had remained faithful to that word, if they had fully put their trust upon that word, if they had depended upon it for their sole counsel, and to guide them in the way they should go, then this word—the thought and mind—of God would have lived in them, and would have been manifested in them. But when the enemy came speaking his words, laying before them the thoughts and suggestions of his evil mind; and when they accepted his word instead of the word of God, and the thoughts and suggestions of his mind in place of those of the mind of the Lord,—then the evil mind of the enemy, instead of the mind of God, was in them, and lived in them. This mind is enmity against God, and is not, and cannot be, subject to the law of God.
And now, being filled with the evil mind of the enemy, with its desires and ambitions, they reflected the image and shame of him who had led them into sin, instead of reflecting the image and glory of Him who had created them in righteousness and true holiness. So that it is literally true that just as certainly as before man sinned he reflected the image and glory of his Maker unto righteousness, so certainly after he sinned he reflected the image and shame of his seducer unto sin.
The truth of this is seen in every line of man’s conduct after he had sinned. The glory had no sooner departed because of their sin than they were ashamed before Him in whose presence they had formerly only delighted. Now, when they heard the voice of God, instead of being thrilled with delight and holy confidence, they were afraid, and sought to hide from Him, and even supposed they could hide, and had hidden, themselves from Him. This is the mind that was in Lucifer in heaven. Not understanding the Lord’s purpose, he thought he could hide from the Lord his own purposes.
When the Lord asked the man, “Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?” he answered: “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” Instead of answering openly and honestly and frankly the truth, “I have,” he did not answer directly at all; but indirectly, evasively, and by involving both the Lord and the woman in the guilt before himself; and thus sought to shelter himself behind them, and to clear himself by involving them. This is the very disposition that Lucifer had developed in heaven. And now it is clearly reflected in the man.
Next the Lord asked the woman, “What is this that thou hast done?” Instead of answering plainly and frankly, “I have disobeyed thy word; I have eaten of the forbidden tree,” she also involves another before herself, and shields herself behind him. She answered, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”
No such disposition as that was ever put into mankind by the Lord. Yet everybody knows that this very disposition is in all mankind, even at this present day. Everybody knows that it is not in human nature openly, frankly, and at once to confess a fault. But that the first and spontaneous impulse in every human soul is to dodge and shelter himself behind anything or anybody in the world, and seek to clear himself by involving another. And if through all he cannot fully escape, yet when he does come into it, it is with the least possible degree of blame upon himself. It is the spirit that holds tenaciously that ourself is the last one that can possibly be wrong or do wrong; and even when we have done wrong, argues, “We would never have done it had it not been for somebody or something else,” and are therefore not really to blame, and so are right, anyhow. Or it will excuse self from wrong, because somebody else does or has done the same thing or worse. It is the very essence of the claim of infallibility.
Such disposition was not put into mankind by the Lord. Yet it is there. It is the disposition, it is the very mind, of Lucifer, who originally led in the way of sin. And as the man and woman whom God made upon the earth followed this wicked one in the way of sin; as they accepted his word and his suggestions, and adopted his thoughts and his way of thinking; so they yielded themselves to him and to his mastery, and thus were made to reflect his evil image, which is self and self alone,—self above all and through all and in all. This was all of self, and none of God.
In a certain sense—a bad sense—that which Satan told the woman—they should “be as God”—was fulfilled. As the disposition that had been confirmed in him was that in his own estimation he was equal with God; and as that mind had been received by them, and that disposition was now reflected in them; so in their own estimation they would now count themselves as God in that they could do no wrong, and would involve the Lord in wrong rather than admit that they had done wrong. Thus the same evil mind that in Lucifer would exalt self to equality with God, was now in the man and the woman, and caused them to exalt self to the same point. This is not only the philosophy of the case, but it is the fact; for after this talk of the Lord with them, “The Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil.” Not indeed become as one of them in truth and righteousness: but in this evil way, in their own mind, and in their own estimation, self was exalted to equality with God.
This is further shown by another scripture: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thyself to walk with God?” That is to say, in his own mind and estimation man considers himself above God, and capable of walking there alone. But God wants man to walk with Him. Yet in order to do this, man must humble himself—he must step down from where he is. The scripture thus shows in itself that in man’s own estimation as he naturally is, he is above God, and would walk alone rather than with God. And the Lord simply invites him: “Humble yourself, be content to step down and take a lower place,—even the place where I am,—and come, walk with me.”
Again, this is shown in the text which is the study of all this chapter: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who . . . thought it not a prize to be seized and held fast, to be equal with God, but humbled himself.” This in itself shows that in mankind as they are, there is a mind that is not the mind of God, but another mind. And the Lord invites all to let this mind of His return to them, and abide in them, that they may walk with Him. And as Christ humbled himself, therefore “God also hath highly exalted Him.” And forever and to all people it is written, “Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Therefore, “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thyself to walk with God?” “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” who humbled himself.—“Ecclesiastical Empire, by Alonzo T. Jones.