When it comes to God, we convince ourselves that God doesn't see (Ps. 10:11; 94:7) or that he'll never call us to account (Ps. 10:13), but in order to do that we have to quite our God-designed conscience that points continually to the criteria by which we'll be judged before the Creator's tribunal (Rom. 2:16).The demonic powers not only will give us what we crave, but they will assist us in covering it over, for a little while. That's precisely the irony. Often you are fueled on from one temptation to the other because you haven't been caught. This gives you an illusion of a cocoon protecting you from justice. The powers, though, don't want you to get caught - not yet, not this early in the march to the slaughterhouse. They don't have a mere seventy or eighty years to live. They are ancient and patient and quite willing to wait until your downfall will bring with it the most catastrophic consequences - for you, for your family, for the kingdom of God, and to the image of Christ you carry. So they'll help you cover it all up, and then they'll expose you - mercilessly. You'll never see it coming around the bend.
Where before the invisible presences disputed the contents of the law, now they remind us of it in every jot and tittle, and how we've violated it. When before they'd scoffed with us even of the possibility of future judgement, now they wish to hold its certainty ever before our eyes. They accuse us with our own transcribed consciences as evidence. And we know they're right.
Russell Moore - "Tempted and Tried: Temptations and the Triumph of Christ" page 57
