Deceiver
Why was God revealed to us through Jesus?
Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God's seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters. - John 3:7-10
According to John, Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and through Jesus, we who believe cannot sin.
Jesus overcomes the attraction of the deceiver, the devil. He is the antidote to sin.
So, if we choose to sin, we are turning away from Jesus, and thus turning away from God.
The deceiver tells us that is ok, since God gave us a free will, and we can always turn back and be received back in God's graces. God is all forgiving.
But what if we see-saw back and forth between sin and righteousness, knowing we are saved through Christ? Are we being honest with ourselves?
The deceiver, it seems, is not some evil force in the world, but a facet of us, a part of our being that wishes to do things our way, and finds rationale for doing so.
It is not that we cannot sin because we are righteous, but that choosing to sin wipes away our righteousness. We are good at deceiving ourselves, and then convincing ourselves it is ok.
This is the power that we hold over our desire to be true followers of Christ. We can decide to sin.
The Good News is that God chose to become one of us and die for those sins we have committed, as well as the ones we will commit, so we can always come home. We don't need to fall deeper and deeper into sin.
But our job should be to stay the course, to do all in our power to avoid the deceiver, even if the deceiver is us.
More to come...