The Father of Lies

I recently watched The Passion of the Christ for the first time. If you haven't seen it, I (like many others) highly recommend it. It was difficult to watch, as is to be expected, but it was worthwhile - both in ways I expected, and ways I did not.

One of the images from the opening scene came back to me last night, bringing with it an important reminder. The opening scene is Jesus in the garden at Gethsemane praying while the disciples sleep through their watch duty. Many of us will be familiar with this scene. What the movie makers added was a physical representation of Satan, whispering lies to Jesus while He prayed. While this part of the "plot" may be the product of creative licence, it was a powerful idea. I had never stopped to consider that, not unlike the rest of us, Jesus would have likely had to endure the daily testing and trying of the enemy. I knew about His testing out in the wilderness, but I simply hadn't thought about the daily barrage of lies, temptation, and evil that we all live in and through each day. Thankfully, many of us live in daily victories we may not even fully recognize, but there are times of trial that come of course along with them.

So, in this scene, the Satan character is doing what I'm sure he spends a lot of his time doing today: whispering lies into the ear of One committed to following after God's plans and desires. He's telling Jesus that His sacrifice can't really make up for the sin of all mankind. He's doing what he does to me all the time: he's attacking the core of a heart and a life and trying to seed his lies, lies that speak directly against the heart and truth of God.

Last night, as I was driving home at the end of a long but nice day, I started to have some thoughts that interestingly almost felt foreign as they passed through my minds. More or less, they were just thoughts of discouragement: the things I'm working on aren't meaningful, the positive change I'm seeing in different parts of my world isn't real and won't last, the feelings of belief I have are waning, and likely to disappear soon. In what I absolutely believe was a moment of His grace, God reminded me of that image of the movie's Satan whispering lies into Jesus' ear. And I remembered one of the names the Bible gives to our enemy (emphasis mine):

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies" John 8:44 (NIV).

Ah yes, not only is he a liar to his core, but he is the father of lies. Please take a moment to let this phrase - which may be too familiar church-jargon for some of us - penetrate into your mind. The father of lies, the origin of lies, the origin of deceit itself. Wow. That's a powerful label. It impacts me as I ponder it now. He is our ENEMY. He comes to steal, kill and destroy, and I have to say that I believe Beth Moore may be right in saying that after his battle to keep us from salvation is lost, his next priority is to keep us from effective living.

And his #1 tool against our effective living as witnesses of God's very being and essence is his deceit. I have to say that, as I'm retyping this here now, I am also struck by the statement that he was a "murderer from the beginning." If you'll indulge me hear, try imagining someone yelling these words at another person...try imagining someone shouting them at you in seething anger: These words from John are those of Jesus, and He is calling out Satan for who He really is: a murderer from the beginning, in whom there is no truth...a liar, and in fact, the father of lies. Let there be no mistake. We have an enemy, and he is active in our world and in our lives. He is against you and attacking you in a very real way. The Word tells us this is part of being a follower of Jesus. The good news is that the one who is in us has already secured our victory. I'm reminded of yesterday's blog post: through Christ, we have EVERYTHING we need to live in the victory of holiness. And we have eternal salvation and redemption because of Jesus' sacrificial love as He demonstrated it on the cross.

In addition to remembering that there is a Satan, and that he IS working to combat that which your life in Christ is about, remember as well his character: the father of lies, a murderer from the beginning. I pray that these remembrances help embolden your heart as it stands strong on the Word of God. Because victory is His, victory is ours - already. The lies have no more power than you think they do. Live in boldness; you are His! And nothing you do cuts your enemy off at the knees more than seeing you live into that truth!