Thursday, May 12, 2016
The Lord Jesus says of Satan—”the
Spirit that is ruling the world”—that “he has nothing in common with me” (John
14:30, Twentieth Century New Testament). The Scriptures draw sharp contrasts
between God and Satan that help us better understand the profound differences
between their character, motivations, goals and actions.
Much of what we learn about Satan is
summed up in his name, which means adversary. Peter calls him “your enemy
the devil” (1 Peter 5:8, NIV). Satan’s actions and motivations are those of an
enemy. God’s character, in contrast, is summarized by the word love
—a deep, outgoing concern for the welfare and well-being of others”. God is
love”, John tells us (1 John 4:8-16).
In John 8:43-44 Christ says Satan is
a murderer and liar. Later, in John 14:6, the Lord Jesus refers to Himself as
“the way, the truth, and the life”. As a liar and murderer, Satan is the exact
opposite of “the truth and the life”. Christ is the truth;
Satan is a liar. Christ is the life; Satan is a murderer —one who takes
away life. Clearly, Satan is the exact opposite of God and Jesus Christ
in his intents, motivation and character.
Emphasizing this stark contrast,
Paul asks a series of questions in 2 Corinthians 6:14-15: “For what fellowship
has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
And what accord has Christ with Belial?” The thrust of this is that the ways of
Christ and Satan are as opposite as day and night, light and darkness (see also
John 3:19-21; John 8:12; Ephesians 6:12).
The essence of Christ’s character is
revealed in His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He gave His
life in sacrifice: “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me;
nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).
Satan’s attitude is diametrically opposite. Rather than submitting to God’s
perfect will, he became self-willed and determined to have
his way at any cost. That attitude led to his initial rebellion against his
Creator as described in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Regrettably, Satan has been
remarkably successful at infusing a me-first, self-willed attitude among all
human beings, with the one exception of the Lord Jesus, who perfectly resisted
him.
Another aspect of Satan’s nature
that sharply contrasts with that of God is brought out in Revelation 9:11. Here
we read of a powerful force of attackers that goes forth like locusts to
torment mankind. “And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless
pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name
Apollyon”—names meaning “destruction” and “destroyer”, respectively.
We might say that Destroyer
is his name and destruction is his game. These titles sum up Satan’s character,
goals and purpose. They summarize the end result of everything he strives
for—absolute destruction. If the devil can’t have it all, as he comes to
realize at the point in history described here, his intent is to destroy
it all.
So again we see a major contrast.
Compare Satan, the destroyer, with God, whose greatest attribute is that He is the
Creator.
God is the one who creates, builds, makes and gives us so many beautiful and
wonderful things. Satan, on the other hand, is the ultimate destroyer.
What does he destroy? He ruins
basically everything he can get his hands on. Read all of Revelation 9 and
Revelation 12:7-12. Everywhere he is mentioned, Satan is destroying—trying to
murder God’s people, fighting our Lord Jesus Christ, lashing out in anger
because he knows his time is almost up.
Even after losing the war, and being
restrained for 1,000 years, has he learned his lesson? Far from it. In Revelation 20:7-10 we read
that when he is released he will go out to deceive the nations again and bring
them to battle against Jerusalem. But he and those who follow him will be
defeated. He will finally be taken out of the picture for good, all his efforts
brought to nothing.
Eventually every destructive thing
Satan has tried to achieve throughout history will be reversed and defeated,
and all that God has set out to achieve will be accomplished. This is made
clear in the Scriptures. God has ultimate control over His creation, and Satan
can do no more than God allows as He works out His great purpose, allowing
humanity to learn important lessons.
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