The Great, Ultimate Lie… You Shall Surely Not Die?!?
From the beginning of history the ultimate lie that the devil has told mankind is that we can transgress God’s commandment and “not surely die.” (Genesis 3:4) God told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree which He forbade them to eat from that they would indeed “surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) Transgressing God’s commandments is rebellion against Him, and doing so is essentially a declaration that one has chosen to be their own “god”, chosen to live their own way and deny the Lord His supreme authority and right to reign over His creation. To rebel against God is to rebel against the essence of love, righteousness, goodness, etc. That is the great evil of sin and why God is obligated to punish sinners with the severest punishment of hell-fire. If He did not do so He would be complicit with evil, which He will never be.
The lie that mankind can transgress against God and somehow “not surely die” is still alive and well today. Our society has swept God’s judgments aside, with any commandment of God and any rebuke of sin being dismissed with the mantra of “don’t judge”, not properly discerning the obvious difference between man’s personal assumptions versus God’s timeless truth (which includes His commandments for mankind). Though the media, many educators and religious institutions justify man’s rebellion against God in doing what’s right in his own eyes, God is not mocked! Truth doesn’t change and our appointment before God on judgment day hasn’t been canceled.
And craziest of all, many even use the gospel of Jesus Christ, the very means of redemption from sin and salvation from sin, as a license to continue sinning! We can indeed have our guilt removed and be reconciled to God because of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God’s death on the cross and resurrection. Yet Christ died to reconcile man to God- not God to man. There is a universe of difference! The gospel of Christ is the gospel of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:15, Acts 28:31). That is, the purpose of the gospel is to bring us back under God’s reign through Jesus Christ the King of mankind, the Lord and Savior (Luke 2:11).
To have a saving interest in Jesus Christ we must turn from all transgression of God’s commandments and living the way of doing what’s right in our own eyes in order to submit to God’s authority through Him. We can’t just trust Him to forgive our sins and continue to live our own way, though many churches and preachers don’t tell people this, and even many who do don’t rebuke/warn people who profess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior yet don’t live in accordance with their profession. True faith in Jesus Christ establishes the moral law of God (Romans 3:31) and it overcomes the rebellious way of this world (1 John 5:1-5). Though we may have weakness that makes overcoming sin hard, we can indeed change our minds about it completely and submit to God, without harboring or consenting to anything that offends Him (consenting to sin and refusing to forsake it is called willful sin- Christ’s death does not save willful sinners- Hebrews 10:26-31). We can turn to Jesus Christ in our weakness to have mercy on us and to enable us overcome sin if we indeed submit to His authority as Lord, forsaking all willful sin and believing that He is able to deliver those who come to Him from all bondage to sin (John 8:31-36, Hebrews 4:14-16, Hebrews 7:24-25, James 4:6-10, 1 John 3:8).
The Word of God, even in the New Testament, makes it clear that those who transgress any of God’s commandments cannot be saved while doing so. Anyone who would get right with the Lord and walk in the truth must do so among the cares and distractions of this life; and must resist the lie that we can disregard any of God’s commandments and “not surely die.”
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators (those who have sex outside of marriage and/or use pornography), nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest (obvious), which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness(indulging in lust or provoking it in others through immodesty), Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions (rebellion against authority), heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21)
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful (i.e. the cowardly- those who don’t obey God out of fear of the consequences of doing so), and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers (fornicators), and sorcerers (i.e. those who practice and/or promote the occult; as well as those who get high on drugs and/or willingly aid others therein), and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”(Revelation 21:7-8)
“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs (those governed by sensual gratification), and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” (Revelation 22:14-15)