How Sin First Began

How Sin First Began

Scientists have invented a robot airplane that starts its own engines, automatically takes off from the airstrip, flies on course, performs any desired maneuver, drops its bombs on target, returns to its home base, and lands in safety. It does all this without even one person in it.

Obviously an airplane could not do this without some intelligence behind it. Back in the control tower at the airport men use instruments to make the airplane do anything they want it to within its flying range. The plane is directed by unseen forces.

Our world is filled with tragedies beyond our imagination. People we know and respect as good neighbors suddenly do the most terrible things, and we wonder how it can be.

According to God's Word, there is an unseen master mind behind hatreds, quarrels, crime, war, and every possible sin. This intelligence, the Word of God teaches, is none other than the devil, or Satan.

1. IS THE DEVIL REAL?

The New Testament mentions the devil, or Satan, 71 times. Anyone who believes the Bible must therefore believe that there is a personal devil.

Jesus believed in a real devil. He taught that the devil is the father of sin and lying, that lying and murder began with him:

"HE [THE DEVIL] WAS A MURDERER FROM THE BEGINNING, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for HE IS A LIAR, AND THE FATHER OF IT."—John 8:44.

The New Testament writers also believed in a real devil. They referred to him by many other names—"wicked one," "prince of devils," "Beelzebub," "dragon," "serpent," and more than thirty other titles.

It is said that Thomas Carlyle once took Ralph Waldo Emerson through some of the worst streets of London's East End. As they walked along silently, observing the wretchedness and evil around them, Carlyle finally asked, "Do you believe in the devil now?"

We might extend such a walk to the hospitals, asylums, and prisons of today's world—or follow the television cameras onto the battlefields where young men are torn and shattered in the awful harvest of war, and then ask, "Do you believe in the devil now?"

2. DID GOD CREATE THE DEVIL?

Where did the devil come from? It may surprise you, but he came from heaven. Jesus once said:

"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."—Luke 10:18.

The apostle John describes Satan's fall from heaven in more detail:

"And there was WAR IN HEAVEN: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And THE GREAT DRAGON WAS CAST OUT, that old serpent, CALLED THE DEVIL, AND SATAN, which deceiveth the whole world: HE WAS CAST OUT INTO THE EARTH, and his angels were cast out with him."—Revelation 12:7-9.

Did God create the devil? No! Everything God makes is perfect. A good God could not create a devil. Yet we find the Scripture stating that Satan was "cast out" of heaven. Where did he come from? How did he get into heaven?

The devil was once one of the wisest, most beautiful angels in heaven. The Bible says:

"Thou art THE ANOINTED CHERUB THAT COVERETH; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. THOU WAST PERFECT IN THY WAYS FROM THE DAY THAT THOU WAST CREATED, TILL INIQUITY WAS FOUND IN THEE."—Ezekiel 28:14, 15.

According to this Scripture, God did not create a devil. He created an angel, a perfect being, described as the "cherub that covereth." According to 2 Kings 19:15, the covering cherub was one of the two angels who stood next to the very throne of God. So Satan was not always a devil, but was once one of the leading angels of heaven.

But then he sinned. "Iniquity was found in him." He fell from heaven and became man's deadly enemy. So God created an angel, and he made a devil out of himself.

When you see cartoons picturing the devil with horns, a tail, and split hoofs, remember that is not the Bible picture of this powerful enemy of God. Instead, he was the most beautiful and wisest of the holy angels, next in authority to Christ.

3. WHY DID SATAN SIN?

If God created Satan perfect, why did he become a sinner? We have the answer in verse 17 of Ezekiel 28:

"Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness."

Originally the devil was a glorious being, a sinless angel whose name was Lucifer, meaning "day star" or "shining one." When his heart became lifted up with pride and he chose to rebel, he was cast out of heaven; for pride and selfishness, which are sin, and at the root of all sin, cannot exist in the presence of God. The Bible puts it this way:

"HOW ART THOU FALLEN FROM HEAVEN, O LUCIFER, son of the morning! . . . For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I WILL BE LIKE THE MOST HIGH."—Isaiah 14:12-14.

Notice his egotism: "I . . . I . . . I . . . I . . . I will be like the most High." Lucifer aspired even to take God's place. In Lucifer, the love of God was perverted into the love of self. Jealousy changed the chief of angels into the devil or Satan.

4. HOW SIN INFECTED OUR WORLD

As long as Lucifer and the other angels permitted love to control them, no discord marred the heavenly harmonies. But there was a change. Lucifer permitted pride and jealousy to control his life; then he sowed seeds of discord among the other angels.

We are not told how long this conflict continued in heaven, but eventually the devil was cast out of heaven. One-third of the angels were deceived, joined in the rebellion, and were expelled from heaven with Satan. Revelation 12:4 says:

"And his [Satan's] tail drew the third part of the stars [angels] of heaven."

This figure of speech is explained in greater detail in Verse 9:

"The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and SATAN, which deceiveth the whole world: HE WAS CAST OUT INTO THE EARTH, AND HIS ANGELS WERE CAST OUT WITH HIM."

When the devil came to this world, he gained control of it by leading Adam and Eve into sin.

God gave to Adam and Eve—the first man and woman in this newly created world—a lovely home, the promise of children, the prospect of pleasant associations, the ability to be creative and to enjoy the work of their hands. (Genesis, chapters 1 and 2.) He gave them—

"DOMINION over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and OVER ALL THE EARTH."—Genesis 1:26.

God had given man free access to all the good things in the world, but He placed one restriction upon him:

"But of the FRUIT OF THE TREE which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, YE SHALL NOT EAT OF IT, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."—Genesis 3:3.

Satan tempted Adam and Eve. Listening to the voice of Satan, they disobeyed God by eating the fruit from the forbidden tree. The entire story is told in Genesis 3.

As a result of sinning, Adam and Eve lost their right to rule, and Satan became "the prince of this world." John 12:31. From that day until now, Satan has been free to tempt and abuse the human family, fallen as slaves of sin under his dominion.

There was an immediate change in the world. With sin came sorrow, sickness, weeds, thorns, floods, turmoil, frustration, fear, death. Immediately after Adam sinned, God appeared to him and told him some of the results of his disobedience:

"Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; . . . in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."—Genesis 3:17-19.

What a change! No longer are there perfect human beings in a perfect world. Now both earth and people must accept the consequences of Adam and Eve's failure to trust God and reject temptation.

5. FREE MEN OR SLAVES?

Why would God permit Satan to tempt human beings, and run the risk of losing them to sin? He did it because He wanted man to love Him intelligently. He wanted man to respond willingly to His love.

For this reason He did something that only God could think of, something that only He could do!

"God created man in his own image."—Genesis 1:27.

What a revelation of love! God was willing to create beings in His own image—beings who can reason as He does, who have His ability to enjoy real pleasure, who have a spiritual capacity, who can do original inventive thinking, who have the ability to make decisions, the capacity to choose to love.

All this is possible because God created beings in His own image—with the power to reason, the power to choose. God gave men and angels freedom of choice, and with that freedom came the possibility of rebellion and sin. Otherwise, created beings would be merely automatons, like a music box always playing the same tune. But neither angels nor men were programed like computers. Our heavenly Father desires a service of love, the unforced response of the heart to Him. God challenges: Choose to do right because your reasoning powers tell you that My way is the right way. Turn from wrong because you can reason out for yourself the results of disobedience and sin. In short, God wants free men making their own choices, not slaves blindly obeying Him.

God wanted so much to share His love that He was willing to create beings as free moral agents. He was willing to take the risk that someday one of these beings might choose not to serve Him. God could see what finite beings could not: that good will finally triumph over evil and that when His plan is reviewed in eternity, all will be satisfied.

6. WHY DIDN'T GOD DESTROY THE DEVIL?

Until Lucifer led his revolt against God, deception was unknown. The idea of lies' being told had not entered the minds of the angels. Naturally, when Lucifer, this leading angel, began to accuse God—to lie and deceive—the other angels could not understand what sin was all about. For their sakes, God could not justly destroy the first sinner until he had demonstrated the awfulness of sin.

God might have simply stated that Satan was a deceiver, a liar, a thief, a destroyer and a murderer. But to convince His created beings, God must give the evil one time to demonstrate these characteristics.

At the cross the whole universe saw Satan for what he was, a deceiver, a liar, a murderer. There he revealed his true character by murdering the innocent Son of God. The cross also revealed Christ for what He was, the Saviour of the world. There the power of love stood out in contrast to the love of power.

Speaking of His saving death on the cross for man, Jesus said:

"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the PRINCE OF THIS WORLD BE CAST OUT. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME. This he said, signifying what death he should die."—John 12:31-33.

Satan inspired the persecutors of Christ to take His life. The inhabitants of the entire universe saw sin and its results demonstrated in all its awfulness. Satan was fully unmasked. As a result, even when God destroys Satan and those who persist in sin, all will admit the justice of God.

One day soon, saint and sinner, angel and devil alike will declare the righteousness of God. Then we will sing:

"Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest."—Revelation 15:3, 4.

The apostle Paul speaks of the time when:

"At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."—Philippians 2:10, 11.

God is determined that when sin is destroyed, every intelligent being in heaven and on earth will understand sin's nature and will agree that God is just in bringing it to an end. Sin will never again infect the universe.

"What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make an utter end: AFFLICTION SHALL NOT RISE UP THE SECOND TIME."—Nahum 1:9.

The story of the conflict between Christ and Satan, from the time it first began in heaven until the final end of sin, is a demonstration of God's unchanging love.

7. SATAN'S WORK ON EARTH AMONG MEN

Satan's activities now center on this earth. Since his defeat at the cross, he takes out his anger on man. Satan aims to bring sorrow to the Father and His Son by destroying those for whom Jesus died on Calvary. We are warned:

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."—1 Peter 5:8.

"The devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."—Revelation 12:12.

Satan hates God, God's children, and every principle of right. He does not love. He tortures men physically, mentally, and spiritually. How thankful we can be that God's love is stronger than Satan's hate!

8. VICTORY OVER SATAN (Part 1 of 2)

The Bible tells us how to drive the devil out of our lives.

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."—James 4:7.

How can we resist the devil? Only by accepting the power of Jesus Christ, the One who has already overcome the devil. The apostle John says:

"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world."—1 John 4:4.

Someone said: "It takes a passion to conquer a passion. If we overcome our sinful passions, they must be driven out by the one all-consuming passion, THE LOVE OF CHRIST."

"For the love of Christ constraineth us."—2 Corinthians 5:14.

The love of Christ is our power to conquer our sinful natures through which the devil tries to defeat us. When temptation comes, go to Jesus, your refuge. You can depend on this wonderful promise:

"When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."—Isaiah 59:19.

How shall I overcome sin in my life?

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. WHO IS HE THAT OVERCOMETH THE WORLD, but HE THAT BELIEVETH THAT JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD?"—1 John 5:4, 5.

Power to change our sinful lives comes only through a personal relationship with Jesus. The Son of God, by His own experience on earth, has met and defeated Satan. If we take Christ as our closest friend, sharing with Him all our plans and activities, and listening to His counsel in everything we do, we too will lead the life of victory that He led. As we become friends with Jesus, our love for Him will grow until we would rather do what He wants us to, than hurt Him by sinning. This is the faith that gives victory—a personal trust in our Saviour, and an everyday sharing with Him through prayer.

A man wanted to quit smoking. "What shall I do," he asked his minister, "if in trying to give up tobacco, I become seriously ill?"

His pastor read this text from the Bible:

8. VICTORY OVER SATAN (Part 2 of 2)

"And they overcame him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."—Revelation 12:11.

The pastor said, "You could die rather than yield, if you have to—couldn't you?"

The man hadn't thought of that. Then and there he decided, "I would rather die a victor than live a slave." And his prayers for help gave him the victory.

Jesus said:

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."—John 10:10.

Dr. Griffith Thomas tells the story of a man who was a helpless slave to drink. Again and again the man tried to free himself. His friends tried to help him. But he could not get rid of his drunkenness—until he was converted. Then a wonderful change came. An old friend said to him, "So you got the mastery over the devil at last."

"No," he said, "but I have the Master of the devil in me."

That's the secret of victory over Satan. Christ is the Master of the devil. And victory can be yours, for Jesus promises:

"Lo, I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, even unto the end of the world."—Matthew 28:20.

Satan is a supernatural power, and we must have a greater supernatural power to overcome him. Jesus is that greater power. He says to us:

"Be of good cheer; I HAVE OVERCOME the world."—John 16:33.

Dear Father in heaven: I thank Thee for Jesus' victory over Satan in this world, and for the promise that Jesus will give me victory over Satan and sin in my life. Come into my heart just now and fight for me against the evil in my own nature. Make me strong in Jesus to resist evil in my daily life. I thank Thee for hearing my prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.