The Biggest Lie

He does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.—John 8:44

Every untruth is a lie, but it has often appeared to me that there is one lie that is bigger than all the others, or that perhaps should be considered the root and foundation of the rest. In the beginning, when the hearts and minds of the first man and woman were still filled with truth, they began to believe a lie that somehow changed everything, and affected every way that they viewed God and themselves. They weren’t just misled by cunning words, tricked into false doctrine, or confused about two trees. Something much worse than this clearly took place in their hearts, causing them to “exchange the truth of God for the lie,”¹ “putting darkness for light, and light for darkness.”² Taking the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was indeed an act of disobedience, but I believe it was something like a final step, or an outward confirmation that a great lie had already been believed, embraced, and had done a terrible work in man. 

What was this lie? In a few words, it is the belief that goodness exists apart from the life of God. In other words, it is the suggestion that man can be something, have something, do something, or know something that is GOOD, independent of the life of God. Jesus said, “No one is good but one, that is, God.”³ John the Baptist said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.”⁴ James says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights.” But in total contradiction to this immutable spiritual law, the serpent suggested that some good can indeed be found, achieved, enjoyed, and possessed which does not come from God, is not found in God, but rather has its origin in man or creation.

Now this is a very simple idea, and perhaps (like Eve) we cannot see its real danger at first glance. But I am convinced that a belief in this specific lie did greater damage to the human soul than any other untruth that Satan could have suggested. And the reason is this: because this lie—a belief in goodness apart from God—changes the direction of man’s heart, causing it to turn, and to desire and to feed on something else. Believing this lie turns the heart of man from the Creator to the creation; it bends the will and expectation away from God, and sets it on the life of self and the perishing things of this world, and the effects of this are almost limitless. Every other lie can confuse and deceive, but THIS lie goes deeper, touches everything that man sees and does, and never ceases to generate its deadly fruit, because it turns the eye of man’s desire in the wrong direction and awakens an appetite to seek and to eat what is not true true food. The result, therefore, is much worse than a wrong concept or doctrine or practice; it is a wrong path, a wrong direction, a wrong food, and a wrong will—all of which continually feeds on something OTHER than God—on sin and self and death—and so generates in man a wrong life and a wrong nature. In other words, believing this lie is a decisive first step in the wrong direction, whereby the will of man turns from God to self, begins to “follow the dictates of his own evil heart,” ⁵ and thereby cannot cease producing the rotten fruit of a godless tree. Consider these Scriptures: 

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.—Gen 3:6

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart—Gen 6:5-6

Man was created to enjoy and display the divine nature and goodness. He was made to be a living temple or vessel for the glory and power of God. And as long as he looked to God for all things, he was perfectly safe. So long as his heart hungered and thirsted after God, and his soul breathed in the spirit of prayer after heavenly treasure, then all that man received (i.e. life, righteousness, love, wisdom, etc.) came down from the Father of lights and grew in his soul as the fruit of the Spirit. Satan could do nothing to obstruct the flow of God’s love, nor stop the growth of His life in man’s soul, UNLESS he could somehow turn the eye of man’s desire towards another object, and cause his heart to eat another food. This, then, was his great lie. This was his arrow; not shot at Eve’s doctrines and religious practices, but directly at her EYE, in order to distort her view, change the object of her desire, and so lead her to “forsake the fountain of living waters and hew for herself broken cisterns that can hold no water.”⁶ Consider the following words of Christ:

The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.—Luke 11:34

In the beginning, Satan didn’t really need to preach false doctrine, suggest false gods, or encourage immoral behavior. All of this came very naturally to man, and flowed spontaneously from him, just as soon as his gaze had fallen from heaven to the earth, and his heart began to pursue the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. When the desire of man’s heart was turned from God to creation, and goodness was seen and pursued apart from the Creator—the only source and substance of good—then all other sin, wickedness, darkness and violence, quite naturally grew and overspread the earth, both inwardly and outwardly. Corruption, perversion and enmity are the natural and unstoppable fruits of a heart turned from God.

Fallen man can pretend that he doesn’t believe this lie, but his daily life and choices almost continually bear witness that he does. If you ask a seven year-old child in Sunday School whether God’s will is better, wiser and safer than his own, he will almost certainly answer that it is. We say we believe this, but isn’t every act of sin an undeniable proof that man really thinks that his own will is (in some way) better or more rewarding than God’s? Why do we disobey God’s righteous law? Why do we rebel against the convictions of His pure Spirit? Is it not because we believe that by submitting to God in everything, we will end up missing something good that we desire? Think about it. Why is it so difficult or disagreeable to man to always submit to the will of his Creator? Why are we so unwilling to seek God’s will in all that we do and say and pursue? Is it not because there is a fear in us—a LIE in us—that something good will be relinquished and lost if we always say with Christ, “not My will, but Yours be done”? Isn’t the continual choosing of our own words, our own way, our own activities, goals and dreams, a clear declaration that God’s way and will would somehow keep us from something that we believe to be good? 

1Romans 1:25

2Isaiah 5:20

3Matthew 19:17; Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19

4John 3:27

5Jeremiah 16:12

6Jeremiah 2:13