Jesus called Satan a liar and the father of lies. We learn the
truth of that statement the first time we meet him in Scripture. All the
words that came out of his mouth in the Garden of Eden were lies -- and
he even used deceit by posing as a serpent.
None of us have the
time in our lives to make up a list of all the different lies that the
devil tells, but all these different temptations are really offspring of
two basic lies that he uses: God is not good; and you can fend for
yourself. In the case of Eve, Satan lied and convinced Eve that God was
withholding a way for her and her husband to be like God; that they
didn’t need to keep the commandments of God in order to live.
Satan
will tempt us with the same lie; that we will not surely die if we
break God’s commandments. Especially as we consider our sins more
profoundly during Lent, Satan will try to make us wonder what the big
deal about all this is. If God is so great, why did He allow sin to
enter the world in the first place? Am I really so bad that I deserve to
die? But the inescapable truth is that God is great and it is our fault
that sin is in the world. We know this because sin has brought death
into the world.
As you despair of your hope to fend for yourself,
consider the greatness of God. Jesus faced the same lie. Satan was
there in the garden of Gethsemane saying something like,
“Come on, Jesus, you aren’t really going to die for sinners, are you?”
But the truth of Lent is that Jesus did die for all sinners and saved us
out of His marvelous goodness. |
