The Children of Adam

A few weeks ago, I finished up excellent book by DC Robertsson called The First Will Be Last, A Biblical Perspective on Narcissism. In an easy to read and understanding way he does case studies of narcissist in the Bible. Beginning with the insolence of the Pharisees to the pride of the original narcissist Satan. The wrath of King Saul, the deception of Ananias and Sapphira, and the jealousy of the Prodigal's older brother. Those we might call the "villains" in the Bible. Sadly, I began to see the very environment in which I grew up in.

Apart from the Bible, I've never been triggered more from a book than this one. There's an old saying that ignorance is bliss and I believe it's true after being so confronted with the past from my reading. I began to mourn and grieve the childhood that me and my siblings lost, the pain our family dynamics brought to my siblings and others created in the image of God. I even began to think how generational sin affected my own children growing up and how I had failed God and them. While I do believe in individual accountability, I also know that environment plays a role in shaping us. Strange this is coming thirty-three years after I first coming to know Christ. They say it is crucial to understand and cope with triggers for our mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. I was stripped of any haughtiness, pride and insolence that I might have had. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10 v 5 that in God everything that exalts itself will be pulled and cast down before Him and brought into obedience.

Like Abraham who was called from Ur of the Chaldees or his children who were called out of Egypt, Christ is at work shaping us even before we knew Him. In the story of Joseph in Genesis 50 v 20 when speaking to his brothers it reads And as for you, ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Christ can bring good out of evil when we turn to Him. Like the First Adam, we will horribly fail but in the Second Adam we will be more than conquerors through Him that loved us (Romans 8v37).