Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Why is God alone among "many gods" the holy One? Why does He demand exclusive worship? Is He divinely selfish? Why not share His worship with "lesser gods"? This short message isn't long enough for this topic, but look at Philippians 2:5-8, which is an "X-ray" of agape, the character of God. There are seven steps that the Son of God (who alone can reveal the Father) took in stepping down, lower and lower:
(1) He gave up His "equality with God," (2) "made Himself of no reputation," (3) took upon Himself "the form of a servant," (4) came "in the likeness of [fallen] men," (5) "humbled Himself," (6) "became obedient to death" (the only being in the wide universe of God who has ever become "obedient to death"), and lastly, (7) "even the death of the cross."
That's the death that involves "the curse" of God," the awful condemnation of final conscious ruin, a death infinitely worse than the physical pain involved. (See Galatians 3:13 to learn what is "the death of the cross.") It was the concentrated death of humanity, for He "tasted death for everyone" (Heb. 2:9), the total, final, giving of Himself, the "pouring out of His soul unto death" until there wasn't a drop left. He was "numbered with the transgressors, and bore the sin of" everyone (Isa. 53:12).
If a picture is worth a thousand words, there we have it: this is agape, and "God is agape" (1 John 4:8). No other being in the wide universe of the heavenly or earthly cosmos has ever made such a Sacrifice! Any "other god" is therefore an anti-agape "god." That means, to worship any "lesser god" is to worship Satan himself. No, God, our heavenly Father, our Savior and Redeemer, is not divinely selfish--refusing to share His throne with "lesser gods." He knows that to worship any "other god" means death to us; and He loves us too much to allow that.
The final crisis of earth's history will be a challenge to "worship the Lamb" alone, or to worship Baal. All worship of self which is disguised as the worship of "christ" is Baal-worship. Think about it!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 4, 1998.
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