A Few Lies Satan Tells about Himself

By Vicar Charles Lehmann

Good and evil, light and darkness, God and Satan—two great forces are locked in an eternal struggle for mastery over the human race. Is this the way it is? No, it’s not true. But that is what you hear in popular books, movies, and television shows.

It’s a view of the world that fills Satan with glee. “Yeah, I’m hot stuff,” he says. “God doesn’t get the play in Hollywood that I do. I’m the one everybody wants to see.” But what Satan’s forgetting is that he’s a creature, and in that sense, he’s just like you or me. The word creature sounds like what it means.A creature is a “created thing,” created by God. And when we confess, as the Scriptures do, that Satan is a created thing, he screams in fury. Satan’s first sin,the one that got him banished from the presence of God, was that he wasn’t satisfied with who he was.

We hear echoes of Satan’s aggravation in his tempting of Eve in the garden. When Eve tells him that she must not eat from the tree, the serpent replies, “You will not surely die...For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4–5 ESV).

Satan tries to pull Eve into his sin. “God’s holding out on you,” he says. “He doesn’t want you to be all that you can be.” And sadly, when Eve eats of the tree, she loses all that Satan says she’ll get. She was already like God, in the sense that she was created in His image, and that image is lost. She had already received all good things from her Creator, but she casts those things aside and receives death, pain, and anguish. And Satan has gotten just what he wanted. Misery loves company, and now Eve, Adam, and the entire human race live in the death that is Satan’s everlasting prize.

But let’s not give the devil more than he’s due. And he ’s not due much. The world will say the garden is the place where the struggle began. It will say Satan and God are two equals who are beating each other up in a battle for your soul. But that’s Satan talking.

And as loud as Satan might yell, he can’t endure just one Word of God. Satan is a liar and a murderer and has been one since the beginning ( John 8:44). The Word of God is truth. It is reality. And in the fullest way, it’s Jesus who says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6 ESV). And those are three things Satan cannot endure. Jesus is the way to the Father whose presence Satan cannot tolerate. Jesus is the truth that destroys Satan’s lies. Jesus is the life that Satan doesn’t want you to have. Faced with God’s promises, Satan must flee. “…Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:2–4 ESV).

God has claimed you as His own in your Baptism. He has put His name on you and has given you His Holy Spirit. Notice how John speaks. Satan and God are not equals. He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world. And though at the Word of Jesus Satan must flee, he will also come back with his murderous lies. He will accuse you with your sins. He will bring death, sickness, and suffering into your life. He will say, “God’s promises are bunk. They are lies.Look at all that you are suffering!” But God has promised that He will abide in you. He that has claimed you in Baptism feeds you with His very body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. And as you receive the living C hrist into your own body, Satan’s lies melt away, and only you, a redeemed child of God, remain.

Charles Lehmann is a student at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He serves as vicar of Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Illinois. Before studying for the ministry , C har les was a Lutheran High School theology teacher. His email address is lehmanncr@ctsfw.edu.

Dualism: A Resurgence of an Old Heresy

The idea that God and Satan are equals is nothing new. As Lehmann points out in his article, the devil considered himself to be God’s equal way back at the time of the fall. It’s a teaching called dualism, and it keeps appearing.

At the time of the apostles, it was the Gnostics (rhymes with the word caustic) who taught that the holy god was far away from the evil world, so it was up to you to save yourself by learning enough special knowledge. Four centuries later, it was the Manichaeans (does not rhyme with plecostomus) who taught that God and evil were equals, and evil could keep God from getting things done. Therefore, it was up to you to save yourself by living an austere life.

I caught a radio preacher saying, “There’s a vote for your soul. God has voted for your salvation, and the devil (rhymes with duh-AY-vil) has voted for your damnation. It’s up to you. How will you vote?” See the trend? If God and Satan are equals, then it’s up to you to save yourself. Apparently, Jesus didn’t do enough to save you.

But He did, and that’s the joy and comfort of being a Christian. Jesus has conquered the devil completely, for eternity. It’s done. They’re only equals in the wishful thinking of Old Adam.

Of course, this doesn’t say much about you. When you give into temptation, you’re giving in to a defeated enemy. That by itself shows how badly you need a Savior. The Good News is that Chr ist is your Savior. No matter what the devil thinks or says, he’s beaten, and you’re forgiven for all of your sins.

- Rev. Tim Pauls