How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (Isaiah 14:12-14).
We live in a world that speaks and thinks only about rights. This is to be expected because the "prince of the world" (John 14:30) is the one who it serves, and he is one who fights for his rights the way the world does. Fighting for rights, no matter what is the intention of that ends is, is anti-Christian because it is of the spirit of pride and rebellion.
The first sin ever committed in the universe was pride. It was pride that led to Lucifer's downfall, and destruction. God made him good, but he sinned by becoming proud in heart. Ezekiel 28:17 describes satan's fall: Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.
It must be noted that it is not only proud actions or words that are sin, but a proud heart. Sin starts from the heart, and manifests in one's words and actions. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (Matthew 15:19). Thus, spiritual sins, that is, sins of the heart, are damnable by virtue of being from the heart alone.
Pride is the root of all sin because it seeks its own ways, hates truth, boasts and its envious, the opposite of love (1 Corinthians 13:4-6). All pride is from satan because he fell from glory because of pride, and tempted Eve and Adam to sin, through whom sinned entered the world (Romans 5:12). Pride is not merely arrogance and cockiness as many Christians and unsaved people think. Pride is of the spirit of rebellion because it is rebellion. It hates submission to authority, rebuke, correction or disciple. It resists it with all its might.
Satan's heart becoming proud was rebellion itself because it was a failure to fully submit to God. He resisted God's authority because of his pride which is rebellion. Such pride leads to more rebellion. Satan sought to exalt himself above God, much like what people today are trying to do through the demonic doctrine of humanism. Humanism is of the spirit of rebellion, exalting sinful humanity above God, claiming that it can be good without God. The root of humanism is pride from the human heart which is "desperately wicked and deceitful above all things" (Jeremiah 17:9).
The human heart is proud, thinking it can be independent of God, and that it is entitled to what it wants or perceives to need. It fails to realise, in its hatred of God that everything a person has is by grace alone, and therefore not a right. No human even has a right to life because every breath one has is from God who is justified to throw of all us into Hell if He wants because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This is because "He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein" (Isaiah 42:5).
God can do as He chooses, and we humans are subject to Him. However, human nature likes to think that God is subject to us, and that humans can do as they choose. The root of this is our despicable, abominable human pride which God absolutely hates. Such pride is from satan.
Satan's pride as an angel who wanted to usurp God's authority is in absolute contrast to Jesus who though "being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God" (Philippians 2:6). Jesus was humble, satan was proud. Love is not proud (1 Corinthians 13:4). Humility is fruit of love. Therefore, pride is not of love, but diametrically opposed to love.
Jesus being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8). He died for our sins out of love for the world, for God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son so that whosoever shall believe in Him shall not perish but have Everlasting Life (John 3:16). Jesus is God Himself in the flesh. Just as pride is of the spirit of rebellion, humility is of the spirit of obedience.
Fighting for one's "rights" which no human has, is of the spirit of pride and therefore rebellion because it elevates oneself above God. Jesus did not fight for his rights though He was God, but became obedient to death on a cross. Therefore, fighting for one's "rights" is anti-Christian because it is of the spirit of pride and rebellion.
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