Isaiah 14:12-15How you
have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been
cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said
in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above
the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the
utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops
of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." But you
are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.
The root of all sin is putting ourselves on God's throne, essentially replacing
God with ourselves, our own ideas and values, our own ambitions. But consider
how religious people are particularly prone to the attitude expressed here.
Don't religious people aspire to ascend to heaven? And isn't it promised
that Christian will reign with Christ, as it is written, "if
we endure, we will also reign with him." 2 Timothy 2:12
And doesn't the Bible exhort us to become like God? Eph 4:24 "put
on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
Yet there is a significant difference between children imitating their
father and those who eliminate their father usurping his position and authority.
As Jesus noted among the religious elite of his day, religious people can
often be the worst of people, pushing God off the throne while at the same
time giving an impression of religious zeal. The most proud can often be
the most religious. For is there any greater ambition than to rule in God's
place? Yet it is not the most proud, but the most humble whom God associates
with.For this is what the high and lofty
One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high
and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit."
Isaiah 57:15