Spiritual warfare, as the ‘good fight’ has
come to be termed, is a conflict between a defeated foe – satan, and a
victorious King - Jesus Christ (Ephesians
1:20-22) and His people who are learning to live in that victory (Romans 16:20).
The foundation stones of this conflict were
laid centuries ago in the Garden of Eden. There man enjoyed perfect fellowship
with God made possible by the interweaving of the spiritual and natural realms
(Genesis 3:8).
Satan’s successful duping of Eve resulted in
the fall from that relationship and fissuring of the two realms into parallel
realities. This resulted in a permanent state of tension within human beings. An
individual person is a spirit created in the image of God but merged for a time
with a body of flesh and all that that brings with it. We lack unity because
long ago that gap fissured open between our mortal and immortal parts, as well
as between God and man.[i]
God, in His mercy, knew the misery that would
result from this ‘break’ and thus made it impossible for mankind to physically
live forever in a world dominated by the consequences of his rebellion (Genesis 3:24; Proverbs 1:30-32).
It is these ‘consequences’ that satan ‘employs’,
with varying degrees of success, against the regenerated (John 3:3) children of God. It is from this point of understanding
that one can see why evil exists in the earth.
One of the most potent elements in the
conflict is that of personal choice (Ephesians
4:27). It was personal choice that caused satan to be able to speak to Eve
in the first place and then to have Adam become complicit in the rebellion (Genesis 3).
It is of vital importance that the following
fact be remembered: Man is a freewill being (Joshua 24:15; Proverbs 1:29&30; Matthew 23:37; Hebrews 11:25).
Therefore, evil is in the earth because of the choices of mankind (Romans 5:12).
The question that now arises is: If God is a
loving God can He not intervene? No, He will not. Evil is allowed to
remain in the earth, because the banishing of evil is not as valuable as the
maintenance of free will (that which was used to cause the problem in the first
place). Free will lies at the very base of God’s original intent: A
relationship with man based on choice.
Furthermore, God is just. He cannot stop one
evil (generally speaking, the one that most bothers us personally) and not all.
So, God’s desire for free will relationship and His justice precludes any easy
answer to the finite challenges present in this creation (cf. II Peter 3:10-13).
Having said that, the tragedies connected with such evil do touch His heart (Psalm 78:40; Isaiah 63:10).
It is these consequential challenges that
form the basis of the conflict in which we find ourselves embroiled. So, in
facing the inevitability of evil and its consequences, each believer needs to
know the following:
All things work together
for the good ... (Romans 8:28).
If God is for us ... (Romans 8:31).
Jesus Himself intercedes
for us (Romans 8:34b).
Who will separate us from
the love of Christ?
Tribulation? Distress?
Persecution? Famine? Nakedness (poverty)? Peril? Sword (war and violence)? (Romans 8:35).
No matter what we (if we
choose to) overwhelmingly conquer (Romans
8:37).
At this point the question,
“Ah, what about the demonic?” will be asked. Let us allow Paul to continue: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor PRINCIPALITIES (Ephesians
6:12 – A.V.) nor things present, nor things to come, nor POWERS (Ephesians 6:12), nor height, nor depth,
nor any other CREATED thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans
8:38&39).
While God has always
remained sovereign, man has continuously had to deal with the powers of evil,
i.e. satan. As if to confirm that such a state of affairs would prevail through
the dispensation of the New Covenant, Jesus faced satanic evil in the
wilderness (Matthew 4:1-17). The Old
Testament offers an interesting parallel. The nation of Israel had all the
disobedience and unbelief removed from them during their forty year sojourn in
the wilderness. For Israel of old the
wilderness was, firstly, a place of death. There the grumbling, bitterness,
fear and frailty perished. It was also a place of life; it was the place where
a new generation was born and nurtured.[ii]
The tactics employed by
Jesus were as simple as they were effective: On each occasion Jesus merely
applied the Scripture as an effective counter-punch to each temptation levelled
against Him (Matthew 4: 4, 6, 10).
Being in Christ is not the
equivalent to living behind bulletproof glass (I Peter 4:12&13). Furthermore, such suffering is to be
considered a matter of joy (James 1:2-4;
cf. Romans 5:1-3).
From all of the afore-going
it should have become apparent by now that our own individual attitudes to
evil, and its varying manifestations, go a long way to determining how
successful satan will be in his conflict with each believer.
Satan’s tactics in the
wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11), what
can we learn?
Vs. 3 – Satan will seek to make
the needs of the natural body more important than those of the spirit of man. Please
bear in mind Jesus’ physically weakened state after forty days of fasting in a
desert environment. The carnal within mankind always seeks to fed ahead of the
spiritual, hence Jesus’ reply in vs. 4.
Vss. 5&6 – The kingdom of darkness will always encourage acts of
self-promotion over waiting on the perfect timing of God.
Vss. 8&9 – The quest for personal power and influence enjoys great kudos
in the world system. Satan therefore will tempt all who pose a threat to compromise
their worship standards to accomplish what surely must be a good thing ... in
the end.
So, the three temptations
placed before Jesus on this occasion were:
1. Personal provision for the
satisfaction of physical need.
2. Self-promotion.
3. Power, authority, influence
and profile.
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