Chapter 5, The Enemy Within (Pt 1)

The sinful flesh that’s leftover in the believer has one goal in mind. That goal is not that we sin, that we reject God, that we get angry at God, that we distrust God, that we get frustrated, that we get depressed, or anything else.

These are all secondary goals to the flesh’s primary objective: your death.

If death is the goal, the means that the flesh uses to accomplish that goal is temptation / deception.

Sin happens because it deceives us. Deception is making “someone believe that things are other than they are, so that he would do something he would never otherwise do” (54-55).

Lundgaard writes that when the flesh deceives you like this, “you will sin” (55).

This is what happens in Genesis 3 when Eve is deceived into thinking Satan had her best interests in mind (he didn’t, God did) while God was jealous (of having rivals), stingy and restrictive (by making one tree off limits rather than seeing His generosity since she could have food from ALL trees except one).

These are many of the same objections I’ve heard while doing evangelism. People don’t become Christians because they believe Christianity is too boring or restrictive, that God does not have their best interests in mind, and that if God were really good He’d let them live how they want.

They’ve been deceived. What about you?