The difference between the devil and humanity is that the devil is not deceived by sin; but we are. Yes, the devil is well aware of the closing scene, the end of the story, his final defeat. Yet he roams the earth with a hand of craft and a heart of enmity, seeking to deceive by sin and to destroy in death.
Christians – the Church – cannot afford to ignore or trivialize the devil. If we do, Scripture like Hebrews 3:12-13 is lost on us, lost to us, and we’re lost: Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Yes, no one is above the craft of the devil and the deceitfulness of sin. Not the pastor of a church, not the janitor of that church. Not the most powerful man in a city, not the weakest man in the street. No one.
Eve was deceived by the craft of the devil (Genesis 3:1-7). Cain was also. God Himself spoke to Cain and told him there was a snare laid by the devil (Genesis 4:7-8; John 8:44). God Himself! Yet, Cain fell. We don’t like Cain for that reason. But what about David? We like him. The “man after God’s own heart” inspires us. Yet, David was also deceived by sin. There was Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11), and there was also this: "Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel." And David did, bringing guilt upon Israel. (1 Chronicles 21:1-3). Peter became of use to the devil in attempting to distract and hinder Jesus (Matthew 16:22-23). Judas became the pawn of betrayal in the devil’s hand. It began with a thought; every subsequent rejection of Jesus’ love and word resulted in Judas’ heart being hardened. Peter, having learned firsthand of the devil’s schemes, returns in Acts 5:3 saying to a man named Ananias, “Why has satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself a part of the proceeds of the land?”
No one is above the craft of the devil and the deceitfulness of sin. To think that I am, is already to be deceived.
The devil has incalculable schemes and constantly repeats them (Ephesians 6:10-11). He is also patient, waiting for the opportune time (Luke 4:13). He never grows weary, never stops, never gives up. He is an ancient student of man and a master teacher. His forces are united in one mind, heart and spirit. His aim is death, destruction of the soul of man. He is the ancient serpent (Revelation 12:19) and great adversary of the Church. His aim is to outwit - to defraud - the Church of Jesus (2 Corinthians 2:11) of the new life of Jesus by gaining a foothold in the door (Ephesians 4:27) through both our relationships and our “old self” and life (Ephesians 4:13-32). He delights in our every fight, distraction, failure, weakness and sin.
But then there is Jesus.
Jesus has been tempted as we are in every respect, yet he never sinned or fell prey to the devil’s craft and the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 4:15). Here’s what else I need to remember: Jesus was tempted in every way full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1-2). Jesus lived, served, endured, died and conquered by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, not by inner resolve or external strategies. So must we withstand against the devil’s schemes: in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
John writes that God is in us and greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). Paul writes that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us (Romans 8:11). And then John writes at the end of the book of Revelation, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all” (Revelation 22:21). This is not an unusual ending, or beginning, in Paul’s letters. There is often the exhortation and prayer to receive grace. But why? Why, if God is in us, do we still need grace? Because grace is God endlessly supplying, in and by the Holy Spirit, what is lacking in me. Jesus promised and purchased the Holy Spirit for us. He has descended as Christ has ascended, so that the life of Jesus Christ now flows within us. We are a new creation in Jesus Christ – the Spirit of God conforming us, equipping us, empowering us to live this life in the flesh in the life of Jesus. By the Spirit we are given and receive the abundant life of God in Jesus. So “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and stand against the craft of the devil and the deceitfulness of sin.
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