Genesis 3:4-5
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Once the serpent got Eve to question the Word of God, the next move was predictable. He began to question the heart of God.
That is always how it works.
First he tries to make you unsure of what God said.
Then he tries to make you suspicious of why God said it.
He suggests that God is not protecting you, but depriving you. That the Lord is not good, but restrictive. That obedience is not life giving, but joy killing. In other words, he wants you to believe that God is holding something back from you that would actually be good for you.
That was the lie then.
And it is still the lie now.
You can almost hear the hiss in it. “You know why you are not supposed to do that? Because it is really good. It is really fun. It is really freeing. And God does not want that for you. He wants you hemmed in. He wants you restricted. He wants you miserable.”
That is straight from hell.
Because the truth is exactly the opposite. God forbids sin not because He hates us, but because He loves us. He says no because He sees what sin becomes when it finishes its work. Sin always advertises itself one way and pays off another way. It glitters at the front end and destroys at the back end.
That is why, if a person starts thinking sin looks attractive, he ought to stop staring at the forbidden tree and start looking at another tree.
Look at Calvary.
Look at the cross.
Look at what sin did there.
If you want to know what sin really is, do not judge it by the thrill of the first bite. Judge it by the cost of the cure. It took the Son of God stretched out on a tree, nails through His hands, blood pouring from His body, the Holy One bearing shame, wrath, and agony. That is what sin does. It crucifies. It destroys. It kills.
So no, sin is not harmless.
And no, God is not withholding good from you.
If you ever wonder whether God wants what is best for you, look at that tree again. Look at Christ with His arms spread wide. Look at the nails. Look at the blood. Look at the love that would rather suffer for you than lose you. That settles the question forever. God is not against you. God is not trying to keep life from you. He loves you passionately.
Then notice the serpent’s old three part lie.
“You shall not surely die.”
“Your eyes shall be opened.”
“You shall be as gods.”
That lie has never gone away. It just changes outfits.
It is the same lie behind so much modern spirituality and New Age talk. You do not die, you just pass into another state. Your eyes are opened through higher knowledge or mystical illumination. And in the end, you discover your own divinity. It is the same poison, just served in a different glass.
You can trace that lie all through history.
No judgment.
Secret knowledge.
Self exaltation.
It all starts here.
The enemy is not creative. He is consistent.
And the answer has not changed either. Stay with the Word of God. Trust the heart of God. Refuse the lie that sin is freedom and holiness is misery. The devil still wants people to believe that God is keeping the best from them. But the cross proves the exact opposite. The best God had, He gave.