How So, Satan Sins?

Originally posted on February 02, 2006 – by Andre Piet

Today someone emailed me a question in response to something I wrote earlier this week. “The devil is sinning (=missing the mark) from the beginning,” says Scripture (1 John 3:8). But… if God created the devil to be His adversary, then doesn’t he perfectly fulfill his purpose?

Let me answer this question by referring to what we read about Pharaoh. Through Moses, he was told to let the people of Israel go. That was God’s word directed at Pharaoh. And how did Pharaoh respond? Pharaoh did not listen. Then God sent one plague after another over the land of Egypt, so that Pharaoh at some point began to break under the pressure. And what do we read then in the Hebrew text? “…YHWH strengthened Pharaoh’s heart” (Ex. 9:12). Precisely at the moment the plagues began to have “success,” God Himself ensured that Pharaoh remained strong enough to keep saying no.

The apostle Paul explains in the magnificent chapter 9 of the letter to the Romans that God had a “hidden agenda.” God’s will for Pharaoh was clear: “Let My people go.” But God’s hidden intention (of which Pharaoh had no idea) was that Pharaoh would continue to say no, so that God could demonstrate His power in a monumental way – so much so that we’re still talking about it 3,500 years later.

To demonstrate His power, God needed a resisting Pharaoh. And Pharaoh could only resist because he had been made aware of God’s command. Did Pharaoh now fulfill God’s purpose—yes or no? That depends on how you look at it. Pharaoh resisted God’s revealed will. But at the same time, he fulfilled God’s hidden counsel (intention, purpose).

The same can be said of Satan. He is called ‘satan,’ that is, adversary, because he opposes and contradicts God. Whoever does that, by definition, misses the mark—for only God’s Word will stand. But because God has “created the ruiner to devastate” (Isaiah 54:16), he nevertheless truly fulfills God’s hidden counsel.

So that, in the end, nothing actually goes wrong after all.

Delen: