The Root of All Sin

You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
—Isaiah 14:13–14

Every sin we commit originates in the mind. It is our desire for more that leads to all other sins.

Satan was the source of the first sin. But where did Satan come from? Covetousness was the root of Satan’s downfall, and therefore it is the foundation of every other sin in the universe. “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:12–14).

The Bible tells us that Satan was originally Lucifer, an angel of the highest order. He was the highest of the angels. He was God’s right-hand angel, if you will, but he wasn’t content to be “second banana.” One day he looked around heaven and essentially said, “I can do what God does. I want to be like Him; I want to have His top spot.” God said to Lucifer, “The reason I cast you out of heaven is because of your desire for more, your desire that said, ‘I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars. I will be like God.’” Satan was not content where God had placed him. So he was cast to earth and became Satan.

Notice the first way Satan tempted mankind was through that same desire for more. He went to Eve and said, “I know God said if you eat of the tree you’re going to die, but let me tell you something. The reason God doesn’t want you to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that He knows if you do then you’ll be like Him. And God can’t handle the competition. You see, God’s character isn’t really all it is cracked up to be. God is trying to keep something good from you.”

And that’s what Satan says to us too. All sin is rooted in the idea that God can’t be trusted. It’s the belief that God places laws in His Word and says no to things because He’s trying to shortchange us and cheat us from something. That’s what Satan said to the first woman: “Would you like to be more than you are right now? Would you like to be like God? Then just eat of the tree. You can have more than you have right now.” That was the basis of the first temptation.

By the way, that same strategy continues throughout history. It was Lot’s desire for more and better land that caused him to settle in the land of Sodom. It was Jacob’s desire for more inheritance that caused him to cheat his brother, Esau. It was Joseph’s brothers’ desire for more attention from their father that caused them to sell Joseph into slavery. It was Solomon’s desire for more wealth and power and pleasure that turned his heart away from God. The sin of covetousness—the sin of wanting more than you have, more than God has planned for you—is the root of every other sin in life.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Wanting What Other People Have,” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2008.
Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.