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Back To Square One (52 Central Figures Series)
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We begin with a humorous thought experiment: if the devil had social media, what would his posts look like? It's a narcissistic persona promoting lies, destruction, and self-glorification. This sets the tone for understanding who Satan really is—not a cosmic equal to God, but a created, fallen being with a predictable, limited playbook.
Welcome to week two of the 52 Central Figures of the Bible series. Last week we explored God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The week before that, we discussed Adam and Eve and how humanity was made in God's image. However, humanity chose autonomy, and sin entered the world. The question now becomes: Can we be reconciled to God? Can we be saved? Clearly, we all need a Savior.
In this series, we'll discover how a faithful and gracious God responds to human brokenness. He made a promise: He's going to make things right. And we're going to see exactly how He does that throughout Scripture.
Our story begins in a unique setting: a couple in a garden, a mystical fruit, a boundary around the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and a serpent. Genesis 3:1-5 introduces us to this creature:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
The serpent said to the woman, "You will not certainly die. For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be open. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
The serpent goes by many names throughout Scripture: Lucifer, Satan, the devil, the accuser, the father of lies. But here, he first appears as a serpent. This creature's primary tactic is sowing doubt and suspicion about God's character and God's word.
There are many misconceptions about Satan. Let me be clear: the devil is not the opposite of God. He is nowhere near God's level. This is not a competition between cosmic rivals. The devil is so outshined, outpowered, and outclassed by God that there's no comparison.
The question of where evil comes from is one of the deepest challenges to faith. How can we reconcile a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, always present, and good with the existence of evil?
Scripture begins by telling us that God created all things. He is powerful, knowing, present, and good. So where did sin come from? Some argue: If God is good, He wouldn't allow evil. If He's powerful, He'd stop it. But He hasn't, so maybe He's not good, or maybe He's not powerful. Both conclusions fall short.
Here's another way to think about it. Imagine you buy a brand-new pickup truck—Ford, Chevy, GMC, whatever your preference. It rolls off the lot spotless, not a mile on it, not a speck of dust. Fifteen years later, you come back to that truck and find rust on it.
Did the manufacturer create the rust? No. They created a good thing. But you mismanaged it. The rust is the byproduct of your decisions and negligence, not the manufacturer's failure.
We were given free will. We were given a perfect creation. We mismanaged it. That's what we're seeing unfold. Sin and evil entered the world not because God created evil or failed to prevent it, but because humanity misused the freedom God gave them.
Another way to understand evil is through the lens of light and shadow. When light shines on an object in a room, it creates a shadow. A holy, righteous, powerful, bright God creates a shadow—not because God created evil, but because He is light. And humanity chooses to step into that shadow. We choose evil. We don't want to own that. We don't want to admit it. But that's the uncomfortable truth.
Look back at what the serpent tells Eve: "God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Here's the question: Did Adam and Eve already know good? Yes. They were living in perfection. They were in the garden, living in a world without sin, without death, without disease. They were walking in the cool of the day with God. They knew good intimately.
So what were they curious about? Evil.
But notice: they didn't stop to think, We already know good. Do we really want to know evil? The deeper issue was about moral authority. Who gets to decide what's good and what's bad? What's right and what's wrong? God or us?
From the very beginning, humanity has stood back and said: I want to know evil myself. I want to make the judgment call. I want to define what is good and what is evil. I will make that decision. I want control. I want autonomy. We want God out of the decision-making seat.
And guess what? Ever since, humanity has been staring at evil. We wanted to know evil, and we know it. We see it across the globe in every pocket of society. We find injustice, brokenness, hatred, malice, and deceit everywhere.
When we look at all this brokenness, we often place the blame on the devil. It's an easy escape route: The devil made me do it. The devil made us do it. It's the devil's fault.
No. We choose. We give the devil way too much credit.
Historically, great theologians like Martin Luther understood this clearly. Luther urged believers to mock the devil because he wanted them to grasp their rightful standing as children of God—our superior position as children of the King over this defeated foe. Satan is not God's opposite.
Here's the truth: If God is good, present, powerful, and all-knowing, then the devil is not all-powerful. The devil is not all-knowing. The devil is not all-present. So when we give so much blame to the devil, we give too much credit to the devil. He is a fallen creature.
Before humans fell, angels fell. Scripture doesn't give us many details, but an angelic fall preceded humanity's fall. That's where evil was initiated. But the devil's power is severely limited.
I once saw a comic that perfectly illustrates this. The first scene shows a beautiful, prestigious church with a big steeple and grand front steps. The next scene shows the congregation inside, worshiping. The pastor then goes outside to find the devil sitting on the church steps, crying. The pastor asks, "Devil, why are you crying?" The devil responds, "Because everybody inside is blaming me for all their problems."
It's funny, but it's also true. Scripture tells us the devil is basic, extremely basic, boring, and predictable. He runs the same play over and over and over again.
The play he runs with Adam and Eve—Did God really say?—is the same play he runs with Christ in the wilderness and the same play he runs with you and me. He sows subtle, gradual, incremental seeds of doubt and suspicion.
You can talk about the fall, evil, wickedness, sin, and the devil as primarily a desire issue, and there's merit to that. But I think what Adam and Eve were struggling with was equally a distrust issue. Can this God be trusted? He knows something we don't. That gives him control over us. He's going to use it at our expense for his benefit. We need to be on level playing field.
That's what the devil does. He sows seeds of suspicion. He's a liar. He's a manipulator. He's deceitful. Apart from that, he's pretty limited.
It's our own broken humanity, our own flesh, our own pride, our own choosing to place ourselves on the seat and throne of our own lives that brings about sin and wickedness. It's not just the devil. We have to have a stronger, more honest view of this adversary.
Let me shift to something that should give us great comfort. Theologically, we live in what's called the "already but not yet" time of history.
Already, Christ has secured our eternity. Already, He has triumphed over sin and death. Already, He has defeated the devil. The devil's final judgment awaits him, but he has already been dealt with on the cross. Jesus satisfied the wrath of God and the punishment of sin. He dealt with sin and death—the two tools Satan has been using to manipulate and hold over humanity's head.
Satan is completely disarmed and defeated through Jesus's triumph. That's why Satan shows up as a serpent—because he was disarmed and defeated on the cross.
We live in the already: Christ has secured our postseason. He has secured our eternity. He has secured our forever, eternal harmony and adoption into the family of God. It has already been done. We anchor ourselves in the historical, finished work of Calvary and what Christ accomplished on the cross.
But it's not yet in the sense that you and I still have to faithfully live out our lives this side of the grave. In faith, we step into the death moment we all will face, recognizing that death is no longer a prison because of what Christ has secured. Sin and death have been dealt with.
We have this defeated, annoying foe who still creates inconvenience, hardship, pain, suffering, confusion, chaos, lies, and deceit. He's still there. He's still on the schedule. We're going to face him. And I say we go out there and remind him that he's defeated. He's trash.
Matthew 4 shows us exactly how to handle the devil's tactics. After His baptism, Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days to fast. At the end of those 40 days, Satan shows up and tempts Jesus the same way he tempted Adam and Eve—sowing seeds of doubt and suspicion.
Satan says: "If you are the Son of God..." Three times, he attacks Jesus's identity: "If you are the Son of God, if you are the Son of God, if you are the Son of God."
Jesus responds by quoting Scripture. Every single time. Jesus quotes the truth. And in doing so, He defeats the father of lies.
How do you defeat the father of lies? How do you discern deception? You get familiar with the truth. Jesus quoted Scripture in defense against the devil, and He conquered Satan in that moment. He didn't fall to temptation.
Here's what we learn: One of the devil's strategies is to get you proving, operating out of self-doubt and insecurity, overextending yourself, trying to prove yourself beyond what is natural to who you are. If he can get you proving, he can get you moving. He can get you sliding off base from what God wants you to focus on and anchor your life to.
Jesus was at the end of His fast. He was hungry. He was isolated. He was tired. He had been out in the middle of nowhere with no accommodations, no companionship, no rest.
H.I.T. Hungry. Isolated. Tired.
Just know this: In moments when you find yourself hungry, isolated, and tired—with unchecked appetites and lacking pure fellowship and accountability in your life, and you are fatigued—raise your awareness. You are susceptible to the agenda of the enemy in your life.
Jesus didn't take the bait. He conquered over the devil in that moment. And once again, He did what Paul describes: He served as the second Adam. The first Adam brought sin and death into the world. The second Adam, Christ, brings life, eternity, and redemption into the world.
I was watching the movie Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, and I went down a wormhole researching real stories about FBI agents who detect counterfeit money.
What stood out to me most was how these specialists are trained. They don't spend the majority of their time studying counterfeit money. No. They spend the vast majority of their time studying the real thing. They are obsessed with true, real currency. Then, the moment they're given a fake, they can spot it immediately.
Not because they got familiar with evil. Not because they got familiar with lies and phonies. Because they got familiar with the real thing. They were able to detect the fake ones when they came.
That's our strategy as believers. The devil is real. Evil exists. And I think the good and evil debate is one of the greatest arguments and evidences that God exists. But as believers, we should take heart. We should not be depressed individuals who lose hope and courage when we acknowledge that we live with some defeated foes still on the schedule.
If we could get familiar with the real thing and become students of God's Word, we will be able to detect and discern and discuss wisely and effectively matters of truth in a world full of lies. The next 49 weeks will show us how God weaves His redemption through our brokenness and how we are restored in Christ.
