魔鬼的詭計 VS. 聖經的真相
只有認識自己是可憐可悲之人，才願來到基督面前領受恩典。而魔鬼則欺騙我們，甚至讓我們相信自己就是上帝。
聖經不僅把人類描繪成是受束縛的、悲慘的、被俘虜的、有病的、死寂的。還有其他不幸的遭遇讓他受盡折磨。他服在撒旦的掌管之下。魔鬼又加上可悲的盲目，使得人相信自己是自由的、快樂的、不受束縛的、有能力的、健康的，生機蓬勃的。因為撒旦知道：人類若曉得自己不幸的境遇，它就連一個人也不能留在它的國度裡。
既然整本聖經極度地高舉上帝，將他頌贊成靠近靈性痛悔的那一位（詩34:18)，就像基督也根據《以賽亞書》六十一章宣稱自己是受差遣來傳福音給貧窮人，並且修復心靈破碎人的（路4:18)。因此，撒旦的工作就是防止人類認出自己的苦境，並使人們一直自以為能夠成就每一件律法命令他們作的事。
摩西或制定律法者的工作卻和這個相反，律法的工作是要藉律法使人清楚明白他的苦境，並且藉人自以為是的聰明來破碎和混亂罪人，以此預備他的心，願意領受恩典，使他能到基督跟前來，以致得救。——馬丁路德（《論意志的綑綁》）（《路德文集，第二卷》，p.408，上海三聯書店出版，2005年，有修改）
Scripture, however, represents man as one who is not only bound, wretched, captive, sick, and dead, but in addition to his other miseries is afflicted, through the agency of Satan his prince, with this misery of blindness, so that he believes himself to be free, happy, unfettered, able, well, and alive. For Satan knows that if men were aware of their misery, he would not be able to retain a single one of them in his kingdom, because God could not but at once pity and succour them in their acknowledged and crying wretchedness, seeing he is so highly extolled throughout Scripture as being near to the contrite in heart （Ps. 34:18）, as Christ too declares himself according to Isaiah 61, to have been sent to preach the gospel to the poor and to bind up the brokenhearted （Luke 4:18）. Accordingly, it is Satan’s work to prevent men from recognizing their plight and to keep them presuming that they can do everything they are told.
But the work of Moses or a lawgiver is the opposite of this, namely, to make man’s plight plain to him by means of the law and thus to break and confound him by self-knowledge, so as to prepare him for grace and send him to Christ that he may be saved.(AE 33:130–131 from Fortress Press, Philadelphia) (The Bondage of the Will)
