© 2013 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

Have you ever heard conversations like this?

Person 1: “I can’t do that – it’s wrong!”
Person 2: “Oh yeah! Says who?”

Such conversations often reveal resistance to restraint. This resistance may be directed against self proclaimed tyrants, but may also betray our rebellion against God’s holy, legitimate authority.

The first recorded description of such an exchange is described in the following account. “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 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. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3:1-6).

Eve was declaring the prohibition against eating the forbidden fruit, and Satan was, in effect, saying, “Says who?” By this question he convinced Adam and Eve to disregard God’s authority and violate His restriction. Today, because that disobedient spirit has been inherited by every man, woman and child, we each enter this life with a deep, though often disguised, hatred of God and His restrictions. If we die without mercy, we will die without hope and be sentenced to eternal doom.

Does Satan, the deceiver, still control your heart? Ask Jesus, the Savior, to forgive you! He is God, the Son who sacrificed His own blood to redeem repentant sinners. He has issued the following invitation: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

He, alone, has authority to forgive you, or to banish you, forever, to eternal torment.

 

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