Dear Church Family,
I promised in Sunday’s sermon to make a few comments about another quote I used: “When you’re tempted, the evil one will minimize Christ’s beauty and glory.” I could not determine who the author of this insightful quote. These words help us in our daily battle that we pray in The Lord’s Prayer, “And lead us not into temptation.” The prayer our Lord taught His disciple assumes God’s people will be tempted. The crucial issue centers on the need to rely for God’s grace to keep us from giving in to the lure of Satan.
I must restate to emphasize a fact of the Christian life that we can easily deny or minimize to our peril. We want to believe that we have moved beyond the possibility that we might sin now that we have come to faith in Jesus. Scripture often says this is not the case. 1 John 1:8 is written to Christians and clearly states, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceived ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Since sadly we will still sin while on this side of heaven, we must ever be mindful that sin comes in large part thought the temptations that come our way.
To battle temptation we can learn from the first record instance of it in human history. It happened in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3 tells us the details. Satan, in the form of a serpent, is described as “crafty.” That term means one is “subtly deceitful or sly.” Most people would ignore someone like that. Instead, Eve listens to him. His tools proved to be effective. In v1 he cast doubt on the truth of God’s word with, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Of course, he twists what God had said by leaving out the part about not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In v4 he ‘assures’ her she “will not surely die.” He minimizes the holiness, justice and wrath of God. Implied here comes that ‘God loves you and would never do anything bad to you.’
Satan moves in to cement Eve’s fall into sin with the clever word, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” How could anyone turn down that possibility – no matter how far fetch it might be? Satan appeals to the ego and entitlement that leads people to succumb to temptation. Sadly Eve and Adam fell for the sly words of the evil one.
God’s glory should have been central to Adam and Eve. They lived in Eden – a place that represents the perfect place to live. There they fellowshipped daily with the holy God. The wily one took their focus on the glorious beauty of God. The consequences turned out to be fatal for all humanity. We must beware of the evil one and how he prowls seeking to devour.
Living by grace to His glory,
Pastor Gillikin