The biggest issue of sin is that it makes us ignore Truth. The first dishonesty of sin is that when we commit it, we are not truthful about who we are. We know what God asks of us in a moral situation (which He does only for our good), yet we believe that we can choose to do otherwise. We leave behind the notion that we are a creature, and falsely assume that we can act like the Creator, following whatever rules that we deem fit. We replace God with ourselves in our hearts in these moments, even if it is in the subconscious.
The next dishonesty of sin can come when we face the result of our sin. Whenever we are confronted by a guilty conscience, or someone who is calling out our sin, we have the tendency to pass the blame to others or excuse our actions. I was so tired, that I deserved a morning to sleep in instead of going to mass. Gossiping wasn’t my fault because my boss is so ridiculous that I just needed to vent. My kids deserve the anger that I directed towards them because they never listen. The more that we excuse ourselves or pass the blame, the more we attempt to create a reality that continues to assert that we are God.
What I have described is Satan’s oldest trick in the book (literally). We see in Genesis 3 that he tempts Adam and Eve to become like God by breaking the one rule God gave them. They created a reality in their hearts in which their wants and desires were the most important thing. Thus, they elevated themselves over God. And when God found out what had happened, they continued to live in the false reality and passed the blame. Adam blamed Eve and even subtly blamed God for his actions. Eve, in turn, blamed Satan. In the story, Satan did not speak to God, but his work had been accomplished. We know from the book of Job and Revelation that from that time on, Satan constantly accuses us of sinfulness before God. In this way, Satan lives in a more truthful reality than we do, because he is correct. We are sinful.
But God does not want this to be the reality. He wants us to love Him so much that we always desire to follow His will. He wants us to be able to freely choose His will even though we often reject Him in the process. He has to be vulnerable for this to happen. He risks it all for love of us, and His love triumphs. God takes the truth of our sinfulness, redeems it through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, and renews it through His resurrection.
So the truth for all people is that yes, we are sinners. But more importantly, we have been redeemed in Jesus through God’s unconquerable love for us. The only thing that can keep us from this truth is when we excuse ourselves from facing reality or when we blame others. When we face the truth that we are not God, it causes us to relinquish control and trust that God will act for our good. When we do not pass the blame, it allows us to identify our failures and change only what we can change. Or rather, it allows us to turn to God who is the only one who can create the change within us. But this can only happen when we avoid Satan’s oldest trick in the book, and accept the reality of our sinfulness so that we can accept our redemption.
So then reality is this: God and Satan are not two equal warring factions that can be broken down into good vs evil. Rather, God is the all powerful Good who has defeated His rebellious creature Satan. The only success Satan can have is not by defeating God, but through distracting us from this Truth, which he attempts to do to the best of his abilities. But if we bind ourselves to Truth (namely Jesus), then we break through all of the lies, excuses, and blame, and conquer with Him who has defeated sin. In this way, the oldest trick in the book turns into the treat of our eternal salvation.
