The Shrewd Deceiver
DOES THE DECEIVER OWN US?
In John 8 Jesus says of some people that their father is the Devil. 1 John 3:10 speaks of others as “children of the Devil.” 2 Timothy 2:26 speaks of people who are the Devil’s captives and 1 John speaks of others, saying that they are “of the evil one”. And so on.
At first glance we might think that Satan owns people; that they belong to him in some non-relational manner. That somewhere a deal was struck between him and God that if we sinned Satan would get to own us. That is not the truth at all.
Satan does not actually “father” the sinners mentioned. They are not really his “children” nor are they actually his “slaves” that need to be bought from him. These are metaphors. Metaphor is a tricky word.
We are also called “sons of disobedience,” “captives” of sin, and “children of wrath” and even captives to the “law of sin” (Ephesians 2:2, 3 and 5:6, Romans 6:6 and 7:25). So, is “disobedience” our “father” is “wrath” our “parent”? Does “the law of sin and death” own us? None of these “own” us or “father” us. We are not to turn such speech into literal fact. These are ways of stressing our dire need or helpless condition.
Furthermore, we need to remember that Satan himself is a captive to sin and a child of wrath. He is not the lord of Sin. Sin is his lord. He did not overthrow Sin. Sin overthrew him. Satan is a fellow-sinner with us.
There is an actual and very real relationship existing between sinners and sin, between sinners and Satan and between sinners in their weakened moral condition. That is not to be denied. We have taken sides against God and joined the ranks of all those that are anti-God, anti-holiness and anti-life. In the New Testament, Satan is regarded as the chief of sinners, the foremost enemy of God, the shrewd Deceiver and Snake but for all that he is just another sinner.
The Devil has no “legal” right to us. We “belong” to him the same way we might “belong” to a gang called “The Mad Dogs” who has someone as the chosen leader. He is our “father” only because we choose to mirror his spirit and we are his “slaves” only as long as we freely choose to serve him.
Satan is not the lord of sin nor is he the author of it. If we were to personify sin (as Paul often does) we can envisage a day when Sin walked up to Satan and overthrew him and made him a captive. If Satan dropped stone-dead this minute, sin would still continue in us without him. Sin has no objective existence apart from sinners, so when we speak this way of sin we need to be careful that we do not suggest that it has eternally existed in some form or other. The Bible is death on all such forms of Dualism.
When people say we “belong” to Satan because we have sinned, they are missing the mark. On what grounds would we “belong” to him? How does our sinning make us “belong” to him? Why does not he “belong” to us since he has sinned? Why do not sinners “belong” to other sinners as a result of their sin? God owns us. God alone owns us. We are His offspring and He gives us “life and all things” (Acts 17:25-29). Satan, we and everyone else exist and continue to exist because God continues to have it so (Rev. 4:11).
