It’s April Fool’s Day, the day of pranksters around the western world. Some think it a great day of jokes that are good medicine for the soul. Others see it as inconsiderate and somewhat nasty and denounce the activities that are after all, based on getting someone to believe a lie. Whatever stance you take on April Fool’s Day, there is a hoax of much greater seriousness that is played out every day of every year: the great lies of the devil.
He is described as the master of lies, the prince of deception. His favorite activity is to get people to believe a half-truth that is actually a full lie. Myron Rush, in his leadership book Lord of the Marketplace, said the devil’s greatest lie is to convince us that we have two separate lives: a secular life where we work and play; and a sacred life where we worship and pray. It’s a lie we believe when we consider that our beliefs about God are only a part of our life. The truth, according to God’s Word is that you and I each have just one life to live on earth. If Jesus is the Lord of that, He is the Lord of all. Believing we have two separate lives sets us up for failure. A heart that believes one thing but acts contrary to that is like a house that is divided against itself. It will always fall.
Another lie is that if we are good enough, we will please God and go to heaven. It’s the mantra at many funerals, where we don’t know what to say except, “He was a good person.” The lie is the basis of books and films that tell us angels must do a good deed to earn their wings and dead persons are sent back to earth to ‘get things right’ so they can pass through the pearly gates. The truth told in the bible is that we are saved by grace, not by works, lest anyone should boast. It says, “No one is righteous, not one.” “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” Think about it. If we can be good enough to go to heaven, why did Jesus have to die for our sins? Good works are the natural result of maturing faith and they produce greater faith. They aren’t in themselves the path to heaven.
A third lie is that once we’ve come to the saving grace of receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior, that it’s our work to become better Christians. Yes, we’re urged to discipline ourselves on the path to conforming to the image of God. Paul wasn’t pulling a prank on the church at Galatia when he called them fools for believing that they could become righteous by good works. Works is not faith but faith always works. We become transformed by God by the same saving grace that first saved us.
There are so many other lies that invite us to bite into them. Don’t be a Forever Fool. Let the bible be your guide so you don’t fall for the lies of the master deceiver.
“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12)