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In the garden of Eden, God had told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, warning them that if they ate it, they would die. But when Satan tempted Eve to disobey God and eat that fruit, he assured her that she would not die. What was he saying here? That even though God had specifically warned them that they would die, they would not die. In other words, God's words were just a bluff, and nothing would actually happen even if they disobeyed them! But in fact, they did die. All mankind that came from them were also born dead.

Satan's lies to us these days may not be so straightforward! But they are essentially the same, implying that even if we disobey God, even if we sin, there will not be any consequences. Satan does this through the use of an exaggerated form of grace. Now he paints up God as a very gracious God who is so willing to forgive and accept people, that He would not actually punish anyone. If we sin, all we have to do is to ask for forgiveness and all will be fine. God will cover us up in His grace so that there will not be any negative consequences to our sins. Sometimes Satan even manages to convince people that even the sins they are going to commit in the future have already been forgiven, which will give people such a confidence that now they don't have to careful to avoid sinning.

But God is true, and His words also are completely true. Along with being gracious and forgiving, He is also just and righteous, and so His warnings about the consequences of sins are true (Ga.6:7). Sin has serious consequences for now and eternity. When we repent, God is gracious enough to forgive us, but the consequences may remain for a long time to remind us about God's warnings. We may wish for grace to take them away, but it is actually gracious of God to leave them with us in order to teach us not to sin again. But Satan has defiled many preachers today to make them imagine that when grace comes, all old things will be taken away and we will only have good things to enjoy!

Have we understood God's word that says, "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself" (2Tim.2:13)? God has to be faithful to who He is because He cannot change. He cannot be unrighteous just to be nice to someone! He cannot go back either on a promise He has given or a warning! He cannot say anything without standing by it always! But Satan gets to us implying that God does not actually mean what He said or that finally He will not do what He has threatened!

God's grace is there for our forgiveness and for helping us in our need (He.4:16). But if someone tries to misuse His grace or take advantage of it by being careless with sin, that person has to suffer the consequences (Ps.18:26). "You will not die," says Satan, even now. We all have to learn to become more careful against sin, and also not to take grace for granted. While seeking to admire grace, we must not forget to fear God too!

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