Pulling Back the Curtain on Satan (Part 2)

In my last post, we talked about one way Satan attacks us; by accusing us.

There is another way Satan attacks you. He schemes to destroy our faith and our testimony by telling us lies. While his accusations are meant to distort how we see ourselves, his lies are aimed at distorting how we see God.

Author A.W. Tozer is famously quoted as saying, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Why is it the most important thing? What you believe about God will determine how you see the world and how you behave.

Near the beginning of the creation story (Genesis 3), we find the first two humans and a serpent, who would later be revealed as Satan (Revelation 12). This serpent begins to deceive the woman and his deception makes her doubt God’s character. In Genesis 3:1, he says, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?” God never said these words but said you can’t eat from one specific tree. If you follow the narrative, you’ll see that the lies the serpent convinced Eve eventually led her and the man to sin against God and destroy the perfect relationship between man and God.

Is it interesting that Scripture wastes no time in informing us of this tactic of the evil one? It only takes 3 chapters for us to see his character. In John 8:44 we find out that Satan is a liar, lying is his native language and is called the “Father of Lies” by Jesus. You get the point.

I want to talk about two specific attributes of God that Satan often assaults.  

God’s Love

1 John 4:8 reveals that God is love and has accomplished the greatest act of love, which is laying down his life for us (John 15:13). The lie that God doesn’t love you and doesn’t want the best for you is the oldest lie in the book. He’ll try to tell us that God is holding out on us, is not generous and wants to keep us down.

Also, we will be led to believe God won’t answer our prayers so we should stop praying. The enemy’s hope is we’ll come to the conclusion that life apart from him is better than life under him. The gospel defeats this lie in showing that Jesus gave up everything so you could have what you truly need, a relationship with God. The fact that Jesus left all of the glory and perfection of heaven to be humiliated on earth and die an unjust death for someone who didn’t deserve it should counteract all of the lies about God’s love for us.

God’s Justice

The second attribute of God that Satan attacks is God’s justice. A dangerous lie is one that contains partial truth. We can believe that God has sent Jesus for us and our faith in him allows us to be forgiven and justified (John 3:16). This doesn’t mean that your sin doesn’t matter. Satan will try to convince you that there are no consequences for your sin because Jesus paid for them already. God’s justice has been satisfied in the cross and it is true that you won’t be punished for your sins. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t still repercussions.

Here is the full truth about God and your sin:

• God will never reject you but he will rebuke you
• God will never condemn you but he will correct you
• God will never despise you but he will discipline you

God loves us enough not to let us stay in our sin but bring correction. Hebrews 12:6 tells us, “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Satan will try to accuse you and deceive you to disrupt your faith. We need to continually ask Jesus to lead us to the truth through his Spirit to defeat the schemes of the enemy.

Note: Some of this content was inspired by a sermon by J.R. Vassar called, “Facing a Defeated Enemy.” I would encourage you to listen to it.