Though God has warned a thousand times concerning the fruit of forbidden sin — that “in the day you eat of it you shall surely die” — the devil never tires of telling Adam’s children, “You shall not surely die” (Genesis 2:17; 3:4). “No, no,” he says. “What danger could there be in one small sin? Find relief this once, gratify your flesh this once, answer the voice of your passions this once, and then return to righteousness.” With such words, he covers the hook with the worm, and brushes leaves and branches over the net prepared to snap.

“Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar.”

So warns C.S. Lewis at the beginning of Screwtape Letters (ix). The warning is apt not only for readers of Lewis’s modern classic, but for all people, everywhere, all the time. No matter how alert we are to spiritual warfare, we are advised to remember that the devil is a liar.

We can hardly remember too often. For, as long as we are in this world, something within us — “deceitful desires” (Ephesians 4:22) — will want to believe him. Something within us will want to believe him when he suggests that freedom lies just over the fence of God’s commands. Or that sin holds something essential to our happiness. Or that obedience to God will make us miserable.

All lies, of course. But under the sway of sin’s deception, the devil’s whisper can sound like gospel truth. Therefore, our peace and security, our happiness and holiness, depend on being able to say with the apostle Paul, “We are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11).

Devil’s Designs

To be sure, we cannot trace every lie directly back to the devil. Sin has its own native deceitfulness (Hebrews 3:13). But all lies in this world bear the mark of him who is “the father of lies” and “the deceiver of the whole world” (John 8:44; Revelation 12:9). Study the father’s face, and you will learn to recognize his brood.

What do we see when we examine the devil’s designs? We see that he lessens the guilt of sin, hides the danger of sin, and embellishes the pleasure of sin.

Guilt Lessened

When the devil met our Lord in the wilderness, he sought to make sin seem small. If Jesus truly were the Son of God, what harm could there be in turning this one stone into a loaf, or in allowing the adoring angels to bear up his falling body (Matthew 4:3–6)? Surely, given the circumstances, these were privileges and necessities, not sins.

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