Many modern doctrines say that it’s
okay with God if we sin. Now, Satan is wise enough to not be that
blunt. So he has given us subtle doctrines which on the surface
appear true and scriptural. But logically they infer that it’s okay
to sin, but they never explicitly say that. Since most people do not
logically think through consequences, but simply accept what they
are taught, these doctrines lodge into the back corners of their
minds. Satan knows that when such people are tempted to sin, that
they will have no reason to say "No" to sin. Their defenses have
been removed by Satan’s popular lies that surreptitiously teach that
nothing bad will happen to us if we sin.
Satan’s goal is to make Christians sin.
He knows that a sinful Christian can not enter God’s kingdom (Gal
5:21, "those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of
God"). Thus, Satan is removing rulers who will replace Satan’s rule
on earth, thus delaying the overthrow Satan’s kingdom. To prevent
his overthrow, Satan desperately wants to destroy those who are to
replace him. Thus, he desperately tries to make Christians sin.
And I must admit that he has been
surprisingly successful. American and Europe have reached the point
where even many Christians do not know that sex outside of marriage
is sin. Because the Christians’ light of good behavior has gone out,
the non-Christians have no concept of sin, and simply assume that
sex outside of marriage is fine. The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan
Africa is due to rampant fornication, and the decades of missionary
effort there have clearly failed to prevent that. Why? Because the
missionaries unwittingly taught the Africans that it’s okay to sin.
So they are sinning.
As a result of the lies, we Christians
have lost the fear of God. Jesus taught, "I’ll tell you who to fear:
Fear Him who has power to cast body and soul into Hell." We’ve lost
this healthy fear of God’s judgment, and so our country has lost it
too.
Many years ago, the following words
entered my mind: "Religious leaders are usually wrong. Jesus blasted
the religious leaders of his day. They were wrong through the middle
ages. And they are wrong today. So you must think for yourself, and
not merely believe what they tell you." I don’t know if this was the
Lord speaking to me, but I think it’s true either way. Much of what
religious leaders teach these days is wrong. We must not
unthinkingly believe them, because Satan has mixed and supplanted
God’s truth with his lies.
Let’s look at some of the lies which
Satan has infiltrated into Christian teaching. These lies all have
the same logical conclusion: Nothing bad will happen to you if you
sin, so it’s okay to sin.
Lie: All our righteousness is imputed.
The concept of imputed righteousness is
only taught by Paul in Romans chapters 3-5. Romans 4:7-8 equates
imputed righteousness with forgiveness. And that is because there is
a place for forgiveness; how else could we get a fresh start when we
repent and turn to God? Romans 3:25 states that he has forgiven our
past sins. Imputed righteousness is needed at the beginning to get
the guilt behind us so we can get started with serving God
righteously.
But Satan has pushed imputed
righteousness far beyond its boundary of a fresh start after
repentance. Interestingly, Paul teaches us about imputed sin in
Romans 3-5 also, but you’ve never heard it taught in your church.
Look at Romans 5:13, "but sin is not imputed when there is no law" (KJV).
The flip side of this verse says that sin is imputed when there is
law. That is, if you know an action is sin, and you do it anyway,
God will consider you guilty of sin (i.e., impute sin to you). The
Bible explicitly says this in James 4:17, "to him who knows to do
good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin". And also Hebrews 10:26,
"If we sin deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth,
there is no more sacrifice for sin."
An important question is: What happens
if we sin accidentally? Let’s say you were suddenly tempted and
before you knew it, you had sinned. First John 1:9 gives the answer:
Confess the sin (repentance is implicit in this), and God will
forgive you and clean that sin out of you.
What is imputation? Imputation simply
means how God considers us. God imputes sin when we knowingly sin.
God imputes righteousness when we repent of sin. He also imputes
righteousness to us when we do His will, be it large or small. For
example, in Romans 4:22-24, righteousness was imputed to Abraham
because he did what God wanted of him, which was to believe His
promise.
Finally, what about deliberate sin
(which God imputes as sin), if we repent afterwards? If we
deliberately sin and repent, He might forgive us, He might not.
Deliberate sin is a dangerous area, as King David discovered the
hard way after sinning with Bathsheba, when God said, "The sword
will never leave your house." David suffered badly for that! If God
is good to you, he’ll give you so much suffering that you’ll sorely
wish you had never sinned. If God is not good to you, He simply
won’t forgive you of the deliberate sin
Lie: Repentance means feeling sorry.
No, repentance means that you refuse to
sin again. In fact, there will probably be no feeling at all
associated with your repentance. There wasn’t for me when I started
serving God, nor when I repented of a sin later. In fact, rather
than feeling sorry, your flesh may be feeling good about having
sinned. Ignore feelings.
What is repentance? Repentance is the
decision of "never again" in your heart. "I will never do that
again."
Lie: God sees us through Christ.
The Bible does not say or imply this
anywhere. It’s something new that Satan has sneaked into Christian
teaching. Instead, every letter to the Christian churches in
Revelation say "I know your works." God was not seeing those
Christians through Christ. Nor does He see us through Christ. He
sees everything we do, just as He stated. But think about what this
lie is saying: Suppose God actually were to see Christ’s
righteousness when we’re actually sinning. Then we would not be
punished for our sin, which in essence means that it’s okay to sin.
So the logical conclusion of this doctrine is that it’s okay to sin.
Lie: Faith means believing things about
God. Only believe.
What is belief? What is faith? In the
Bible, we see that faith means far more than mental beliefs. It
means believing that God told the truth. And if you actually believe
what He said, you’ll live consistently with what He said. Or to put
it differently, faith is confidence that God will keep His threats
and promises, based on your deeds. It helps to consider an example
of sin: If you know that God has said that the righteous will
inherit eternal life, and the sexually immoral will go into the lake
of fire (Revelation 21:8), and yet you fornicate, then by your
actions you are saying that God will not cast you into that
lake. You don’t believe His threat. You don’t have faith in Him. You
are saying that He lied.
Hebrews 11 is the faith-chapter, and
yet it mostly shows how people acted (their works) due to their
faith in God. They lived consistently with what God said."By faith
Abel offered a better sacrifice...." And "By faith he (Abraham)
sojourned in the land of promise...." The faith-chapter mostly
describes obedience. But the obedience was living consistently with
what God said, because they believed what God said about
consequences. That’s faith. To disobey God shows a lack of faith in
God. This is why James 2:26 says, "faith without works is dead." You
can not have faith and disobey.
Satan says that faith is only mental
(or intellectual) belief. James 2:18-19 answers this by saying, "A
man will say, You have faith and I have works....You believe that
there is one God; you do well. Even the demons believe -- and
tremble." So mental belief in facts (like the demons) is not belief.
In the Bible, faith and belief are similar. Both require right
behavior that’s consistent with God’s words. If you’re not obeying
what you (supposedly) believe, then you don’t actually believe it.
Here’s another aspect of faith. The
central issue is: Who controls your life? You or God? When the Bible
says "the just shall live by faith", it contrasts faith with the
opposite, which is pride (Habakkuk 2:4). This is the pride of
self-reliance, of controlling one’s own life, which goes along with
haughtiness. You control your own life because you don’t have
confidence in God’s control. You think your way is better than His,
hence the haughtiness. So faith is letting God run your life,
because you believe what He said (His promises). That is what
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do
not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
Him, and He will make your paths straight."
I often pray, "Lord, what do you say?"
I pray this about everything, and I tell Him everything I’m thinking
and desire. I hide nothing. As far as I know, He has authority over
every aspect of my life. I’ve made myself His slave. Romans 6:17-23
speaks of such voluntary slavery. This is faith. It is far from
belief in doctrine.
This faith is also being "under grace",
as Paul puts it, instead of being "under the law". Paul was
contrasting being under the law of Moses versus being under direct
obedience to God.
Lie: Works is right behavior.
What is works? Satan is correct: Your
works is your behavior. Satan’s lies are most effective when they
are mostly true. He injects a little poison in a lot of meat, as one
reader of this essay commented. He’ll put much bait around his hook.
Satan’s little lie is surrounded by much truth, to deceive as many
as possible. But the little hidden lie destroys what is most
important. Merely cut one appropriate wire, and your car won’t run.
So be careful about everything.
Your works is your behavior. We saw
that above in James 2:26. But works is also following religious
rules, and the law of Moses in particular. So when you read "works"
in the Bible, you must ask, "Which kind of works?" In Romans and
Galatians, Paul usually uses "works" to mean following the law of
Moses. Elsewhere in the Bible, "works" usually means your deeds.
In Romans, Paul wrote, "For we maintain
that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law." In
the prior verse, Paul compares faith and works, so here "works"
means "observing the law", which is the Old Testament law of Moses.
In Galatians, Paul consistently uses the phrase "Works of the law",
so it’s clear that he’s referring to the Mosaic law.
But in James, "works" means behavior,
as in "faith without works is dead" (James 2:26).This is why there
is no contradiction between Paul writing that we are not saved by
works, and James saying we are. These are two different kinds of
works.
Yet, we get a fresh start solely by
forgiveness, and not by any good deeds we’ve done. Satan has
enlarged this beyond its boundary to become everything, pushing out
the necessity of good works. For example, Acts 26:20, "...repent and
turn to God, and do works fit for repentance." Remember what you
read above, that repentance means deciding "never again" to sin?
Here we see that: If people have repented and turned to God, their
works (behavior) will agree with their repentance. So faith always
results in good works.
Lie: We’re saved by faith and not
works.
Above, we saw how Satan has distorted
the meaning of "faith" and "works". This lie is a paraphrase of
Romans 3:28, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
apart from the deeds of the law." In light of what faith and works
really are, we see that Paul is saying that we’re saved by living
consistently with our belief in God’s promises, instead of following
the regulations of the law of Moses (such as the feast days and
dietary laws).
James 2:14 asks rhetorically, "Can
faith save him?" The assumed answer is "no", faith alone can not
save, "being alone" as James says. If you have faith in God’s
promises, such as "whatever a man sows, that shall he reap" (Gal
6:7), then you will do good works because you want to reap good and
not pain. Therefore, if you are not doing good, your faith is not
genuine ("dead", as James put it).
God said He will judge you (second
Corinthians 5:10). Do you believe that? Are you living so that
you’ll get a good judgment? If you have faith in what God said,
you’ll live appropriately (good works).
Lie: Grace is forgiveness. We’re saved
by grace, so my behavior doesn’t matter.
This lie is one of Satan’s big guns,
and it’s a good example of a lie that’s partly true. Yes, grace
includes forgiveness. In fact, when we first repent and turn to
Christ, His grace is entirely forgiveness.
What is grace? In the Bible, grace
usually means an ability, or help, or power from God. Examples
include: Acts 4:33 "and great grace was upon them all." referring to
the power on the apostles.; Second Corinthians 8:6 "...finish in you
the same grace also." and Second Corinthians 8:7 "see that you
abound in this grace also.", both referring to the ability to donate
money. Grace in its broadest sense is everything we need to become a
son of God. In the beginning, it’s forgiveness. And later, it
includes the power to serve Him in various ways, as the examples
above show.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says "For by grace you
are saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves; it is the
gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast." Satan has
twisted this to mean that we’re saved by forgiveness and that our
actions don’t matter. It actually says: Your faith and your ability
to serve God are gifts from Him. You are living righteously due to
your faith in God, but these are not by your own power, so don’t
become proud by thinking you’re obeying God’s laws yourself.
Grace is all forms of God’s helping us
to become a son of God. It starts with forgiveness, then includes
teaching in righteous behavior, and His help in overcoming sin, and
many other things, such as ministries. If you refuse at some point,
then you are refusing His grace just as the wicked servant refused
to invest his master’s talent (Matthew 25:30). You’ll become a
servant who didn’t serve, and end up in the outer darkness. In the
parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), the talents are graces.
Use them, and don’t bury them.
Lie: We’re under no law but the law of
love.
What law are we Christians under? The
ten commandments? The law of Moses? Does this mean we must keep the
Old Testament feast days, the washing of pans, and so on? But Paul
says we are no longer under law, but under grace (Romans 6:14). Does
this mean we’re free from the ten commandments, and that it’s okay
to commit adultery? Satan says so, but he says it by inference with
this lie, not explicitly.
Romans 3:27 asks, "By what law?"Then he
goes on to mention the "law of faith", as well as the law of Moses.
So there are different kinds of law. We need to understand them.
In chapters 3-7 of Romans, Paul
establishes that we are not under the law of Moses. In Romans 7, he
adds that the law of Moses makes us aware of sin, but can’t help us
overcome it. In fact, the "law of sin" pushes us into sin. Then in
Romans 8:2 he says, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Here he
introduces "the law of the Spirit". And it enables us to overcome
the "law of sin", so we don’t have to sin.
What is this law of the Spirit? That
phrase is not used elsewhere, so we need to look for what law we are
under, and how the Spirit is involved. The remainder of Romans 8 is
revealing. For example, "but if by the Spirit you are putting to
death the deeds of the body, you will live". This says the Spirit
helps us to kill the deeds of the body, so an important part of the
new law consists of getting rid of our bodily sins.
And not just bodily sins. In the
beatitudes (Matthew 5 through 7), Jesus compares the new law with
the law of Moses. For example, the old law says "You shall not
commit adultery", but in the new law, lusting after a woman makes
you guilty of adultery. So in the new law, you can sin by craving
sin. This was not true of the old law. And "You shall not murder",
but in the new law, unjustified anger against a brother makes you
guilty. So the new law is stricter than the old.
The above example of lust shows an
important part of the new law. As I say it, "You would have sinned
if you could have sinned." If this is true of you, God says, "You’ve
already sinned." That is, if you would have sinned given the
opportunity, but you didn’t sin because you couldn’t (because for
example, the IRS would have caught your cheat), then as far as God
is concerned, you did the deed. You have sinned with your will, even
though you couldn’t sin with your body.
So watch your intentions. The new,
strict law requires it. Read my discussion of God’s judgment for
what happens if you don’t.
With this lie, Satan is saying the new
law is soft on sin, whereas it’s actually more strict than the old.
Under the new law, we must not sin with our wills. That was not true
of the old. We see this required mental self-control in Second
Corinthians 10:5, "Casting down arguments, and every high thing that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought
into captivity to the obedience of Christ."
So we are under strong law. But we have
more grace with which to obey this new law.
Ultimately, He is our law. Being an
obedient wife (i.e., faith in Christ) makes Him our law because
wives obey their husbands. We look to and obey Him, instead of
looking to and obeying the law of Moses written in Leviticus and
Deuteronomy. So we must pray and hear Him. "My sheep hear My voice",
Jesus said (John 10:27). But before we’ve learned to hear His voice
reliably, we must force ourselves to not commit sins that are listed
in the Bible. This is why Second Peter 1:19 says, "And so we have
the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay
attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns
and the morning star arises in your hearts."
Lie: You should (not must) do right.
Satan has no problem teaching
Christians that they should behave righteously. This is another lie
that’s mostly true (the deadliest kind). With this lie, Satan
appears to be teaching righteousness. As Second Corinthians 11:15
says, "Therefore, it is no great thing if his (Satan’s) ministers
also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end
shall be according to their works." Paul is referring to teachers
who teach righteousness, but subtlely alter a critical piece, making
righteous behavior non-essential.
The critical piece is the change of
"must" into "should". Satan says "you should do right." God says
"you must do right." When Satan says "should", he means that if you
don’t, nothing particularly bad will happen to you. When God says
"must", he means that if you don’t, the results will be dreadful.
Thus Satan is saying that it’s okay to sin.
Lie: As long as we’re in this body, we
have to sin.
Romans 8:12 says, "Therefore, brethren,
we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." Satan’s
lie sounds plausible, but directly contradicts this verse. We don’t
have to sin. What sin must be commit? Fornication? Cheating? Murder?
Lust? Pornography? Name a sinful behavior or thought which we are
forced to do and that God’s grace isn’t strong enough to overcome.
There are none. We don’t have to sin. First John 4:17 says, "...as
He is, so are we in this world." The context says this is why we can
be bold in the day of judgment. It’s because we lived like He did in
this world. We don’t have to sin.
I go months without sinning. My last
sin was so long ago that I don’t even remember what it was.
Be aware that as we live life, God can
point out to us things He wants us to stop or start doing. There’s a
transition from obvious sins such as fornication, into character
flaws such as yelling at the kids, and into issues of holiness such
as the music we listen to. It’s not clear to us which are sin.
Rather than label which are and aren’t sins as in a rule-book, you
must simply obey God: If He tells you to change something, change
it. If you don’t, it will be sin to you (James 4:17). If you obey,
you’ll remain in good standing with God. In this area of being led
by the Spirit, what is sin for you might not be sin for somebody
else. But a sin that’s listed in the New Testament is always sin. We
must overcome those. The others come after that baseline.
Lie: God has forgiven all our sins,
past, present and future.
Romans 3:25 says "to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past". So based on
our repentance (deciding "never again" to sin), our past sins are
forgiven. As discussed above, present and future sins are only
forgiven if done out of ignorance, of if done accidentally and we
repent. Again, Satan has taken something (forgiveness) and pushed it
beyond its boundaries.
Lie: Eternal security.
I believe in eternal insecurity. We can
always decide to sin. Even in God’s kingdom, we could decide to sin,
just as Satan decided to sin when he was a covering cherub over
God’s throne. The only security we have is our decision to never
sin.
Teachers promoting eternal security use
logic such as, "After you’re born again, how can you be unborn? When
God’s life is in you, how can man kill it? Man can’t kill God." All
this is based on human reasoning, and ignores the parable of the
sower (Matthew 13:3-9) that shows that the divine life in us can
indeed be killed.
Lie: We’re constantly sinning.
What is sin? Sin is specific behaviors
such as drunkenness, adultery, murder, etc. It also includes "wish I
could" intentions, such as lust. You probably did not do any such
thing today. You probably did not sin today. You are not constantly
sinning. Satan teaches us that we’ve sinned dozens of times already
today, so we need His constant unconditional forgiveness. That’s
wrong on both counts. You are not constantly sinning. And His
forgiveness is conditional (upon repentance).
It’s important to know that temptation
is not sin. Most of us men have strong sexual pressure on us. In
addition, some have other weaknesses, such as violence, greed,
glory-lust and whatnot. All of these things are pressures on us.
Experiencing such pressure is not sin. We have not sinned when are
tempted by these things. We only sin when we do them (or wish we
could).
So be at peace. If you’re serving God
the best you know, and are not committing any sin that you’re aware
of, then you’re fine. Every day, I pray: "Lord, please show me if
you want me to change anything. If you want me to stop or start
doing or thinking something." And if He doesn’t show you anything,
be at peace.
Lie: Nobody is righteous.
The lie continues by saying that
because nobody has ever been righteous, God gave up on the old
covenant and gave us the new covenant with unconditional
forgiveness. The truth is that many people have been righteous. In
fact, in many places, Psalms and Proverbs contrast the righteous
with the wicked.
But Satan has taken Paul’s writing in
Romans 3:10, "There is no one righteous, no not one", and expanded
it beyond its boundary. Paul meant that everyone has sinned at some
point, and he makes his point by quoting the extreme. But he states
his point in the prior verse, "both Jews and Gentiles, that they are
both under sin." Yes, everyone has sinned. Yes, there is sin in all
of us. But this does not mean that nobody is overcoming this
temptation. Sinning in the past does not mean that God expects us to
be sinning now. Romans 3:23 restates his point, "For all have sinned
and come short of God’s glory." And this means we need something to
cover that sin. That’s was Jesus’ death on the cross. That takes
care of past sins, as Paul says a couple of verses later in Romans
3:25. Satan says nobody lives righteously and so this covering of
past sins must also cover present and future sins. That goes beyond
the boundary of past sins. Regarding the present, we are expected to
live righteously (Titus 2:12).
Titus 2:14 summarizes everything well,
"Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."
"Redeem us": This is the forgiveness of the past. "Purify": This is
the removal of present sins. "Good works": God requires that we live
righteously.
Lie: Nobody’s perfect.
But Jesus said, "Be perfect, as your
Father in Heaven is perfect." Do you suppose he meant that? Do you
suppose it’s possible? Do you think God’s grace is strong enough to
make this possible? Is God perverse, so that He would command us to
do the impossible? Why did Paul write, "As many as are perfect, be
thus minded" (Philippians 3:15)? It’s because becoming perfect is
normal and expected.
What is perfection? Perfection is
having a pure heart and right behavior by God’s standards, not by
our standards. Our standards can be too high, requiring for example,
that we not feel temptation, or that we never feel angry when
wronged. Satan is tricky. He has made the standard too low by
teaching (through all these lies) that it’s okay to sin, and he has
also made the standard too high by teaching that if we feel tempted
or anger or we’re not evangelizing people around us, that we’ve
sinned or are below God’s standard. Satan did this to discourage us,
and make us believe that it’s impossible to be perfect, and give up
trying. Be at peace. If you’re not committing any sin that you’re
aware of (and temptation and feelings are not sin), then you’re
probably doing fine.
Lie: Just accept Christ.
The phrase "accept Christ" is not in
the Bible. But it does say "because they received not the love of
the truth, that they might be saved" (Second Thessalonians 2:9). So
it would be more scriptural to tell people that to be saved, they
must love truth. A love of truth is essential to escape being
deceived by Satan’s many lies, and thus falling into sin. In Acts,
people were told to "repent and be baptized" (Acts 2:38), not
"accept Christ." Actually, it’s easy to accept Christ. The challenge
is to get Him to accept us! We don’t want to hear, "I never knew
you, depart from me, you who do iniquity" (Matthew 7:23). And from
the context, that was obviously spoken to Christians. To get Christ
to accept us, we must not "do iniquity."
Lie: We should avoid sin out of
gratitude for what Christ has done for us.
The Bible never says or implies this.
Again, Satan is appearing as a minister of righteousness. This lie
sounds righteous and holy. But Satan knows that it’s weak, providing
no motivation to resist a severe temptation. We need strong
motivation to resist temptation, not this weak thing.
In the Old Testament, walls defended
cities. In Revelation 21:12, the wall is a prominent feature of the
New Jerusalem. Walls signify defense against sin. We must have a
wall against sin in our personality, or we will yield to temptation
to sin. But due to these many lies, our wall has been destroyed.
This idea of gratitude is a paper wall that provides no defensive
strength. A temptation will easily push over this paper wall of
gratitude, and Satan knows this. But understanding the consequences
of sin, such as we reap what we sow, provides us with a strong wall
against sin.
Lie: Christians won’t reap what they
sow.
Galatians 6:7-8 is usually clear,
"Whatever a man sows; that he shall reap." Removing the farming
analogy, "Whatever you do, you will get." Or bluntly, "You get what
you do." Paul goes on to say that if one sows "to his flesh",
meaning fornication, hatred, etc., then he will reap "corruption".
But if one sows "to the Spirit", he’ll reap "eternal life." Reaping
corruption... Have you wondered what that means? It’s talking about
your new body! The body we’re in now is bad enough (Paul called it
"vile"), but how would you like a body that God considers to be
corruption?
Lie: Only Christ is worthy; we are not
worthy.
This lie is unusually diabolical. When
Christians say "You are worthy but I am unworthy," Satan is there
spitting in God’s face. We can imagine Satan bowing in mock-worship
to God, saying alongside the Christians "you are worthy" and then
laughing at God because he knows that God dislikes worship from
people who are sinning.
There are a number of places where
Christians are required to be worthy. An important one is Luke
20:35, "Those who are considered worthy to obtain that world and the
resurrection from the dead..." So those who are unworthy will not
obtain the goals of Christians! Colossians 2:12, "That you would
walk worthy of God...." Revelation 3:4, "they will walk with me in
white, for they are worthy." We must be worthy.
Lie: If you require righteous behavior,
you’re trying to improve on Christ’s perfect work.
This is similar to the lie, "Only
Christ is worthy, we are not worthy." But by requiring righteous
behavior, we are merely saying that God requires that we behave
right and are certainly not saying that we must out-do Christ.
Lie: All our righteousness is filthy
rags.
This comes from Isaiah 64:6. Isaiah was
speaking about Israel at that time, which was committing sins,
causing God to ignore whatever they were doing right, including
following the law of Moses. I suspect that this is a warning to us
to not try to cover some sins by doing righteously in another area.
God does not accept such sneakiness. Instead, stop sinning.
Lie: If you require righteous behavior,
you are a legalist and a Pharisee.
Name-calling is a common method of
pressuring people. "If you do X, then you are a Y." There is no
reasoning based on facts. Actually, resorting to name-calling
probably means that the name-caller is wrong, having no other
argument, and simply refuses the truth.
The word "legalist" is not in the
Bible. But by saying this, Satan is implying that one is following a
strict written code. So what’s wrong with obeying the Bible? Jesus
said, "Bless those who curse you." What’s wrong with obeying that?
In fact, God requires that we obey Him.
Some churches make the mistake of
making over-restrictive lists of do’s and dont’s. While that’s
better than the permissive sin we have now, such a rule-list tends
to distract people from following God, and following rules instead.
Yet there are lists of sins in the Bible, and we must carefully
avoid committing them.
Lie: If you require righteous behavior,
you’re teaching works.
Actually, this is true. We often hear
Ephesians 2:8-9 quoted, but not Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:9
says "not as a result of works", yet Ephesians 2:10 says that works
are God’s purpose for us. Paul is saying that everything we have and
do are gifts from God (graces), so we’re not serving God by our own
wit and power. But God requires that we do good works (Titus 3:8).
Search for "works" in the New Testament, and you’ll see many
references to the works of the believers. For example, every letter
to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 says "I know your works."
James 2:24 summarizes this question of works by saying, "You see
that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone."
Lie: That’s Jewish ground.
Satan tells us that some verses in the
Bible apply only to the Jews, and not to gentiles (which is most of
us). For example, theologians might claim that Hebrews 10:26 ("if we
sin deliberately..., there is no sacrifice for sins) does not apply
to gentiles because the book of Hebrews was obviously written to the
Jews (that’s why it’s called "Hebrews"). Indeed, any verse in the
Bible that requires right behavior can be assigned to the Jews in
this manner.
This is correct. Actually, all the
Bible is written to the Jews. The Bible (and God) considers gentiles
who follow Jesus to be Jews! For example, Revelation 3:9 ("who say
they are Jews and are not") is talking about false Christians. Paul
makes it clear in Romans 12 that the gentiles have been grafted into
the Jewish olive tree. So when we gentiles become Christian, we are
actually converting to true Judaism in God’s sight. So Jewish ground
is our ground.
Lie: David got away with sin with
Bathsheba.
Did he? As a result, God said, "The
sword will never leave your house" (Second Samuel 12:10). And it
didn’t! Read the things that happened to David after that.
Eventually, David was the victim of a coup by his own son, and was
in desperate circumstances as a fugitive. No, he didn’t get away
with anything. He brought plenty of trouble and pain on himself. Sin
brings pain, because of God’s judgment on us when we sin. And the
painful consequences can be eternal. It’s not worth it.
Lie: The thief on the cross got away
with sin.
Did he? He was crucified by the
government’s justice system, doing what God wanted it to do: Punish
lawlessness (Romans 13:4). So the thief didn’t get away with
anything. He stole, and was crucified for it.
Lie: The Old Testament God was harsh,
but the New Testament God is forgiving.
Actually, the Old Testament was based
on forgiveness and obedience. And it really forgave. For example,
Leviticus 5:10 says, "So the priest shall make atonement on his
behalf for his sin which he has committed, and it shall be forgiven
him." The phrase "it shall be forgiven him" occurs several times in
Leviticus 5. It meant it.
Yet, when Israel persisted in sin, God
brought dreadful judgments on them, consisting of "pestilence,
famine and sword." Is the New Covenant any different? Read some of
the judgements in Revelation, and you’ll see that God has not
changed. "Pestilence, famine and sword" describes them well.
It’s often taught that under the Old
Covenant, people were required to live righteously, but they
couldn’t because nobody is righteous, so God gave up and made the
New Covenant consist of only forgiveness. But read the Sermon on the
Mount (Matthew 5-7), and you’ll see that Jesus made the New Covenant
stricter than the Old. For example, under the Old, you were
not allowed to commit adultery, but under the new, even looking at a
woman lustfully is sin. The New is stricter.
So in what way is the New Covenant
better than the Old?
Lie: The new covenant offers a better
forgiveness than the old covenant.
No, forgiveness is not what makes the
New Covenant better than the Old. We just saw that there was plenty
of forgiveness under the Old. What makes the New Covenant better is
that God gives us more grace (i.e., more help) so that (read
carefully) we don’t have to sin. Hebrews 8:7-12 says the New is
better because God will "put my laws into their minds and write them
on their hearts." So the New Covenant is all about God’s laws. You’d
never know that from modern doctrine. The New is better because we
can obey Him (his laws) by nature (by heart) instead of by our own
will-power. It’s better because God changes our heart to love good,
and He gives us more grace to perform the good.
Read Romans chapters 6-8 carefully.
You’ll see that one of Paul’s main points is that we don’t have to
sin. For example, Romans 8:12 states, "...we are under obligation,
not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." And Romans 6:6,
"...that we should no longer be slaves to sin." You’ll see
that freedom from having to sin is a major theme of these chapters.
Lie: The overcomers in Revelation are
super-Christians; the rest of us will come out good enough.
Satan gives us the impression that we
are a bottomless pit of sin, and that overcoming it is hopeless. Not
so. The sin in us is finite, and with God’s help, all of it can be
cleaned out (First John 1:9). Revelation 2-3 repeatedly says, "To
him who overcomes" when making promises to those who overcome their
temptations. Overcoming sin is possible and expected.
The non-overcomers in Revelation 2-3
also have promises and implications given to them. For example, they
are in danger of hell (Revelation 2:11), of great tribulation and
death (Revelation 2:22), of Jesus coming on them like a thief (Rev
3:3), of having their name blotted out of the book of life
(Revelation 3:5), of being spit out (Revelation 3:16). Elsewhere,
Jesus says such Christians ("servants") will be put into the outer
darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew
25:30). So yes, there are promises made to those who fail to
overcome sin. Promises of pain.
Lie: Salvation comes from our
relationship with Christ, and is not affected by our actions.
This sounds true. And we do have a
relationship with Jesus. But Jesus himself said, "If you love me,
you’ll keep my commandments" (John 14:15). We see this connection
between love and obedience repeatedly in John 14-15. John 15:10, "If
you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love." Implying that
if we don’t keep His commandments, He won’t love us.
The culmination of disobedient
Christians is Matthew 7:22-23 where Jesus tells miracle-working
Christians "I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice
lawlessness." These Christians were sinning, and Jesus threw them
out. Their supposed relationship made no difference. "I never knew
you" means that there was no actual relationship there, and that was
due to their lawlessness. Sin blocks relationship with Him.
Lie: Jesus suffered for my sins so I
won’t have to.
And if you don’t suffer because of your
sins, you got away with them. This makes it okay to sin. As I’ve
said, His sacrifice covers our past sins when we repent, but we may
or may not suffer because of those past sins.
Actually, Colossians 1:24 implies that
Christ’s sufferings were not enough. It says, "...in filling up that
which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions". Regarding our own
sufferings, Romans 8:36 says, "For your sake we are being killed all
day long, we are considered as sheep for the slaughter." And Romans
8:17, "if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be
glorified with Him". No suffering, no glory. I hate it as much as
you do, but I refuse to deceive myself. Suffering is a required part
of following Jesus.
Lie: Jesus has done it all, so we don’t
have to do anything.
Not in the Bible. But this lie is based
on human (and diabolical) logic. By saying you don’t have to do
anything, it’s referring to making an effort to do good and avoid
sin. It’s saying that it’s okay with God if you sin some. This lie
listens to Ephesians 2:8-9, and ignores Ephesians 2:10 where God’s
purpose for us is good works. This lie ignores God’s judgment which
is based on our behavior (Second Corinthians 5:10).
Lie: We’re perfect by identification
with Christ.
The phrase and concept of
"identification with Christ" is not in the Bible. Romans 6 comes
somewhat close when it says "For if we have become united with Him
in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the
likeness of His resurrection." But nowhere does the Bible say that
God considers us to be perfect just because we’ve "accepted Christ"
or "identified with Christ" or whatever. God is practical. He looks
at our behavior. If it’s not perfect (by His standard), then we’re
not perfect.
But keep in mind that His standard
changes as we grow in Christ. At first, the standard is low: To stop
the gross sins that we repented of at the beginning. As time goes
on, we become aware of other behaviors that must change. God is
raising our standard. As long as we are passing His standard today,
we are perfect in His sight.
Lie: God has three wills: Acceptable,
good, and perfect.
This is based on Romans 12:1, "that you
may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable
and perfect". The lie says that God has three standards for us: The
lowest is merely acceptable, and next is good, and the highest is
perfect. The lie says it’s okay to sin by just satisfying the lowest
standard.
But Romans 12:1 is actually saying that
God’s will is all of those things: Acceptable and good and perfect.
There is only one will of God and one standard.
Lie: God will not judge Christians
(only the non-Christians). A Christian will hear nothing bad at the
judgment.
This lie says that God is partial and
biased in favor of Christians. Yet the Bible says in Romans 2:11
that "There is no partiality with God." Even in the first century,
some Christians were getting the idea that God would apply an easier
standard of judgment to them, so the apostle Paul reminds them that
they will be judged the same as everybody else. Second Corinthians
5:10 says that "We must all appear before the judgment seat of God,
to receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad." We
Christians will be judged based on our behavior, just like everybody
else.
Some theologians have claimed that
God’s judgment area ("beema" in the Greek) will be like a sports
award banquet. However, Jesus appeared before the "beema" of Pilate,
and that was courtroom for trying accused criminals. "Beema" is the
place of judgment, and God’s "beema" is where we will be judged
based on our deeds.
Lie: We don’t have to fear God because
perfect love casts out fear.
That’s an example of what happens when
you apply human reasoning to the Bible. You go into error. Even one
step of human reasoning is suspect. It’s best to ask God for
understanding and see what the Bible says directly. In this case,
the lie is quoting First John 4:6 which is not referring to the fear
of God when it says "perfect love casts out fear". In Matthew 10:27,
Jesus commanded us to fear God. In the next breath, He tells us to
not fear God. With this paradox, Jesus is contrasting two
kinds of fear: First is the healthy fear of a stern but loving
Father. Second is the cowering fear of an arbitrary monster-god.
Perfect love casts out the second kind of fear, not the first.
Lie: I sinned, so I’m doomed.
Satan tells this lie to Christians who
want to live righteously, but who recently sinned. Satan tells them
that they’ve lost everything and there’s no hope in going on with
God, so they might as well give up and keep living in sin. This is
the lie of hopelessness. The question here is how we deal with a sin
we’ve committed. First John 1:9 provides a good procedure: "If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." But when it says
"confess", it doesn’t mean only to merely recite the sin, it means
also to forsake it, to say "never again" in your heart. So the
procedure is this: (1) Repent of the sin, (2) Tell God that you
never want to do that again, (3) God will help you to not yield to
it in the future.
Lie: We’ll be saved but as through fire
even if we don’t live the life.
First Corinthians 3:15 is describing
the judgment of everyone’s work, and says "If any man’s work is
burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet
so as through fire." Have you ever been in intense pain? If you’ve
birthed a baby, you know what pain is. Do you want to through the
painful fire mentioned in this verse? How long do you think that
pain will last?
Luke 12:46-48 provides some insight
into the destiny of Christians who don’t live godly lives: "...and
will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or
act in accord with his will, shall receive many lashes, but the one
who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will
receive but few." The words "slave" and "master" in this context are
referring to Christian and God. So a Christian who didn’t live godly
will punished harshly. "Cut him in pieces" and "many lashes": God’s
punishment is severe, and I want to stay far away from it.
The Feeling
I count 37 lies above. And they all say
that it’s okay to sin. The result of all these lies is the
comforting Feeling that "it’s okay." The Feeling says, "you’ll come
out fine." I was taught these lies in college, and now that I’m 51
years old, I still haven’t completely shaken off the Feeling. It’s a
false comfort. It makes Christians weak and thus unable and
unwilling to resist temptation. The Feeling allows Christians to
sin. Since some temptations are strong, Christians sin, and Satan is
glad that God has lost another king. Satan’s rule continues. And
such Christians will be shocked at the judgment.
Because the Christians’ light of good
works has gone out, the world doesn’t fear God because they don’t
believe in His judgment. These lies have given the world the
impression that God is a kindly old man who wouldn’t hurt anybody.
He’s the Santa-god. So the world has fallen into sin, just like we
Christians have.
Picture an old-fashioned war with a
long row (array) of canons, all firing at once. At us. These many
lies have shot down most Christians it appears.
Second Peter 2:21, "For it would be
better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than
having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment...." If you
substitute "right behavior" for "righteousness", you get "the way of
right behavior". In the first century, this was known as the way of
right behavior. Now it’s the opposite.
Goal: To have Jesus and the Father come
to us.
There are two motivations to live
righteously: To avoid the painful, and to get the joy. We know about
the outer darkness and hell. Let’s look at the joy.
First, going to heaven is not a goal!
The Bible nowhere says "go to heaven", nor is that concept there.
Search for "heaven" in your computer or concordance. Amazing, but
it’s not there. In the first century, people had no concept of going
to heaven. And that’s because heaven is temporary until a
resurrection of the body occurs (more on this below). Why value
what’s temporary? So what is the goal? I’m aware of two main goals.
The first goal is described in John
14:23. This verse was revealed to me when I was about 24 years old,
and it’s been my goal ever since: "If a man loves me, he will keep
my commandments. And my Father will love him, and we will come to
him, and make our home with him." This promise (if we keep His
commands) is amazing: Jesus and the Father will both come and dwell
in us! And it can happen in this lifetime.
Another verse for this personal coming
is Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any
man opens the door, I will come in to him, and eat with him."
Although this verse is wrongly quoted to non-Christians, it’s
actually talking to Christians, and is a wonderful promise of God
coming to us personally and dwelling in us in special closeness. The
sooner the better!
I suspect that this personal coming to
us is the marriage of the Lamb mentioned in Revelation 19:7, "...for
the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself
ready." We make ourselves ready by keeping His commandments, which
the next verse describes as fine linen "which is the righteous acts
of the saints." Those "righteous acts" are our keeping His
commandments. It goes on to say, "Blessed are those who are invited
to the marriage supper of the Lamb." This is when you "eat with him"
spoken of in Revelation 3:20. If the idea of His coming to you and
dwelling in you makes you respond "Yes! I want that.", then I’d say
it’s likely that He is inviting you to His marriage supper, and to
be His bride. Keep His commandments and press into Him, and He will
marry you in this life.
Goal: The first resurrection.
Luke 20:35-36, "but those who are
considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from
the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; for neither can
they die anymore, for they are like angels, and are sons of God,
being sons of the resurrection."
Resurrection means getting the body
back. The physical body. Jesus was resurrected in the physical body.
He ate honeycomb and fish. That’s physical. Everyone will be
resurrected for the judgment in Revelation 20:12. But in Luke above,
Jesus is referring to a different resurrection. A better
resurrection.
Hebrews 11:35, "Others were tortured,
not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better
resurrection." God obviously revealed this better resurrection to
some, and it was such a powerful motivation that they refused
release from torture. What’s better about it?
Jesus is our example in all ways. And
His new body shows the better resurrection. Jesus could change His
appearance (Mark 16:12). He could suddenly appear places (John
20:26). He could travel in the air (Acts 1:9) and live in heaven. So
He can do anything He wants on Earth, and anything He wants in
heaven. He’s immortal, so military power, disease, age, famine,
cold, etc. won’t affect Him. That’s a desirable body. That’s the
better resurrection.
Where else do we see this resurrection
in the Bible? Revelation 20:5 bluntly says, "This is the first
resurrection." First means there’s also a second, and this first one
is the resurrection of God’s rulers. It precedes the general
resurrection at the end of the age (Revelation 20:12). And it’s
clearly a special group.
In John 6, Jesus says several times,
"And I will raise him up on the last day." It’s only true of those
who eat Jesus’ flesh and blood. That is, those who seek and rely on
Him constantly.
Are you motivated to get this powerful
body? Read Philippians 3:10-20 carefully. Paul says he wants to
"attain the resurrection of the dead" (obviously referring to the
first resurrection), and goes on to say "Who shall change our vile
body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body."
(Philippians 3:21, KJV). Think about "vile" versus "glorious".
That’s our present body compared with the better one. If you attain
to it. If God considers you worthy of it.
Finally, Matthew 19:16 contains a
remarkable thing that’s easy to miss. "Teacher, what good thing
shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?" The fellow wanted
"eternal life." He’s not referring to going to heaven. He talking
about an immortal body. So people were aware of the better
resurrection in those days, but this knowledge has been lost over
the centuries. Yet it’s clearly scriptural. God is restoring this
important goal.
Why not?
Temptation hits us suddenly. When it
does, we ask "why not do this?" We must have quick answers prepared
ahead of time for that "why not?" Here are a few answers:
- I refuse to wreck my new body (sowing
and reaping).
- I refuse to risk the outer darkness
(which is reserved for sinful Christians).
- I don’t want to suffer in this life
for this sin (chastisement). I know God is rough.
Quickly: Why not?
Conclusion
I’ve covered an enormous amount of
material in this booklet, so there wasn’t space to delve into issues
such as grace and works in detail. You’ll need to read the
appropriate verses carefully and prayerfully, and decide whether God
actually requires righteous behavior. Satan has deceived the
theologians, and history shows that they are usually deceived, so
you can’t follow them. Indeed, it’s dangerous to follow anyone. In
Matthew 24:4, Jesus’ first remark about the end-times is "Take heed
that no man deceive you" (KJV). Based on this, we know that
deception will characterize the end-times, and they are certainly
here today. You’ve read about many of them in this booklet. But you
must decide who is right and wrong, and behave accordingly. Be
careful, this decision will set the direction of your life, and will
determine your destiny. There’s a good reason Paul wrote, "because
they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved"
(Second Thessalonians 2:10). A love of truth will help keep you from
deception, resulting in your behaving righteously, which results in
your salvation. Pray that God would help you to love truth more than
pleasure.
That’s a core issue: Which do you love
more? Truth or pleasure? If pleasure, then you’ll find a church that
teaches a comforting gospel consisting of the lies in this booklet,
and you’ll feel fine, even as you commit a sin here and there.
"...for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to
destruction." In the context of Matthew 7:13, Jesus was talking to
Christians, so the narrow and broad gates are warning Christians to
not take an easy route. So it’s Christians who are destroyed by
taking the broad gate. Be careful that you take the narrow gate,
even though most of your Christian friends take the broad gate.
If you love truth more than pleasure,
you’ll force yourself to take the painful narrow gate that requires
righteous behavior, because you know the future joys will be better
and far longer lasting than the temporary pleasures of sin in this
lifetime. The choice is: Pleasure now or pleasure later. Satan and
theologians teach that you can have both. While there are joys and
pleasures in this life, the main purpose of this life is an
investment into future joy. Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come
after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow
Me" (Matthew 16:24). That is a life whose goal is future joy, not
present joy.
Be careful. Fervently pray every day
about these things. Almost all of Protestant Christendom is teaching
these lies that say it’s okay with God if we sin. By rejecting them
and obeying the Lord, you may feel that you are the only one serving
God. Remember the song, "Though none go with me, still I will
follow." Decide that you will follow God alone, though all other
Christians follow the deceptions of sin.
Copyright © 2008 by Mark Overton
