The Necessity of Failure

Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"

John 6:70 (NKJV)

The concept of failure has been a mystery since the creation of the universe, but it need not be, since everything exists only because God allowed it to. Let us delve into the mind of God for a moment. Before the creation of the earth and of man, God created various classes of beings, the living creatures of the Lord, the elders around the throne, the sons of God, the angels and so on. These were the celestials who took part in God's creation, and He created them to serve His purposes. When we study the Scriptures, it is apparent that they were created pristine and perfect. There was nothing askew among them, and clearly, it would seem, they could not fail.

The story is not as straightforward as that. There was a being described in these words:

You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.

Ezekiel 28:12–15 (NKJV)

His name was Lucifer, the light-bearer, the morning star, a title that Jesus Himself took up ages later in Revelation. This should tell the reader that Lucifer was a very high-ranking being, and close to God; he was a cherub.

That a being so perfect, so full of wisdom and light, should be the one in whom iniquity was found, that perfection itself should fail, is an anomaly we will attempt to uncover. The only logical explanation must come from understanding God and His plans. Failure was a big part of the plans and purposes of God. Only failure could set in motion the kind of plans God had for creation. We can even go so far as to say that in the perfect plan of God, failure is an invited passenger, and it will always play a part in the great events of civilisation. The ultimate plan of God is revealed in Revelation: to tabernacle Himself, not only in physical form but in a dimension in which He could be seen by the entire universe. This is the climax of God's plans: "the tabernacle of God is with men." All this is the pleasure of God. That being said, for God's plans to create the earth and man to succeed, events of failure in the spirit had to be set in motion.

God planned for the failure, the rebellion and the fall of Lucifer to the earth. The Bible states clearly that after his rebellion no place was found for him in heaven. This is strange, because Lucifer was a spiritual being: where would he live, and why did Michael not make an end of him there and then? He loses in heaven but becomes a success on earth. It is strange, but it is the wisdom of God. As it happens, God had prepared a prison for him, and it was on earth; that is why God had no objection to their being cast down to the earth, as you will find out. Remember that Jesus is the Adam who never failed, and He said that one of His purposes was to destroy the works of the devil.

So, in the interim, God created a man, made in His image and likeness (a superior level of perfection to that of Lucifer, the God-perfection), in order to subdue the earth, which implies a tyrannical situation Adam had to deal with. We can see, then, that God's short-term purpose in creating man was to deal with the failure of the celestials who were now on the earth, a truth borne out by Enoch, who both communicated with these beings and pronounced judgements on them after the saga of Genesis 6. When you consider this, you realise that Satan's rebellion and failure were part of the reason God created man.

But that pure and perfect man also failed, and he failed because it was necessary. Now you can see an apparent pattern in the divine wisdom: creation must fail for God's plans to succeed.

Without Lucifer's failure, we would not have Adam. Without Adam's failure, we would not have Jesus, at least not in the form we have Him now, because creation would not need a Saviour, nor a Helper in the Person of the Holy Spirit. And without Jesus, God would not have a body, and without a body God could not achieve His plans for the earth.

Without Judas, Jesus would not have died, and His death was necessary. That is why He called Judas "friend" and Peter "Satan" when it came to His passion. Our opening scripture helps us answer the most difficult question about life, why we fail. We fail because God chose it for us; it was failure in creation that accelerated the progress of the plans of God, and failure has done more good for civilisation than success has. Jesus spent a whole night in prayer before He called the twelve, and Judas passed the criterion. "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" Jesus chose a devil, a failure, to help Him accomplish His destiny. Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

Now, this is not to encourage you to go and sin or fail on purpose; that would not bode well for you. But understand that it was perfect beings who failed, beings who were attempting to follow God and do His will. That is why, even for babes in Christ, God says that if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father. Even murderers need representation before the courts, for their trials to be fair.

In conclusion, I want the reader to know that only those who desire success will fail. You will fail many times, but that is necessary, because that failure will be the most important thing about your success. Jesus Himself said, "Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home." Jesus said you would fail. He told Peter that he would fail, and that when he had returned, he should strengthen his brethren. Peter's failure was necessary, and your failure is necessary.

If you are failing in business, in your career, in relationships or with money, that failure reveals more about you than anything else. Stay with it; it will teach you a great deal. Naturally no one wants to fail, and it is that very desire that will keep you up at night trying to work out why you failed. You had to fail in order to search out, test again, re-evaluate and analyse. Personally, my greatest fear in life has always been to fail God, my parents and myself, and so everything I did was done with the smallest possible margin for failure, until the Holy Spirit taught me the most invaluable lesson about life: risk and failure are a big reason we progress and become better at life. If success is to be meaningful, you must fail before you succeed. This I have found to be a law of life.