The name “Satan” (cf. 2 Cor. 2:11) is from σατανα (satana), meaning “adversary...the prince of evil spirits” (The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, p. 572). In 1 Peter 5:8 the apostle describes “your adversary the devil.” The word “adversary” is from ἀντίδικος (antidikos), meaning “an opponent in a suit at law...an adversary, enemy” (ibid., p. 50). And “devil,” from διάβολος (diabolos), means “false accuser, slanderer” (ibid., p. 135). It is best, in war, to know the enemy. It is safest not to camp too close.
1. The devil is real. He is not myth or fairy tale. He is not a dimwitted explanation for evil to satisfy superstitious, gullible or unscientific minds. The Christian sees evil and concludes the devil is real. The atheist sees evil and concludes God is not real (thereby unwittingly implying that evil is not real, either). If evil really exists, then God exists. And, God tells us the truth about the devil.
2. The devil is not eternal. “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord” (Job 2:1, ESV). Notice, God doesn’t present himself to a superior; it’s the other way around. Every creature owes its origin to the Creator, of which there can be but one. Satan is not infinite. Satan is deficient (in goodness, among other things). Deficiency implies contingency, which means he is dependent upon another for his existence. Satan is among “all things” that were made through the Word of God (John 1:3).
3. The devil was not always wicked, but chose to be. “God did not spare angels when they sinned” (2 Pet. 2:4). Having free-will is consequential for men and angels. Satan is the original rebel, the father of treason.
4. The devil is kingpin of corrupt angels. Evidently, either the devil led other angels into rebellion against God, or they cast their lot with Satan in their rebelling. “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev. 12:9; cf. Jude 6-7). How many angels he has is never stated, but he comes across as the ringleader.
5. The devil showed up early in history. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made” (Gen. 3:1). Jesus would call him “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44). That “beginning” is evidently the beginning of human history. Satan dealt out death when Adam and Eve sinned, and struck again in Cain’s murdering of Abel. He wasted no time inserting himself into man’s story and we’re still reeling from the effects.
6. The devil gets around. “The Lord said to Satan, ‘From where have you come?’ Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it’” (Job 1:7). People don’t talk like that; people don’t travel on that scale. But Satan makes it sound as though the earth is a small place to which he has unfettered access.
7. The devil quotes Scripture. Remember when he advised Jesus to throw himself from a high place on the temple? “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone’” (Matt. 4:6). In an amazing turn, Satan was quoting Psalm 91 to the one who wrote Psalm 91. We might think a wicked being would be repelled by the Bible, like a vampire in a movie recoiling from the presence of a crucifix. Reality is scarier than fiction. Hold up a Bible in front of the devil and he may just ask, “But, have you considered this verse?” Of course, he only uses Scripture to suit his own ends, which is to say he twists, misapplies, perverts (cf. 2 Pet. 3:16). Some of the worst lies come from a man holding a Bible, doing the devil’s will.
8. The devil is a master of disguise. “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). If people saw through his agenda every time he came knocking, Satan would constantly fail. Lies are his only path to success. By creative presentation and deception, Satan helps us desire what destroys us. He can look like a preacher, beggar, school teacher, politician, neighbor, coworker, best friend. Every day is Halloween and his disguises are often quite convincing. No wonder Scripture contains so many warnings.
9. The devil is a tireless deceiver. “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing…” (2 Thess. 2:9-10). Deception is his stock-in-trade; were he to tell the truth about sin, he would have a hard time selling it. Never trust as your news source the “father of lies” (cf. John 8:44).
10. The devil is a wielder of power. Jesus mentions “the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53) and “the power of Satan” (Acts 26:18). Paul writes of “the cosmic powers over this present darkness” and “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Underestimate Satan at your own peril. You don’t have to know the precise reach of a dangerous animal to know it’s wiser to stay back than to test how close you can get without a scratch. Satan is a roaring lion on the prowl (1 Pet. 5:8). Think of strength, cunning, claw and fang.
11. The devil is author of all temptation. “The tempter came” (Matt. 4:3; cf. 1 Cor. 7:5; 1 Thess. 3:5). He is personal—not theoretical—a particular being with your death on his mind. Whereas temptation does involve our own desires (James 1:14), Satan is consistently described as “the tempter.” He’s the one egging us on to fulfill unlawful desire. How exactly he gets it done in every situation is never spelled out. How many servants he has that he can work through is unknown. But, find a man being tempted to sin, and the devil will be in the details, somewhere. One reason there will be no sin in heaven is that the devil will not be there to tempt us. How the devil got himself into sin without an external tempter is not described for us, but, though he is a person, he is not human. If sin were a spectrum, angels and humans are not exactly in the same place. Human sin involves the execution of sinful desire at the encouragement of “the tempter.”
12. The devil captures men’s souls. Paul wanted sinners to “come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Tim. 2:26). The “captured” are not in a hostage situation as innocent victims waiting for rescue. They’re more like converts. Those whom the devil captures are those who then are doing the devil’s bidding. “Escape from the snare” is only possible when they “come to their senses” and obey the gospel (cf. 2 Pet. 1:4).
13. The devil does what he can get away with. The first two chapters of Job pull back the curtain, affording us a rare glimpse at what goes on behind the scenes of human observation. Satan could only harm Job to the extent God allowed. To what extent can he afflict us? We are not told, but we should not assume he is less interested in our destruction than he was in Job’s. Look what he got to do to Job. We do know God will not allow a Christian to be faced with an irresistible temptation (1 Cor. 10:13). And, we do know that, with the Holy Spirit, “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). The devil knows what limits are on him, and God knows our own limits (whether we do or not). We need to lean on the unlimited Lord to keep the devil from getting away with us.
14. The devil does not know everything. Twice he told God that Job “will curse you to your face” (1:11; 2:5). He was wrong in both cases. Why would the devil go through the trouble of tempting Jesus if he knew he was doomed to fail (Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13)? Jesus ended up wiping the floor with Satan, showing the devil can be beaten, and leaving us an example of how to fight him. No verse says the devil can read my mind. He may know us better than we’d like, but he’s not omniscient. We should watch and pray so that, whenever Satan comes gunning for us, he ends up wasting his precious, limited time.
15. The devil will face divine justice. Hell itself is “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). For all the misery he causes, Satan will be paying the price eternally. Hell won’t be fun for anyone involved. His comeuppance will be exactly what he deserves from a holy God for all the evil he has done.
16. The devil is beatable. This is the best part about him. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:7-8). The formula for spiritual success is this: Make sure God is always closer than the devil. Win the war fighting one battle at a time. More help is available than we realize, if we’ll simply insist on being closer to God, so that “he will draw near” to us. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7).
[Originally published by Tennessee Bible College]
The Blood of Jesus will always defeat satan. If he accuses you, say, "The Blood of Jesus is against you and has defeated you. You are a defeated foe."