You, Porn, and the First Temptation | Genesis 3:4

“Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.'”
Genesis 3:4

If you are a Christian man struggling to conquer your habitual sin of watching pornography, your problem may be that you believe the same lie that Satan told Eve in the Garden of Eden. The lie that Eve believed. The lie that she and Adam acted upon. The lie that brought death—physical and spiritual—upon them and all mankind.

Satan whispers this same lie to you whenever you are tempted to look at pornography or masturbate. You know that these sins are wrong, but Satan tells you otherwise.

• God says if you are sexually immoral, you will be cast into hell (Matthew 5:27-30). Satan says, “you will not surely die.”
• God says if you are sexually immoral, you will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Satan says, “you will not surely die.”
• God says you must abstain from sexual immorality or face His vengeance (1 Thessalonians 4:3-6). Satan says, “you will not surely die.”
• God says if you sin willfully after you have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation (Hebrews 10:26-27). Satan says, “you will not surely die.”
• God says if you are an adulterer or a sexually immoral person, you will have your portion in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8). Satan says, “you will not surely die.”

The first lie that Satan told was straightforward: you can sin against God and suffer no eternal consequences. You won’t die physically. You won’t die spiritually. You won’t suffer divine wrath. Countless Christian men believe this lie today. Despite the clear teachings of scripture, they think they can be an adulterer and inherit the kingdom of God. They believe they can be sexually immoral and not be cast into hell. They are deceived. Are you?

Why are so many Christian men deceived in this way? Because they believe the lie of unconditional eternal security. They believe they are “once saved, always saved.” They believe that the moment they became a Christian they were saved from hell and that nothing they do can affect their salvation. They believe their sins—past, present and future—are all paid for, and so they use that forgiveness as a license to sin. They watch porn thinking that God must forgive them. They commit adultery believing that their sin is already paid for and that they will still gain heaven one day. They masturbate to porn month after month thinking that God simply has to forgive them, guaranteed.

But this isn’t what the Bible teaches. As you have seen in the scriptures I cite above, adulterers will be punished in hell. The sexually immoral will be punished in the lake of fire forever. In His first public discourse (the Sermon on the Mount), Christ warns His disciples seven times about falling away. When commissioning the 12 disciples, Christ warns them five times about departing from the faith. Every writer in the New Testament warns believers about falling away. Paul warns his readers against apostasy in every one of his 14 letters except 2.

Eternal security is a false doctrine that deceives Christian men into thinking they can willfully sin against God without forfeiting their salvation. But God’s salvation is conditional. Yes, God has reconciled you through the death of Christ, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight, but only “if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel” (Colossians 1:21-23).

If you are a Christian, you are kept safe by God in your saving relationship with Him upon the condition of a persevering faith in Christ. Biblical, saving faith expresses itself in love and continued obedience to God. The Bible warns repeatedly that you as a believer can fall away in unbelief and thereby become severed from your saving union with God through Christ. Please don’t let this happen to you. Heed the warnings. Don’t believe Satan’s lie.