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, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” (John 6:70). And that one was Judas Iscariot 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 AD, 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 some one 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 2:14). 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 realising 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 realise 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.
