Jesus Is

By Mark VanOuse

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked… Genesis 3:1-7 NIV

This, of course, is the biblical account of the moral disaster that effects us to this very day, the Fall. From this one single incident a catastrophe was wreaked upon the earth… sin. Note well how Satan began his undoing of our first parents by asking a very crafty, dark question aimed at undermining the very truthfulness of God:

“Did God really say?”

It’s a seemingly innocent question on the surface, but underneath lies the very chasm of hell waiting to swallow up its next victim. The enemy begins his savage attack by raising the specter that God may not be as honest as He makes Himself out to be. The very Word of God is called into question:

“Did God really say?”

The woman Eve is clearly thrown off balance, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” (verses 2 & 3). Actually, God had said nothing about not “touching” the tree. He plainly said, “don’t eat of it”. Period. Eve responds with legalism, the first sign that sin is crouching near: “Don’t eat or touch“. She’s added to the command of God.

Then Satan goes in for the kill…

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I’m reading Fox’s Book of Martyrs [John Fox], which is so stirring, so challenging about Christians who lived radically for the Lord, full of the evident grace of God. It has deeply challenged Christians for centuries.

Today I read a quote from Ignatius, one of the early church Christians that deeply affected me. The persecution referred to is under the Roman Emperor Dominitan, during a time of vicious persecution of Christians:

In this persecution suffered the blessed martyr, lgnatius, who is held in famous reverence among very many. This Ignatius was reappointed to the bishopric of Antioch next after Peter in succession. Some do say, that he, being sent from Syria to Rome, because he professed Christ, was given to the wild beasts to be devoured. It is also said of him, that when he passed through Asia, being under the most strict custody of his keepers, he strengthened and confirmed the churches through all the cities as he went, both with his exhortations and preaching of the Word of God. Accordingly having come to Smyrna, he wrote to, the Church at Rome, exhorting them not to use means for his deliverance from martyrdom, lest they deprive him of that which he most longed and hoped for:

“Now I begin to be a disciple. I care for nothing, of visible or invisible things, so that I may but win Christ. Let fire and the cross, let the companies of wild beasts, let breaking of bones and tearing of limbs, let the grinding of the whole body, and all the malice of the devil, come upon me; be it so, only may I win Christ Jesus!” And even when he was sentenced to be thrown to the beast such was the burning desire that he had to suffer, that he spake, what time he heard the lions roaring, saying, “I am the wheat of Christ: I am going to be ground with the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread.”

When I read that I don’t marvel at how great Ignatius was. I marvel at how great almighty God is to so transform a life into such a radical disciple of Christ!