Deception

Contrary to what most people think, Satan uses the subject of righteousness, more than unrighteousness, to deceive us.

Humans, before salvation, already pursue unrighteousness because, their hearts love sin. They love restlesness. Without Christ, humans' characteristics are basically the same as Satan's. They're filled with pride, self-centeredness, arrogance, envy, selfishness, narcissism, spite, offense, and hatred, so it's clever for Satan to convince them, that they can be their own savior, instead of trusting in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

The same lie "Ye shall be as gods", is just as convincing today, if not more, as it was when Eve was tempted.

Every unbeliever who's rejected God, chooses to be their own god, make up their own reality, and as a result, come up with their own interpretation of what is good and evil. None of them believe in objective morality, nor do they believe in absolute truth. They are extremely obsessed with themselves, and with how they look, and there are many good examples for today, like people who post constantly take selfies, or make videos about themselves especially, so-called "influencers" who are quite vain, all over Instagram and TikTok.

People who are lost are not guilty until God's Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, convicts them of the reality of their sin condition, but there are those who do have the knowledge of their sin condition, but chose to reject God's free gift of eternal salvation, and instead, chose to pursue mere earthly pleasures, such as money, sex, drugs, alcohol, or materialism, over God. They'd rather give thanks to creation itself, or "Mother Nature" or "Mother Earth", for putting them here, instead of giving thanks to the Most High God, who is their Creator. All of creation belongs to God, His fingerprint is on everything, in their DNA. Creation bears witness of the existence of God, it shows His creativity, intelligence and majesty, and those who reject Him know this, and are without excuse. They prefer accepting the pagan belief of evolution, or New Age religion because, they don't want a Creator to hold them accountable as wretched, hell-bound sinners, who are in need of eternal salvation, but want to accept the idea of humans spiritually evolving into their own gods, and having their own immortality, without having real eternal life, in Jesus Christ, and having REAL immortal bodies waiting for them, in Heaven.

Satan has convinced people, that they can recreate themselves, or work on a "better version" of themselves, instead of being made truly better versions of themselves before God, through Jesus Christ.

As God's angel, Lucifer glorified himself for his God-given beauty, talents, and wisdom, instead of praising God for them. God created Lucifer to reflect Himself, but Lucifer had something else in mind, he wanted BE God, and take His place.

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:

I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." Isaiah 14:12-14

When he was casted out of Heaven, his next mission was to deceive humans, making them believe they can become a god, too. Just to be spiteful. We all know the story in Genesis 3. God already made humans good and perfect, and gave them everything they needed, their home was Paradise, but Satan just had to lie to them, and covince them, that basically,

"There's more for you out there, than what God has given you here. You can become your own god, create your own morality, become powerful and great on your own, gain great wisdom and knowledge. Your eyes will be opened!"

Kind of like the old saying "The grass is greener on the other side.", but we find out that it never is, it's always disastrous and chaotic, and we always deeply regret stepping foot on the other side.

Every lost human soul instinctively wants to get back to God, but they don't know how to, so they turn to everything the world offers, or how well they can perform, with reptitive prayers, many rituals, and good deeds. When sin entered the world, Satan did become the god of this world, but his kingdom is coming to an end very soon, and he knows this. That's why we see so much chaos going on today, he's on a rampage, and trying to lead everyone he can to the lake of fire with him. For believers, their soul is eternally saved, Satan can only destroy their physical lives, but for unbelievers, if they knowingly choose separation from God, Satan will not only destroy their physical lives, including those during The Great Tribulation, or the time of Jacob's Trouble, who will receive his Mark, but they will pay for their own sins, and have separation from God, forever. This is why spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so important, and why it's also important to defend it, for the lost's and new believers' sake. Sin is a gap between human beings and God(the Father), but He made a way, and the only way, back to Him, is through Jesus Christ, His only Begotten Son, who is also God, God the Son, the 2nd person of Godhead, and the Word of God.

Satan is the reason false teachers and false doctrines exist, and why there are so many "Christian" denominations like Catholicism, Protestantism, Methodism, Presbyterianism, Preterism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, Seventh Day Adventist, and every other religion, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Paganism(the very first religion), and why religion exists in general.

Religion glorifies man, not God. It teaches humans to trust in their own merits to make themselves righteous, depending on how many prayers they say, how many rituals they perform, whether they're good deeds outweigh their bad deeds, how many devils they cast out, how much they prophesy, or any kind of human merit that is completely useless before God, when it comes to pleasing Him, or being righteous. Religion puts the focus on works, instead faith, alone, in Jesus Christ for eternal salvation, and true righteousness, in Him. It teaches man to rely on himself, his own efforts, and things of the world, instead Christ, alone, to be righteous and complete.

God created humans because, He wanted to love them, and be their Heavenly Father. He simply wanted them, and to be spiritually connected with them. He never wanted religion. We humans are God's highest creation on Earth. In the beginning, GOD made humans perfect, they had everything, not because of something they did for themselves, but because of what He did for them, and they were meant to be spiritually connected with Him. They were meant to be His children. God made humans in own His image and likeness, meaning they were meant to have His attributes and characteristics, but when Adam and Eve fell, humanity became spiritually dead, causing everyone to inherit sin from Adam, and end up with mortal bodies, which eventually die and decay. Man became spiritually disconnected with God, and his godly attributes and characteristics were tainted. But, God promised Adam and Eve a Savior, Jesus Christ, to be the way back to Him, to restore humanity's relationship with Him, forever.

The moment anyone someone accepts Jesus Christ's finished crosswork, and trusts Him as their personal Savior, he or she instantly became eternally saved, and they were spiritually crucified with Christ, buried with Him, and raised to a new life, in and through Him. He became their Life, or Eternal Life.

Everyone who believes becomes spiritually reborn and reconnected with God, through His Spirit or The Holy Spirit, and just like our physical birth, our spiritual rebirth, is permanant. God's Spirit regenerates and baptizes all of their past, present, and future sins, for God is a consuming fire, and sin evaporates in His presence, making one clean before God the Father. They become sealed with God's Spirit, as His Holy Temple, until Jesus returns for them, and other believers, at the Rapture.

Salvation results in a changed heart, which loves like God, and when a believer chooses to rest and allow Christ to take over, He will help them renew their minds, to be in agreement with their new hearts, so that they'll be able to put their godly love into action towards others, and use their faith to serve others especially, the lost, so that they can know Christ through them, and might want to know about the hope the believer found in Christ, and be saved.

Whosoever believes The Gospel of Grace and trusts Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, will be declared righteous before God.

But, again, one must come to the realization, with God's help, that he or she, against their will, inherited sin from Adam, and that no matter how many prayers, rituals, and good deeds they do, none of those things will make them righteous enough before God. Our own self-righteousness is as filthy rags, compared to God's perfect righteousness, which is without any hint of sin, and just merely saying we're sorry for our sins against God's Law isn't enough, either. A costly debt must be paid, and that debt it death. We don't have to the ability to have righteousness on our own because, we always end up failing, and if we were responsible for paying for our own sins debt, then we'd be separated from God for eternity because, it's impossible for sinful blood to defeat sin, and a spiritually dead person to defeat death. In order for humans to be declared righteous in God's perspective, and to have Eternal Life, there must be someone who is sinless, and the source of Life, to pay for our sin debt, and defeat death, and that's exactly what Jesus did.

THE BOTTOM LINE

We're not self-made, we're not defined by what we do, or how we feel, we cannot redefine morality, we cannot "better" ourselves without God. Nobody can be righteous by their own efforts, but only with eternal salvation, by grace through faith in our LORD Jesus Christ, and relying on His finished, and accomplished effort, on our behalf.

Also, we don't have anything without God, including our abilities and talents. When we humble ourselves and believe only God has the power to give us eternal salvation, our reward is Heaven. And, when we glorify Him for our abilities and talents, instead of acting like we somehow earned them, then our success will become greater in this life.

We are nothing without God. We are just humans with breath in our nostrils, which God has the right to take away at anytime. We must admit that we are small, that God doesn't need us, we need Him. We must realize and admit we're weaker than God, but we have many examples in scripture, that God's strength is made perfect in weakness.