God Does Not Withhold His Goodness
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:1-6
Do you believe that God is good? The answer to that question has eternal implications. There are many people today who don’t deny that God exists, but do deny or question if God is good. They question that if God exists, then why is there pain and suffering in our world? The existence of suffering and pain in their minds precludes not the existence of God, but the belief that He is good.
But what I want to submit to you is that it was believing the lie that God is not good that brought sin, suffering, and death to our world. With Adam standing by her side, Eve gave into the temptation of Satan that called God’s goodness into question. She ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and gave its fruit to her husband and he ate of it too.
While tempting Eve to eat of the forbidden tree, satan said, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” The very first words of Satan to Eve was a question that was designed to get her to question the goodness of God—to doubt the goodness of God. If God did not tell her the truth, as the question implies, then how can God be good? To the serpent's question, Eve responded: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
Satan’s strategy was working. Eve was not only thinking about the one tree she could not eat from out of many that she could eat from, but she also adds to the command of God by saying, “neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”
Although it was probably a good idea not to touch the forbidden tree that God said not to eat from, the fact that she added the words “neither shall you touch it” seems to imply that Eve was feeling restricted. Whenever we feel that God’s will for our lives is a restriction to our lives, rather than an expression of His love, we are under demonic deception.
The best way to answer the enemy's temptation is to turn to God and ask Him to rebuke Satan. If you’re having a conversation with the devil, it’s likely that you’re open to him convincing you that God is holding out on you, that there’s a better plan for your life than God’s will for your life.
After it appears that he had Eve on the hook, Satan's lies and intentions become more obvious. He says to Eve: “You will not surely die. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
After successfully getting Eve to doubt the goodness of God, Satan now attempts to get her to doubt the badness of sin. She will not die, he says. She can be like God. God is not trying to keep her from something bad, but from something good. This is the lie he wants her to believe.
“Satan wants us to see sin as something good that a bad God doesn’t want us to have. His main lie to us is 'sin is not bad, and God is not good.'” -Guzik
How do you view the will of God for your life? The truth is that this strategy of Satan, the essence of the temptation that man gave into in the garden, which is the reason why we live in a fallen word, is still our greatest challenge today. As Oswald Chambers put it:
“The essence of sin is the suspicion that God is not good.”
Are you are under the deception of the devil? The Apostle John wrote: “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” 1 John 5:19
We have all believed the lie of the enemy. We have all sinned believing that sin is not bad and that God is not good. We all have decided that we know better than God and have acted independently of God which is the root of all sin. And the result of our rebellion against God is death, which is separation from God.
“In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had perfect communion and fellowship with God. When they rebelled against Him, that fellowship was broken. They became aware of their sin and were ashamed before Him. They hid from Him (Genesis 3:8-10), and man has been hiding from God ever since. Only through Christ can that fellowship be restored, because in Him we are made as righteous and sinless in God’s eyes as Adam and Eve were before they sinned. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). -Gotquestions.com
It been said that many who profess to believe in a good God live like practical atheists or as if God is not good. Do you believe that lie? Are you under satanic deception? Again John wrote, “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”
We are from God, we are born from above when we admit that we’ve sinned against a good and Holy God (a God who because He’s good must judge sin) and trust Christ as Savior as Lord. Jesus died and rose from the dead to reconcile us back to God and to give us the power to live the life we were meant to live.
God is good and He will always be good. When you’re tempted to believe the questioning lie of the enemy, ask yourself the question that Paul asked: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32
Wait on the Lord. Trust that His good will for your life is always best. Don’t settle for anything less.
In His service,
Pastor Marco