Lesson for April 28, 2019
The Integrity of God
(This series is based on the book The Integrity of God by Pastor R. B. Thieme, Jr.)
The integrity of God is defined as God’s righteousness, justice and love working in harmony in order to deal with the human race on the basis of His grace. On the basis of His integrity, God is able to establish an eternal relationship with those who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior. It is God’s desire for everyone to have this eternal relationship with Him. Mankind was created by God to resolve the Angelic Conflict and those who believe in Christ as Savior have a part in that resolution. For those who develop the integrity of God in their souls through the consistent intake and application of Bible doctrine, they become an even greater witness for God in proving to Satan and the fallen angels the fairness of God.
The Angelic Conflict is the result of angelic beings rebelling against God, which began with the fall of Lucifer (Satan), and continued until all angels had made a decision for or against God. It refers to two trials of Satan and fallen angels, one in prehistoric times, the other during human history. Five “I will’s” of Satan- Isaiah 14:12-15: 1) Pride- I will ascend into heaven. Satan tries to take over the throne of God and tries to replace God. 2) Ambition- I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. Satan wants to rule over the angels. 3) Power Lust- I will sit in the mount of the congregation. Satan wants to rule over earth. 4) Power Lust- I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. Satan wants to displace God as the Sovereign of the universe. Satan wants to usurp God’s authority. 5) Power Madness- I will be like the Most-High. Satan wants to counterfeit God in every aspect.
Since God is immutable, His integrity never changes. Unlike human beings whose integrity changes based on the decisions they make, good or bad, God never has to decide to exhibit integrity. Integrity is part of the essence of God. Therefore, every decision He makes is based on His integrity. The character and attributes of God mean He always acts with perfect integrity toward mankind. And His integrity is never compromised by what man does.
As part of the integrity of God, all of His divine attributes work in complete harmony at all times. For example, God’s righteousness and justice are never set aside in order for Him to deal with us strictly from love. Righteousness is the principle of God’s integrity and justice is the function of His integrity. If the righteousness of God is violated, the justice of God must act. Therefore, every decision God makes on behalf of a person, believer or unbeliever, must go through His justice. In this way, God can always be fair when dealing with the sins of a believer or the unbelief of an unbeliever. The same justice that gives a believer eternal life is the same justice that assigns the unbeliever to the Lake of Fire. Therefore, after the Fall of Adam and Eve, our point of contact with God became His justice and not His love (their point of contact with God before the Fall was His love).
Without the justice and righteousness of God, the point of contact with God even after the Fall might still have been His love because His justice and righteousness would not have to be satisfied. He would simply overlook any lack of faith and disobedience. But God’s justice and righteous standards must be met by faith in Jesus Christ in order to have eternal life. And God’s justice and righteous standards must be met by faithfulness to God and His Word in order to receive the greater blessings of God.
Just as the justice of God guards His other attributes, righteousness guards His justice by establishing a standard of perfection. What the righteousness of God demands from mankind, the justice of God performs. What the righteousness of God condemns, the justice of God judges. What the righteousness of God approves, the justice of God blesses. In this way, God’s justice is never compromised. In the same manner, the justice of God has a guardian which is His righteousness. God must always be fair in His dealings with His creations, whether angels or mankind and His fairness is found in His righteousness. And God is absolute righteousness. (Psalm 9:8)
Genesis 3:1-7 – The Fall of Man
Verse 1
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” Genesis 3 is the story of Adam, Eve and the serpent in the Garden and the fall of man. Up until the fall of man, Adam and Eve would walk in the cool of the evening and be taught by Jesus Christ. They learned about their Creator personally and He probably warned many times about the consequence of disobeying God by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent was some type of domesticated animal that was perhaps a pet since we know it walked prior to the curse God placed on it. What we do know for sure was that this serpent was indwelt by Satan (not an uncommon tactic of Satan and the demons). Satan’s indwelling means that the serpent was crafty and that it could talk. One would think that this alone would have alerted Eve to a potential problem – a pet that could reason and talk! The Hebrew word crafty is “aruwm” meaning cunning or subtle. The language used by Satan to deceive Eve is key to understanding what occurred.
Indeed, has God said was Satan’s approach to Eve. God (“Elohim”), is the name of the supreme being. In other words, Satan recognized a supreme being, but he did not acknowledge Jesus Christ (“Jehovah”). This has been Satan’s policy since the beginning and is the author of all religious systems. Satan is great at promoting belief in God and man’s works in connection with God. What Satan hates and cannot stand is when people believe in and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice that Eve fell into Satan’s trap because she ignored the personal relationship which she had enjoyed with Jesus Christ. She used the same language that Satan used, she says God [Elohim]. This verse shows the importance of the distinction in God’s names in the Scriptures. The woman recognized God as the Supreme Being, but she ignored her personal relationship to Jesus Christ. It is also interesting to note that Satan attacked Eve not Adam. Satan often attacks through loved ones. Adam loved the woman more than he loved God. So, the principle is that we can be influenced by those whom we love.
“Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” Satan’s subtle tactic was to misquote what God had said by changing the wording slightly (a tactic he still uses). Satan’s innuendo was that there were all these lovely things in the Garden and God won’t let you have them. It was an attempt to malign God. Satan maligned and sought to discredit the grace of God. We know from chapter two that there was only one tree which was prohibited, and that was simply as a test for volition. So, Satan was lying about what God had actually said. Satan was implying that God was forbidding partaking of all of the trees and therefore God was very unkind, unfair. Satan was attacking the Person of God and by doing so he was attempting to influence the mental attitude of Eve into disobeying God.
Verses 2-3
“The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” When Eve said God instead of LORD God, she had taken the bait from Satan. She was acknowledging a supreme being but ignoring her relationship with Christ. What God had actually said in Genesis 2:17 was, “The LordGod commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’” Eve being deceived by Satan misquoted God by adding, “You shall not… touch it.” God didn’t say anything about touching the tree. It seems that Eve was not listening very closely when Jesus was teaching her. Perhaps this was the entire problem!!!
Spiritual death was the result of an act of negative volition, an act of disobedience. Consequently, Eve was thoroughly confused; she didn’t have her doctrine straight. She thought only in terms of the physical and ignored the spiritual. The death connected with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was spiritual death, but she was focused on physical death. But death wasn’t in the tree, death was in her free will. Genesis 2:17 actually mentions dying twice, the first being spiritual death and the second being physical death which is the result of the first. When Eve repeated this phrase, she not only added “you shall not touch it,” but she also mentioned only physical death. She left out the participle (dying you shall die), which refers to spiritual death—the key to understanding what Jesus Christ had taught her.
Verses 4-5
The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Satan lied again saying, “Dying thou shalt not die”— the exact opposite of what Jesus said in Genesis 2:17. In other words, Satan distorted and contradicted what God had said. So, the whole issue in the Garden was, ‘Are you going to believe what God said or are you going to believe what Satan said?’ The issue: God’s truth; Satan’s lie. Which will it be? If she believed God’s truth it meant she would obey Him. If she believed Satan’s lie it meant she would disobey God and obey Satan. Satan appealed to Eve’s ego.
Verses 6-7
“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Satan now appealed to Eve’s appetite, her senses, her emotions and once again to her ego. Satan’s program always emphasizes the dignity of man, the greatness of man and the ability of man over God. Satan is also the master at getting the spiritually weak to rationalize their decisions to disobey God. Eve disobeyed God by failing to apply the doctrine she had been taught by the Lord Jesus Christ, as Adam stood by and failed to intervene. When Adam should have been objecting and confronting the false message of Satan he was focused on the physical beauty of Eve while ignoring the spiritual consequences. Remember that Adam was not deceived by Satan, he knew exactly what he was doing when he sinned – he chose Eve over God!!! (I Timothy 2:9-15)
The temptation of Eve was based on rationalization. Satan deceived Eve into rationalism, she talked herself into disobeying God with the help of Satan. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was beautiful but forbidden. It was pleasant (delight) to the eyes, an appeal to the senses. The desire was planted by a rationalization. The moment they ate they died spiritually. Now they faced reality, their eyes were opened. “They knew they were naked” indicates they now had a conscience; they could distinguish between right and wrong, and their conscience was a witness to them at this point that they are sinful and in a fallen condition. Their conscience is now going to be their judge. Notice, however, that their conscience does not bring them to God. Only the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ awakens them to their need of God.
They knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. So, prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve did not know they were naked, or they were not naked. If they were naked, one would think they knew it. If they were not naked, what were they wearing? The answer is that they were most likely wearing a covering of light provided by God.There are some verses which seem to imply the type of covering or clothing they had. First of all, “God is light” – I John 1:5; God clothes Himself in light – Psalm 104:2; Psalm 36:9. This means the concept of being clothed in light is not foreign to the Word of God. I Timothy 6:16, God dwells in light which no man can approach; Romans 13:12, the believer is told to put on the armor of light. Putting all of these things together the implication is that man apparently was dressed in light – beautiful transparent light which made man a very beautiful translucent creature. So, when it says they knew they were naked, apparently one of the immediate exterior manifestations of sin was the fact that they became naked and were no longer clothed with light, which meant they had lost their relationship with God.
It is very interesting at this point to follow the thought pattern of the first parents whose IQ was much higher than ours. Notice what conscience did for them. It caused them to recognize that they were involved in human good and evil. They were naked, and as far as they could tell this was not good since they immediately tried to do something about it. They were separated from God spiritually (lost their human spirit) because they disobeyed God, but once they received the knowledge of good and evil by eating the forbidden fruit, they stopped thinking about Jesus Christ in a positive way and started fearing Him. This caused them to produce human good by trying to cover themselves and hide from Christ. It was not that they had forgotten about God, it was that they were incapable of spiritual thoughts about Him. Jesus Christ came to the Garden and they had a conversation with Him, but now they were spiritually dead, and they could no longer think about God in spiritual terms. Instead, they thought about each other and tried to adjust to one another by sewing fig leaves together for clothing. This is man’s philosophy which began in the Garden – if I am right with my fellow man then I’m right with God.
Their solution to losing the clothing of light was to cover themselves with something. So, they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. The principle was the act of good works (legalism). Here is an attempt to solve a problem by something you do [legalism] rather than by something that God does [grace]. Grace and legalism are always antithetical. The Bible does not emphasize the external, it emphasizes the internal – what you think, how you are motivated. If your thinking is correct and if your motivation is proper, then the externals will take care of themselves.
When dealing with mankind, God demands absolute spiritual perfection. Adam and Eve had it but lost it through negative volition. After the Fall, spiritual perfection comes only by faith in the substitutionary work of Christ on the Cross. The same was true for Adam and Eve – they had to trust Jesus Christ as Savior after the Fall for salvation. It is only when God credits to a person’s account His righteousness that a person becomes spiritually perfect in the sight of God. If a person enters eternity without God’s righteousness, he will be separated from God for all eternity in the Lake of Fire. There is one way only to receive the righteousness of God and that is through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. It was the work of Christ on the Cross that paid the penalty of sin for the entire human race and by a simple act of faith in Christ God not only gives a person eternal life, He also gives them His righteousness and much, much more. (II Corinthians 5:21; Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10-15)
God is love and love is what God does. Divine love is much greater than human love. Since God is love, He does not need an object such as mankind to love because He loves His own righteousness and the righteousness of all members of the Trinity. Unlike human love, God does not need a response from another in order to love. God’s love did not change when man was created, and God did not create man in order to have someone to love. Mankind was created to resolve the Angelic Conflict.
God’s love is extended to man in two ways, which are in keeping with His divine integrity. First, God exhibits impersonal love to all mankind, believer and unbeliever. Second, God exhibits personal love to believers only because they possess the righteousness of God and are in union with Jesus Christ. Together we call God’s love, virtue-love. God demonstrated His impersonal love toward unbelieving mankind by sending Jesus Christ to die on the Cross as the payment for the sins of the entire world. (Romans 5:8) God demonstrates His personal love toward believers by providing everything they need in this life and the next. (Matthew 6:25-26; I John 4:12, 16-17; Ephesians 3:14-19)
God’s love is guarded by the justice of God and God’s love is always compatible with God’s justice. The love of God never overrides the justice of God. This is illustrated in the fact that no believer gets away with sin. God never allows His love to override His justice (discipline). A much stronger illustration of how justice guards God’s love is seen at the Cross. God the Father loved His Son with an eternal and infinite love and yet He allowed Him to become a man, suffer and die on the Cross. While Christ was on the Cross, God the Father poured out the sins of the entire human race upon Christ and judged them. The full measure of spiritual death, separation from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit were suffered by Jesus Christ because of His love for mankind. (Isaiah 53:6-7; John 3:16)
All of mankind’s good deeds do not impress God or cause Him to love you. God loves everyone with impersonal love, which is unconditional. The personal love of God is reserved for those who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior. The reason God can love a person who is imperfect and by nature rebellious toward Him is that as a believer in Christ you are in union with Christ and possess the righteousness of God. Simply put, we do not possess anything of ourselves that pleases God. This does not imply that we have no worth to God. Quite the contrary is true, we have great worth to God. However, we can please God only by means of the filling of Holy Spirit and consistent application of Bible doctrine. Therefore, pleasing God is the work of God and not the result of any human attribute that we might have such as intelligence, charm, a charismatic personality, wealth, success, etc. When God does the work, God gets the honor and glory, as it should be, and not us. This is grace in action. (I Corinthians 3:11-15, 12;13; II Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:10)
Grace is the policy of God toward all mankind, believer and unbeliever, alike. Toward unbelievers, God’s grace is extended to them by providing a salvation solution in the Person of Christ. Were it not for the grace of God, no one would go to Heaven. People do not deserve what God provides in grace for them. Since He is not willing that anyone should perish and spend eternity in the Lake of Fire, He sent His Son Jesus Christ into this world as a perfect, sinless human being. The impeccability of Jesus Christ fully qualified Him to go to the Cross as our substitute and pay the penalty for our sins, past, present and future. Therefore, a person is saved from the penalty of sin, which is spiritual death (separation from God in the Lake of Fire), by a simply act of faith alone in Jesus Christ alone apart from anything that a person has to offer God. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Toward believers, God’s grace is extended after salvation by providing all the tools and blessings to sustain life and advance in the Christian Way of Life. However, just like salvation is a potential based on a person’s free will, the Christian Life is a choice a believer must make to follow the Protocol Plan of God by consistent function inside the Divine Dynasphere. God’s grace provides everything believers need to fulfill God’s plan, purpose and will, and glorify Him to the maximum. It is the grace policy of God that teaches us how to live our spiritual lives and represent our Savior Jesus Christ while we are here on earth. (Titus 2:11-14)
Through the enabling power of God the Holy Spirit, Who indwells believers, He is able to produce in their lives the character of Jesus Christ as they learn and apply His Word, Bible doctrine. This is possible only as a believer allows God the Holy Spirit to control his life, a doctrine called the Filling of the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is unseen, unfelt and has no overt emotional action attached to it. Filling means to be fully possessed, to be fully influenced, to be filled with divine integrity and to fill the deficiency of lack of Bible doctrine. This doctrinal truth is simply a fact of Scripture for us to believe. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the one revocable spiritual asset that a believer receives at salvation. It is revocable because it will be lost as a result of personal sin. However, the filling of the Holy Spirit can be restored when a believer acknowledges his personal sin directly to God. We call this doctrine Rebound because it is in a sense bouncing back into fellowship with God and the restoration of the filling of the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 5:18; II Peter 3:18; I John 1:5-10)
God is impartial. He offers equally to everyone eternal life and equally the opportunity to be part of a much bigger plan than they could ever imagine. Upon faith in Jesus Christ at salvation, a person becomes a child of God and enters the Royal Family of God with all its privileges and opportunities. The privileges are the 40 spiritual assets that are automatically received at salvation. The opportunities are to be part of the resolution of the Angelic Conflict which began in eternity-past between Satan (called Lucifer at that time) and the angels who followed Satan (one-third of the angelic host). By believing in Jesus Christ and executing the Christian Way of Life, a believer becomes a credible witness for God in a trial that began when God sentenced Satan and those angels who followed him to the Lake of Fire for all eternity. Only in the family of God (called the body of Christ) does every believer have true equality. No one is excluded by God from believing in Christ or from fulfilling His plan for them. There is no racial distinction, no social distinction and no gender distinction in the Royal Family of God. But God’s plan must be carried out God’s way. (II Peter 3:9; Romans 2:11; Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10; Hebrews 13:8)
God’s integrity is made up of His justice, righteousness and love. Our point of contact with God, because we are imperfect, is His justice, even though He loves us. Because God loves all of us, He has imputed to us certain blessings. First, God imputes soul life to biological life at birth which becomes human life. Second, God imputes Adam’s original sin to man’s sin nature (the nature he is born with genetically). Third, God imputed mankind’s sin to Christ on the Cross. Fourth, God imputes His own divine righteousness to people when they believe in Christ as Savior. Fifth, God imputes eternal life to a believer at salvation. Sixth, God imputes blessings to believers on earth. Seventh, God imputes rewards to believers in eternity. There is a pattern here called grace and God’s dealings with mankind are always based on His grace.
The Greek word for impute is “logizomai” and it means “to reckon” or “to take into account.” “Credit to one’s account” is another good rendering of the word from Greek. Divine imputations are motivated by God’s love but function as His justice. This means that God’s love can never override His justice, or it would compromise God’s essence, which is impossible.