Satan’s Person, Work, Place and Destiny / Part 2

Satan – His Person, Work, Place and Destiny
Part 2: His Work

The popular idea of Satan’s work is far from the truth. People often say that “someone has gone to the Devil,” meaning that he or she has been living an immoral life. The expression also implies that the person is sinking ever lower on the social scale, and has lost all self-respect along with the respect of others.

However, this conception is far from the truth of Scripture. True, the Devil can lead someone into such a life, but he is also doing his work when he leads people into mere religious pretension. In His day, our Lord called respected, pious people, even religious leaders, “hypocrites,” “blind guides,” “blind fools,” “snakes,” and a “brood of vipers.” Then He summarized with the rhetorical question: “How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (Mt. 23:1-33 NIV).

Thus we see that it is the proud, self-complacent, religious character that is a truer expression of the Devil’s work than that of the openly debased. We need reminded that in the world pride, the original “devilish” sin, is quite acceptable!

His Present Work
It is common for people to blame the Devil for what is their own responsibility. Doing this quiets our conscience, for it attributes to him our fleshly corruption, sensual indulgence and worldly desires. What is also widespread is the mistake of not recognizing as his work a sense of superiority because of our morality or religious association. Let this never be the case with us!

In nothing is Satan’s work more manifest than in his promotion of the idea that man is making progress. The belief is widespread that man is bringing about universal blessing and advancement of every character – material, moral and spiritual. If this were true, there should be increasing contentment, but are people really happier than they ever were? Is society today more closely held together by reverence for authority in the family or government? In truth, it’s the reverse!

Also, the Devil is at work binding together all that opposes God, and he is always active, destroying any unity that exists among God’s people. He continues to try to undo the work of God’s Son. So some proclaim to a scoffing world that the doctrines we hold in common about our Savior do not unite us as much as the issues on which we differ separate us. Can we doubt that this is his work?

His Motivation
Satan does not do what he does because he desires our company with him in his coming misery in the Lake of Fire. His ultimate motive is to sit on the throne of God! In the Book of Job, we see Satan having access to heaven and presenting himself as an angel of light responsible for maintaining righteousness. God puts Job forth as a representative of the best of mankind that can be found. While posing as being jealous for righteousness, Satan brought calamity upon Job!

Satan works with us just as he worked with Job. He tries to get us to think that the blessings we have are because of our own righteousness. Then, when they are taken from us, we think that this shows how little God cares for us. When calamities occur, don’t we say, “How can God allow this to happen?”

Our Conflict
The world, the sinful flesh, and the Devil are difficult to distinguish from each other, because the Devil often uses the first two for his purposes. Deliverance from the power of the world and the flesh is obtained by turning from them. We are told to “flee” (2 Tim. 2:22) and “abstain” (1 Pet. 2:11) from sinful desires, and are warned not to “conform ... to the pattern of this world” (Rom. 12:2). Satan's object is always to get man’s love, heart and confidence away from God.

However, we are told to “resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4:7), not because of any superior power of our own, but because he has been conquered by Christ – and we are His. Thank God we have a complete suit of armor divinely provided for our protection (Eph. 6:10-17).2 God tells us to put it on, not just look at it and admire it! We are also told to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (Eph. 6:18). Prayer is always needed; it is a general spirit of dependence and that is powerful!

Beware that “in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits” (1 Tim. 4:1). At the present time, there appears to be “a flowering of spirituality,” but it is defined as “the impulse to seek communion with the Divine” and many believe that “more than one faith (other than faith in Christ) can be a path to salvation.” Rather than a religion that calls for repentance and offers deliverance from guilt and judgment, “it is about finding a religion that empowers you.” 3 We may be thrown off guard by the earnest, enthusiastic expressions of devout piety and even of devotion to the Bible, but if it de-emphasizes the person or work of Christ, it really is just a subtly veiled work of Satan.

Our View Of Death
The power of death is the fear of it, and the Devil has always used it against the Lord’s people, bringing them into bondage. The fact that death is not the end is the cause of its terror. But the great fact of the death and resurrection of our Lord has removed the cause of the fear; it has not put away its pain, but has put away its sting, and has delivered the believer from its bondage. What a comfort to know that our Lord “shared in humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death – the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb. 2:14).

God’s Word tells us that “our Savior ... has destroyed death and brought life ... to light through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10). In what sense are death and the Devil destroyed? The word translated “destroyed” does not mean “to cause to cease to exist,” but “to be made of no effect” or “to amount to nothing.”

It’s true! When the believer dies, he is not in a state of dreamless sleep, but “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). Also, the certainty of death is gone! Those who are alive when the Lord comes again “will be caught up together ... to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Th. 4:17). May we long to be with Him who has destroyed both death and him who had its power, the Devil!

END NOTES
1. Jennings, F. C., “Satan,” The Serious Christian, vol. 13, pp. 1-80, Loizeaux Publishers, 1975. Abridged and edited by Alan H. Crosby.
2. See the Feature articles on “The Armor of God” and “The Warrior's Prayer” in this magazine, (J/A ’05) pp. 3-17.
3. Adler, Jerry; “Special Report: Spirituality 2005,” Newsweek, (Sept. 5, ’05), pp. 46-64.

By F. C. Jennings

Look for the conclusion to this Series next month.