Those who follow their own thoughts and desires are described clearly. They actually follow
“the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1-2).
To disobey God is to enter Satan’s kingdom.
- There you are “dead in your trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
- You are one of the “children of wrath” – literally, “children of anger” (Ephesians 2:3).
- You are “separated from Christ … having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).
As sinners we are in the kingdom that stirs up God’s anger. We cannot move ourselves up to the better kingdom. For our spirits are dead in sin, and separated from divine help. How urgently we need God’s Spirit to give life to our dead spirits! Yes, we need second birth. Thank God for the promise that “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit!” (John 3:6).
Many of us never realize how sinful and dead we are. Satan helps us to cover up with lies.
“When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
Nicodemus at first sees no need for a new birth. Many Pharisees fail to see that they are “hypocrites” (Matthew 23). Pharisees rush first to kill God’s Son. Are we like them? Do we think we are godly, yet fight against God when His way does not please us?
Are we also trapped in lies?
- We are “not so bad.” Yet how often we fail in our duties and choices.
“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17). - We are “better than others.” Yet what happens when we are alone, where others cannot see?
“‘Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord. ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord’” (Jeremiah 23:24). - We only do “small sins.” Yet how do we react when exposed or asked to change?
The question is not the ‘size’ of the sin, but its mastery over us. Jesus shows us reality:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34).
Any sin gives Satan all the hold he wants. Satan can make anything seem ‘small’ and ‘justified,’ even as he helps it to grow worse.
The world … hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil (John 7:7).
This explains how Bible ‘believers’ come to lead in murdering the Son of God. Jesus warns Nicodemus:
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed (John 3:20).