The Great Deception

In Chapter 3 of the book of Romans, the apostle Paul quotes Psalm 14: “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.” Generally speaking, most people believe the opposite of this verse to be true. This is the great deception, which engulfs mankind.

Scripture Truths

The context for Paul quoting this Psalm was, among other things, to put an end to the belief that people are viewed by God as being meritorious based on character, self-righteousness, religious status, and/or good works. In the first century, Paul had to deal with the centuries-old view of the Jews that they were superior in righteousness simply because they were descendants of Abraham.

Hebrews 11:6 states, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” By now you might be confused because Psalm 14 specifically states that “none who seeks for God.” Since the beginning of time, man has sought after God. However, they do not seek after the God who has revealed Himself in creation, in Scripture, and finally, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Great Deception

Man does not truly seek to know God. Instead, they pursue a god invented by man or fashion their own god based on experience or human conception. The Bible refers to this as idolatry. So many pursue this path with the best of intentions and great striving. This state of deception is a combination of our sin nature and the spiritual blindness given to us by Satan: “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.“

When God declares that none are righteous, He is basing righteousness on His perfect standard, not man’s feeble attempt to earn righteousness by following his own devices. When He says none understand, He means that man is more interested in religion than a relationship. Look around; devout people know about God (or their imagination of Him). However, they do not know Him personally.

True Apostolic Doctrine

The good news is that if you really want to know God and have a personal relationship with Him, you can! The way to God is by FAITH, not blind faith, but by the testimony that He has given us. We must also rely on Biblical FACTS. Biblical facts must always supersede man’s intellect, feelings, and what they think they know to be the truth. The Lord Jesus declared that He is the Truth. He is the only way to God.

The Lord’s Jesus told the apostle Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). We have two Biblical facts so far; The Lord Jesus is the Truth; the Father and the Son are one (John 10:30).

There is “none who does good.” Can this be true? Aren’t people the world over doing good? Don’t you do good? If God’s perspective of mankind is that none are righteous, then it must follow that none are capable of doing good. There’s a conflict of thought here. We think we are righteous, but God says we’re not. Pride and ignorance prevent man from resolving this conflict. As a result, many people remain in the deception.

The conflict arises from our misunderstanding of God’s righteousness as well as our misunderstanding of His perception of the human race. You’ve probably heard people say that “There’s some good in everyone.” There’s another sentimental belief that we are all God’s children. Neither of these statements is true.

Specifically, we are all God’s creatures. We do not become a child of God unless and until we are saved. Prior to salvation, the Bible calls mankind “sons of disobedience” (Colossians 3:6) and “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). These are Biblical facts, even though they are difficult to accept. Prior to my own salvation, I did not realize this was my true standing before God.

Many years ago I believed, overall, that I was a good person and that my goodness was the basis for me going to heaven. At the least, this was my hope. In reality, I found out it was only wishful thinking. Only a fool would knowingly gamble their eternity on wishful thinking. Fortunately, the Bible made me aware of the great deception in my thinking.

The source of our error is based on the knowledge that we are imperfect and that a loving God will dismiss our sins because He loves us. We tend to forgive and dismiss our children’s wrongful behavior because we too engage in wrongdoing. This is compounded by the fact that people commit various degrees of sin and therefore, it’s easy to find someone worse than ourselves. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)”

However, this is NOT the perception of God. He is totally and eternally righteous and therefore will not accept any sin in His presence. Further, this Holy God demands payment for every sin, no matter the degree of the sin. Therefore, this Biblical fact puts all people out of reach of Heaven except for the one and only remedy for our helplessness – reconciliation with God. The definition of reconciling is to “settle” or “bring together.”

The Penalty of Sin

Every person born is separated from God in terms of relationship, because every baby is born with a sin nature. Thayer defines death as “That separation (whether natural or violent) of the soul and the body by which the life on earth is ended.” In spiritual terms, death is the separation between God and man.

 Paul asked this question in Romans 7:24: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” He answered his own question with these very encouraging words: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” Those who are saved by the atoning work of the Lord Jesus on Calvary are set free from the bondage of sin and the separation (death) from a Holy God.

How exactly is this accomplished? First, it is accomplished solely by God and not in any way by our efforts: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish [die and go to hell], but will have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This verse is not ambiguous in any way. It is very clear and direct. It tells the human race exactly how to avoid an eternity of suffering in hell and instead, enjoy an eternity in heaven.

Choosing Heaven

The key to this amazing plan of salvation is “belief.” God did all the work; we only have to receive His amazing grace by trusting in the fact that the Son of God came into the world in the form of man, lived a perfectly righteous life before God and man, and willingly went to the cross of Calvary for the express purpose of bearing our sins in His body and bearing the wrath (punishment) of God against those sins. Any other consideration for salvation is based on the great deception.

When a person understands what Christ has done, according to the word of God, embraces this truth, and puts his or her trust in the fact that Christ paid the full penalty for their sins then that person “…has been rescued from the domain of darkness, and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13).”

The Second Death

The Great Deception keeps a person in bondage to sin and separated from God, but it need not be this way. God has made a way for salvation and Jesus proclaimed, “I am the way.”  Despite Satan’s lies as espoused by false teaching, there is no other way: “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Abandon the deception while you can and embrace God on His terms. Recently, I heard of a woman (Arlene) that was excited to learn about the vibrant faith of another woman (Pauline). The two began a study of the Bible to learn about salvation. Very soon into the study, Arlene began to realize that she would have to abandon her belief system in order to be saved by faith alone, in Christ alone.

This was too much for Arlene and she quickly quit the study. She remains deceived, holding on tightly to her very deceptive religious beliefs. For a brief moment, she saw the flicker of Light but quickly extinguished it because she couldn’t leave her comfort zone. How tragic!

“There’s none so blind as those who will not see.”

(John Hayward -1546)

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