Do You Believe in A Devil?
Bible Teaching on Temptation
NEARLY 100 years ago these lines were written (by an
unknown author) to accompany a drawing of "His Satanic
Majesty":
"This is he, with horns and hoof,
The parsons call the devil;
They tell us he lives in a sultry place
Where ghosts and imps all revel.
They say that he wears a great long tail,
And carries a three-pronged fork,
That he sometimes leaves his sultry home,
And through the earth doth walk.
They say he can assume with ease
The garb of an angel bright,
And then, for a change, he takes the form
Of a roaring lion at night:
That he's power to act and do as he likes,
Be in fifty places at once;
And that to fulfil his evil designs,
Can be as wise as a sage, or a dunce."
Today most people no longer think of the devil like
that. But there are still many people who believe that the devil
exists, that he wields immense power for evil (some say he is a fallen
angel) and is constantly trying to destroy the work of God among men
and women. They think it is the devil that secretly whispers in your
ear and tempts you to evil.
Of course there are real difficulties about accepting
such an idea. If the devil was a real angel to begin with, how ever
did he come to revolt against God? And why does God allow a
supernatural being to destroy His work in the earth? Where is the
devil now, anyway? And how can he really work?
Where to find out?
One thing is clear: this is a religious
question. So if we are to settle it, we must refer to the Bible, the
great source of all that we know about God and Jesus Christ. Where
else would you go for a serious answer on a question like this?
Now the Bible certainly does contain a number of
allusions to the devil and Satan. And so to the Bible we turn. But let
us get one thing clear right at the beginning: we must make every
effort to understand what the Bible writers themselves meant by
"devil" and "Satan". It is very easy for us,
as we read Bible verses, to give to the terms devil and Satan the
meaning which we prefer. And if that meaning is not the same as
the Bible writer intended, then we are changing the true sense!
Many of us have had the experience of discussing the
devil and Satan with others and have found that the discussion does
not seem to get anywhere. And the reason is obvious: when Bible
passages are read, devil and Satan are being understood by different
readers in different senses. The conclusion is clear: if we are to
arrive at the truth about the devil and Satan, we must find out what
the Bible writers meant when they used those terms. It is no good
relying upon our own understanding or other people's. We must know
what the inspired writers of the Word of God understood about this
important subject.
In a short work like this we cannot examine all the
verses in the Bible which refer to the devil and Satan. But what we
really need is a key-a basic understanding of what these terms mean.
Armed with this, we should be able to unlock quite a lot of Bible
passages.
First, Satan . . .
To find the vital key it is important to begin with
the Old Testament, and not with the New. To modern ears this may sound
strange, but remember that the Old Testament was written first, many
centuries before the New. And since they both really form one
revelation from God, the New Testament writers knew the Old Testament
very well indeed. They quoted from it and they used its terms; and
among the terms they used is Satan. (In fact the term
"devil" occurs rarely in the Old Testament and is used
differently there from the way it is used in the New.)
So we begin with Satan, the Old Testament term. What
does the word "Satan" mean? It is not hard to find out. Take
the case of Balaam who lived in the days when the children of Israel
were wandering in the wilderness. He was a prophet who had been told
by God not to go on a certain hired mission to curse the Israelites.
But he wanted the money offered him as a reward, so he went. Riding
upon an ass, he soon found his way blocked by an angel: "The
angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary" (or
enemy) (Numbers 22:22, RSV).
Adversary or Enemy
The word for "adversary" is Satan
(from which we get our "Satan") and that is just what it
means. Notice two things: Satan here is an ordinary word
meaning adversary or enemy, and not the name of a person. The
word occurs again only 10 verses later: the angel said to Balaam,
"Behold, I am come forth to withstand you" (verse 32),
literally "to be an adversary to you".
This is the first time the word Satan appears
in the Hebrew record. Notice that this Satan is a good
angel, "the angel of the Lord", who is doing what God wants,
and not an evil one! If we look up in a Bible concordance the way the
word Satan is used in the Old Testament, we shall find that it
means an adversary and an enemy. For example: "Why," cried
David, "should you (Joab and his brothers) be adversaries (satans)
unto me?" (2 Samuel 19:22). And so in half a dozen other cases,
where the allusion is usually to men.
Here we have one of the most frequently quoted cases
in all the Bible. The first few verses of chapter one describe Job as
living in the land of Uz, a God-fearing man who had many possessions.
Then, verse 6:
"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to
present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among
them."
Satan in the Book of Job
"There you are", some people say,
"Satan was in heaven among the angels! He must be a supernatural
being!" But let us remember our vital rule: we must understand
Bible terms in a Bible sense. "Sons of God", for instance:
it is true that once in Job (38:7) this term is used of the angels;
but in the Bible as a whole it is often used of men and women who
really worship God as contrasted with those who do not. God used it of
Israel through the prophet Isaiah:
"Bring my sons from far and my daughters
from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name . .
." (Isaiah 43:6-7)
So in the New Testament the apostle John, referring to
believers in Christ, wrote: "Beloved, we are God's children
now" (1 John 3:2). So the "sons of God" among whom
"Satan" came (in Job chapter 1) need not be angels in
heaven; they could be people on the earth.
But how could they "present themselves before the
Lord" if they were not in heaven? Again the Bible itself gives us
the answer. Moses and Joshua were once told to "present
themselves" in the "tent of meeting", where God would
appoint Joshua as the next leader of Israel (Deuteronomy 31:14-1 5).
Many years later Joshua called together all the elders of the tribes
of Israel to Shechem, where "they presented themselves before
God" (Joshua 24:1). Later still, Samuel in his turn told Israel:
"Present yourselves before the LORD . . ." (1 Samuel 10:19).
In the New Testament it is said that Mary, the mother
of Jesus, shortly after the birth of her son, came to the temple in
Jerusalem "to present him to the Lord . . . and to offer a
sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord" (Luke
2:22-24). The "sons of God" in Job, then, who came to
"present themselves before the Lord", had come together to
worship God in the appointed place, and, of course, in the presence of
the appointed priest at that time. This is a scene of worship upon the
earth, not in heaven.
But what of "Satan" who came among them?
Here the English translators have not really played fair with us, for
all the Hebrew says is "the adversary". The capital S in
Satan is the translators' own invention, for Hebrew makes no
distinction between capital letters and others. Even in the margin the
Authorized and Revised Version translators have printed "the
Adversary", suggesting by their capital A (for which they have no
evidence) that this is that special Adversary, Satan. All that the
Hebrew justifies us in saying is "the adversary came among
them".
God is All-powerful
But who could this adversary be? If this was a group
come together to worship, he would be one of them; in other words he
was a man; and he was an enemy to Job, because he was jealous
of him and wished him harm. But how then could there follow a
conversation between the Lord and the adversary? Again the Bible
itself supplies the answer, for in Old Testament times men often
received messages from God through the appointed priest at the
time. David, for instance, more than once consulted the priest when he
wanted to know what God's will for him was, and the priest spoke to
him on behalf of God. So this jealous enemy of Job-perhaps one who
posed as his friend-said to God through the priest, "Job only
serves you for what he can get. Just try bringing some trouble on him
and then you will see." And God, because He had a great purpose
with Job and desired to see him perfected, allowed the adversary to
carry out his envious desire upon Job. But as the book clearly tells
us, the power was God's and not the adversary's (Job 2:4-6).
So there is in this episode no need for a supernatural
satan and no proof of one. All the expressions are commonly used of
men. The Old Testament word Satan means an adversary; but as
the example of Job shows us, there develops a natural tendency to use
it of an evil adversary.
Peter -- a Satan!
With this valuable background understanding we now
look at an example of the use of "satan" in the New
Testament. Peter had just made his great declaration of belief in
Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the living God" and Jesus
had pronounced a blessing upon him as a result. But Jesus then went on
to speak of his own fate; he would have to go to Jerusalem and there
the leaders of the Jews would seize him and he would be killed, but he
would rise again the third day (Matthew 16:21). Peter could neither
understand nor accept this and began to rebuke Jesus: "God
forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you." In other words,
"You must not think of such a thing." But Jesus said to
Peter, "Get behind me, Satan: you are a hindrance to me."
Why was Peter a "satan"? Because he was
being "an adversary" to Jesus; he was trying to persuade the
Lord not to do what he knew had to be done in his obedience to
the will of God. If Peter had had his way, Jesus would have rejected
his Father's will and his great sacrifice for sin upon the cross would
never have taken place. So Jesus had to tell this
"adversary" (satan) to "get behind me". And then
he adds a comment which is most important for our understanding: You
are an adversary and a stumbling block to me, says Jesus in effect to
Peter, for your mind is not on the "things of God, but the
things of men" (verse 23, R.V.).
So this most important New Testament example teaches
us some valuable lessons. First, this "satan" was a man; second,
he rejected the will of God; third, what marked him out was that he
desired to do the will of man instead-a most important clue, as
we shall see later.
Let us remind ourselves what we have learned so far: a
"satan" is an adversary, and nearly always an evil
adversary. In the examples we have looked at, "satan" was:
-
an angel of God, doing his will;
-
a man posing as a worshipper of God;
-
other men who were "adversaries";
-
and now Peter, an apostle of the Lord, who was
opposing the will of God.
With this general understanding of the meaning of
"satan", we should find a lot of Bible passages much
clearer.
And now the Devil
This is a Greek term, not a Hebrew one, and so it is
found only in the New Testament. [The word "devils" in
"casting out devils" etc. is a different word, which really
means "demons" (cf. R.S.V.).] Again we must try to discover
what the term really means. We can easily do this, for there are
passages where the translators themselves have shown us. Writing to
Timothy the apostle Paul says that "in the last days there will
come times of stress"; in these times "men will be lovers of
self, lovers of money . . . slanderers," etc. (2 Timothy
3:1-3). The word translated "slanderers" is the plural of
the one usually rendered "devil" and is related to our
English "diabolical".
Again, giving instructions on how believers are to
behave as they meet to worship, he comes to the women members:
"Women in like manner must be serious, no slanderers,
temperate, faithful in all things" (1 Timothy 3:11).
Again the word is the one usually translated
"devil", though here it is plural. The translators in these
two passages have given us the basic sense of the word. Notice once
more: these "devils" are people.
But the great test passage for understanding "the
devil" in the New Testament is in Hebrews chapter 2. As we read
the early verses of this chapter, it is clear that the Apostle is
writing about Jesus and his followers; and he calls the followers
"children". Now, in verse 14, he comes to his great
statement about "the devil". We set it out here in full
first, and then we shall go over it, phrase by phrase, to make sure of
understanding it:
"Since therefore the children share in flesh and
blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature; that through
death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the
devil . . ."
The first phrase says quite clearly that the followers
of Jesus are "flesh and blood", that is, they are ordinary
men and women. No problem there.
Human Nature
The second says that Jesus shared the same nature, "flesh
and blood". The apostle must have been very anxious indeed that
his readers should clearly understand that the nature of Jesus really
was the same as that of his followers -- human nature -- for he
emphasizes the point: "he himself likewise took part of
the same". There was no need for the apostle to write in
this emphatic way unless he had felt that it was particularly
important for his readers to understand this vital truth: that Jesus
was a man, in every respect.
The third sentence contains three declarations:
-
that Jesus destroyed the devil;
-
that he did it "through death", and that
can only mean through his own death, by dying himself; and
-
that the devil has "the power of death".
Before we go any further, we must clear up one cause
of misunderstanding. The English reader, seeing a phrase like "him
who has the power of death", is naturally led to assume that
the devil must be a person, or a being. But this is not necessarily
so.
In English we have a very simple system of arranging
gender: all male persons are masculine, and are referred to as "he";
all female ones are feminine, and are referred to as "she";
all other things are neuter and are referred to as "it". And
at times we refer to things as if they were persons: a ship as
"she" for example. This is called personification.
Greek, however (in which the New Testament was
written), is different. It has three genders, but they are used in
another way. Males are "he", of course, and females
"she"; but other things may be any one of the three genders,
masculine, feminine, or neuter.
Now the Greek word for devil is masculine, and so the
pronoun standing for it is "he". But this does not make
clear whether the devil is a person or is not. The Greek is quite
neutral. If we wish to prove that the devil is, or is not, a person,
we must get our evidence from somewhere else, not from this
expression.
Destroying the Devil
We look now at our "three declarations" in
this verse.
Jesus destroyed the devil. So the devil is
"dead", or at the very least will be destroyed by the time
the work of Jesus is finished. But there are two remarkable points
about this statement in Hebrews 2:14. The apostle distinctly says that
in order to destroy the devil, Jesus partook of human nature. Now
is not this an astonishing thing? If Jesus' purpose was to destroy a
powerful enemy, would he not have done far better to have had a
strong, immortal nature like the angels? What was he doing sharing the
weak nature of flesh and blood? Obviously there is a mystery here that
needs explaining.
But that is not all. The apostle distinctly says that
the way Jesus destroyed the devil was "through death". Now
this can only mean through his own death. What an extraordinary
way to get rid of a powerful enemy, by dying oneself!
From these two points, that in order to put an end to
the devil Jesus first shared weak human nature and then had to
die himself, it is clear that "the devil" of the Bible must
be something quite different from the idea of the devil usually held.
When you come across a Bible passage difficult to
understand, it always helps to find another one saying much the same
thing, though in different terms. The two passages will throw light on
one another. Now there is such a passage to help us in this case. The
same apostle, in the same letter, in Hebrews chapter 9, is writing
about the work of Christ. He refers to his first coming (which led to
his death on the cross) like this:
"But (Jesus) . . . has appeared once for all at
the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself"
(verse 26).
We notice at once that one of the things said here is
the same as in Hebrews 2:14. "By the sacrifice of himself"
clearly means the same as "through his own death". So
probably the other terms mean the same thing. Let us set them out side
by side:
|
Hebrews 2:14
|
Hebrews 9:26
|
|
through (his own death)
|
by the sacrifice of himself
|
|
he might destroy the devil
|
= put away sin
|
From this valuable parallel comment we learn that
"destroying the devil" is the same as "putting
away sin". The devil, then, must be a way of referring to
that human. rebellion against God which the Bible calls sin.
The Power of Sin
We now have a valuable way of testing this
understanding, for Hebrews 2:14 declares that the devil "has the
power of death". Now what in the Bible is said to have this
power? The Apostle Paul gives us the answer in two very helpful
passages in the Letter to the Romans:
5:21 -- "As sin reigned in death . . . so
through Jesus grace will reign unto eternal life."
Here sin is regarded as a king who is ruling over his
subjects; and the effect of his power over them is death. Again in
6:23 -- "For the wages of sin is death . . .
but the free gift of God is eternal life."
Here sin is a master who pays his servants wages; he
rewards them for service to himself -- with death.
Both these passages are examples of personification:
that is, something is spoken of as if it were a person when in fact it
is not. In both of them sin is personified; and in both clearly it is
sin that "has the power of death".
And so the Bible is telling us that the real devil is
sin.
What is the Real Enemy of God?
We break off our consideration for a moment to ask a
very important question: What does the Bible say is the great enemy of
God? Is it some fallen angel? Is it some mysterious spirit being
trying to undo God's work in the earth? Not at all. From the first
page of the Bible to the last there is one stubborn enemy of the
purpose of God-the human heart and mind, the will of men and women
everywhere to satisfy their own desires.
We have had a hint of this already in Christ's rebuke
to Peter: "Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou mindest not the
things of God, but the things of men" (Matthew 16:23, R.V.).
He had said much the same to the Jews who were rejecting him:
"You are of your father the devil, and the
lusts (or desires) of your father you will do" (John 8:44,
A.V.).
We have only to ask: What are "lusts"
associated with throughout the Bible? The answer is clear: it is
always with human nature.
The natural tendencies of our nature are set out very
strongly by the Apostle Paul in his Letter to the Romans. He is
contrasting the life of service to God (the spirit) with the life
spent satisfying natural desires (the flesh), and declares:
"To set the mind on the flesh is death; but to
set the mind on the spirit is life and peace."
So there are two ways we can choose to live: trying to
do the will of God, or doing our own will. About the second Paul now
has this shattering comment:
"The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to
God."
So here is the great enemy of God: human desire. And
what a determined enemy it is! For Paul goes on:
"For it (the mind of the flesh) does not submit
to God's law, indeed it cannot" (8:5-7).
He had said the same thing in writing to the
Galatians:
"Walk in the spirit" (that is, live in God's
way) "and do not gratify the desires of the flesh" (notice
that "the flesh" demands to be satisfied). He then adds:
"For the desires of the flesh are against the
Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these
are opposed to each other", and the result is "to prevent
you from doing what you would" (Galatians 5:16-17).
Temptations Within Us
There is no doubt then where we must look for the
great enemy of God: it is in our own hearts and minds. So James tells
us where we must look for the source of our temptations to do wrong.
Are we led astray by some supernatural spirit whispering in our ear?
Not at all; for, he says,
"Each person is tempted when he is lured and
enticed by his own desire".
So our own "desire" is the origin of our
temptations; and James tells us what is the result:
"Then the desire, when it has conceived, gives
birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown brings forth death"
(1:14-15).
The long history of mankind in the Bible shows how
true this teaching is. The first pair of human beings preferred their
own desire to obedience to God, and sinned. The human race fell away
into "corruption and violence" and God had to judge it at
the Flood. Israel, rescued by God from slavery in the land of Egypt
and given a special opportunity to be God's people, turned away and
preferred to worship idols and to behave in immoral ways like the
godless peoples around them. Jesus, the Son of God, demonstrated His
Father's truth and grace among men; they rejected and crucified him.
And in the centuries following, men have abandoned God's teaching and
perverted His ways. Yes, the great enemy of God is men and women
rejecting His authority and fulfilling their own natural desires.
How Devil and Satan are used
So then the devil and Satan are personifications of
sin; that is, they are words used to represent sin.
The personification is sometimes in a single
individual. We have seen how Peter was "Satan". To the
disciples Jesus said, "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of
you is a devil?" (John 6:70). And that one was Judas who
betrayed him. In this class comes the serpent in Eden, who suggested
to Eve that what God had told her was not true. So "the
serpent" becomes a symbol in the Bible for the power of sin.
Sometimes a body of people, a government for example,
could be referred to as the devil or Satan. There are two interesting
examples of this in Revelation chapter 2. In his letter to the
believers at Smyrna the Apostle John passes on the words of Jesus like
this:
"Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold
the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be
tested . . . Be faithful unto death" (verse 10).
This was written in the first century A.D., when the
believers in Christ were suffering persecution, because of their
faith, at the hands of the Roman pagan government. That was "the
devil" which would put some of them in prison: fitly called
"the devil" because it was an enemy to the servants of God.
Or verse 13, in the Letter to Pergamum: "I
know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is."
So Satan reigned in Pergamum This one did certainly;
no doubt it was the headquarters of the Roman government for that part
of the province of Asia.
Peter refers to the same time of persecution in these
words: "Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
That he is indeed referring to the Christians being
persecuted is clear from what he says next: "Resist him,
firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering
is required of your brotherhood throughout the world" (1 Peter
5:8-9).
The Roman pagan government was the devil here.
Jesus' Temptations
Sometimes the "devil" or "satan"
stands for the principle or power of sin, however it may be
manifested. In this sense we can understand the Gospel record of the
Temptation of Jesus. We have seen already how Jesus shared in full our
human nature (Hebrews 2:12). As a result he felt all our temptations,
for the Scripture tells us, "In every respect he has been tempted
as we are, yet without sinning". In his temptation in the
wilderness "the devil" is the personification of that human
urge to gratify his own desires; he utterly conquered it and remained
sinless.
When the disciples returned to Jesus, delighted
because they had been able to cure diseases, he said to them: "I
saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18); that is,
he foresaw the time to come when not just disease but all the power of
sin and evil, summed up in the term "Satan", will be thrown
down from its ruling position in the world; it will be
"dethroned" and replaced by the power of God, when Christ
returns to establish God's Kingdom in the earth.
This, then, is the simple key which unlocks the
problem passages about the devil and Satan: look for the source of it
in the power of sin shown in the desires, the weaknesses and the
actions of men; and the majority of passages will become plain.
Why it Matters
Does it really matter whether we understand this? Yes,
it does, for two reasons at least.
First, if the Bible is really teaching us that the
devil and Satan stand in general for human sin in all its activities,
then that is what God wants us to know. It is a truth revealed in His
Word, the Bible, and we ought to want to understand it; we
ought not to be content to be misled by false ideas common in the
world.
Second, the reason why God has expressed this truth in
His Word is that it makes a great difference to us. Consider a moment:
if we have the idea that our weaknesses and failures in the sight of
God are due to the subtle influence of some supernatural evil spirit
outside of ourselves, are we not going to be tempted to make excuses
for ourselves? Shall we not be inclined to say, "Well, it wasn't
my fault -- the devil tempted me . . ."
Putting the blame for our sin on to somebody
else is something the Bible never allows us to do. It is
absolutely essential that we should understand our natural state in
the sight of God. As the Apostle Paul put it so powerfully: "all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). To
understand the Bible teaching about the devil and Satan is a great
help in accepting this truth.
The Precious Truth
But then think of the benefit! If we really do
understand that we all have a powerful impulse within us to ignore
God's will and to follow our own desires and seek our own
satisfactions, then we are well on the way to realizing how great is
our need to be delivered from this pressure towards sin, so that we
may receive forgiveness of sins from God and have a hope of eternal
life in the Kingdom that God will establish through His Son. The more
we realize our own desperate need of deliverance from the natural
state in which we live, the more we shall appreciate how precious is
the Gospel which Christ preached. How can we value an offer of life if
we do not know we are dying-for ever? To a man who knows he is
drowning, a rescuing hand is life indeed. And this is our case: God is
offering us life in place of eternal death.
Have we to fear a devil, then?
Most surely we have -- but not the devil of popular
belief. Our devil is inside ourselves, in our own hearts and
minds. But once we understand that and accept it, we shall be able to
rejoice in the great offer of life which God makes to us in His Word
through the sacrifice of His Son.