I have recently been doing a study about the constant theme in the lies of Satan. From the original Lie to the modern heresies of Christianity, Satan does his more devious work by telling us that we can do things of ourselves which will earn Eternal Reward.
The Adamic Story highlights Satan's primary attempt to promulgate this lie, but it's basis is even earlier. It is, in fact, the lie Satan told himself, the inherent self-deception that caused his rebellion.
Satan believed that he, a created being, should be elevated to the ranks of the Creator as a result of his exemplary skills and service. He was wrong, he rebelled, and his rebellion caused his downfall. He was not so much expelled as he was repelled. Those who are not lifted by God cannot reach God, and Satan refuses to be lifted. He believes he can do it himself.
In his pride, Satan believed he could remake God's creations, the emergent humans, improving them by teaching them to attain Eternity themselves. He was wrong. Those who are not lifted by God cannot reach God, and those in Eden were tricked into believing they could lift themselves by their own efforts. That lie has never been completely eradicated.
Later, Satan tricked the Jews into thinking that they could rule themselves, tried to trick Jesus into rebellion, and spawned the many Heresies of Christianity which teach that by certain actions they can earn Heaven. A faily popular one right now teaches that only those who are baptized using a certain ritual evocation are "true Christians" - in other words, that they can require God to save them by dint of their own special code - that they can earn Salvation, which then God must give them as their legal right. As if God were a vending machine which only their secret coin could operate.
But Jesus and the Early Christians were clear and specific in their assertion that God gives Salvation as a gift, and that not one of us earns it nor can earn it, lest any man boast.
The lie shows up quite often, both in Christians and non-Christians. I can't tell you how many times someone has said to me that they don't need to be a Christain to be a good person, as if being a good person was the goal. Christianity is not a behavior modification program. Good behavior, if it happens, happens because the Saved person wants to behave better to honor God. God will help us with that, but it is not the goal.
Salvation is the goal - being saved from the lie of Satan. So that when the time comes to approach God, we are ready and willing to be lifted by God. Because, as finite creatures, the only way to reach infinity is for infinity to reach us.
Thus endeth the sermon.
