XI. BECOMING ONE WITH MAN AND ALIENATING MAN FROM GOD BY DEADENING MAN’S SPIRIT
Satan became one with man and alienated man from God by deadening man’s spirit. Here we have to use Ephesians 2:1, 12, and 4:18. In these verses we can see man was deadened in the spirit. By this, man was alienated, cut off, from God and even cut off from the life of God. We can see that man had fallen to the uttermost. The mind was poisoned, the emotion was poisoned, the will was poisoned, and the body was poisoned. Also man’s spirit was deadened. The whole being of man thus became contaminated, deadened, and alienated from God.
XII. USURPING MAN TO FRUSTRATE GOD FROM FULFILLING HIS PURPOSE
Satan usurped man to frustrate God from fulfilling His purpose. Today mankind is in the hand of Satan, and Satan uses the whole human race to do his will, to frustrate God from fulfilling God’s purpose. Man was made by God to fulfill God’s purpose. But man fell into the usurping hand of Satan, so man is being used by Satan to fulfill Satan’s purpose. This is the plot of Satan to spoil man.
We have to stress that Satan spoiled man by contaminating man’s soul and deadening his spirit. We also have to point out that man’s body was ruined to become the flesh. In the flesh, man’s ruined body, there is sin, and when this sin acts it is "the evil" (Rom. 7:21). Sin and evil are the same thing. The term sin mostly denotes the nature, whereas the term the evil mostly denotes the activities. Actually, both sin and the evil are Satan himself. Satan himself in our flesh is sin. When sin acts, it is the evil. We can see that the whole human being became utterly fallen by eating the tree of knowledge. The soul was contaminated, the spirit was deadened, and the body was ruined.
We have to pray so that we can have the best utterance to present these things to the new ones and to the young ones. I feel this is quite crucial for the coming lessons on life.
(Basic Lessons on Life, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
