01.18. ESSAY NO. 18
ESSAY NO. 18 The calling of the church is God’s gracious work, the conduct of the church is man’s grateful work, and the conflict of the church is Satan’s malicious work. The first eight "Studies in Ephesians" deal with the calling, the next nine with the conduct, and now comes the conflict of the church.
"Your Adversary the Devil"
(1 Peter 5:8) The devil and Christians are irreconcilable foes. Since he is incorporeal, Christians can know him only as the Bible reveals him. Judging by the fullness of this revelation, students of the Bible conclude God deems it imperative that Christians, who must "resist the devil," know about his existence, purposes, and tactics. Without divine instruction and aid, obviously, God thinks they will be unable to resist him. Indeed, before meeting an enemy in battle, one needs to know his objective, resources, and plans. Consequently the Bible gives Satan’s origin, his earthly activities, and his destiny.
Satan’s Origin In pronouncing the doom of the kings of Babylon and Tyre, Isaiah 14:12-20 and Ezekiel 28:11-19, respectively, portray a larger figure than these kings. The world and the being described extend beyond earthly limits and human experiences and capabilities. These passages teach, I think, that God made a mighty angel and gave him a place of dignity and trust in the government of heaven until in pride he broke faith and appropriated his gifts to his own use and self-exaltation. Whereupon God said to the rebel: "Thou hast sinned . . . therefore I have cast thee to the ground." This is the being who later on earth became "the old serpent, he that is called the devil and Satan" (Revelation 12:9). "How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star! . . . how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!" (Isaiah 14:12). Both 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 1:6 speak of angels that lost heaven because they sinned. Does not Paul allude to Satan’s pride and fall when he writes Timothy not to appoint as elder, "A novice lest being puffed up he fall into condemnation of the devil" (1 Timothy 3:6) ? Upon the return of the seventy, exulting that demons were subject to them, surely Christ had in mind Satan’s fall from heaven when, as a warning against the danger of pride, he said to them: "I behold Satan as lightning fallen from heaven" (Luke 10:18).
According to Biblical usage, godless men, Satan’s understudies, are sometimes identified with him much as David is often identified in the Psalms with Christ. In speaking to the twelve, Christ said: "One of you is a devil" (John 6:69). When Peter offered the satanic advice to Christ that he must not die, Christ said to him, "Get thee behind me Satan" (Matthew 16:23). When men become tools of Satan, is it not fitting to identify them with him? It little becomes men who are so ignorant of the mysteries of life, especially the life of spirits, to think that mind cannot mix with mind. Who can explain the marvels of animal instinct? The Bible teaches that Satan as well as God permeates human spirits. If it does not explain the method, what difference does it make to men of the faith?
Satan’s Earthly Aims and Activities Is it unreasonable that God created man to take the place left vacant by the fallen angels? Soon after man’s creation, in any event, Satan began to render him unfit for that place. His effort in Eden henceforth is the earthly aspect of the earlier feud between him and God in heaven. All the Bible except its first two chapters and its last two, supported by all uninspired history, shows his unbroken success in corrupting the far greater part of the succeeding generations of men. Mark Twain said that anybody who could command such innumerable multitudes of men through the ages must be an interesting personality, and he wanted to meet him.
After Satan as usurper had held sway over the earth for some four thousand years, "God sent forth his Son, born of a woman," to challenge his illegal reign. He knew the issue between him and Christ and tried, using Herod as his understudy, to destroy Christ in the cradle. He, as Christ was readying his rule to restore the world to its rightful owner, did his utmost in the great temptation in the wilderness to beguile Christ as he had done Eve in the beginning. Though utterly defeated, he continued to dog Christ to the cross. The resurrection completely broke Satan’s power and greatly increased God’s power. A fantastic metaphor of the early church that God baited a hook with the flesh of his Son, and that Satan, thinking to be rid of his foe, gobbled the bait down to find that he had swallowed the fatal hook, holds much of the essence of Christian doctrine. Though Satan’s power of death has been brought to naught and a suspended sentence hangs over him, he is still permitted for God’s allotted time to be "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4), and to walk "about seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). He is still "a terror" and spreads great confusion among men. He makes "the world as a wilderness." His only adversary is the church. Were it out of the way, his rule would be universal. This is the secret of his bitter, endless conflict with the church. As he knows he cannot win in open, fair war, he resorts to many wiles and artful devices. His chief strategy is deceit. He works best under cover, sows tares in among the wheat while men sleep, and "fashioneth himself into an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14). God has so fully revealed him and his many devices and stratagems that there is little excuse for Christians being beguiled by him.
Satan’s Final Destiny
Christ’s complete, final victory over his wily antagonist, the great pretender, according to Revelation 20:10, is absolutely certain. How much more time God’s eternally fixed schedule is to consume in accomplishing this "consummation devoutly to be wished," he has not seen fit to reveal. Is it possible, brethren, that time and detail, because of their secondary importance are purposely left in the background that all emphasis may be thrown upon Christ the person who effects the victory? "Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil . . ., walketh about" (1 Peter 5:8).