Coming soon: "Satan in Paul’s Letters, Part 1"

The Enemy in This Present Age

In the last post, we looked back over where we’ve been in the Denizens of Darkness series: the serpent in Genesis 3, the satan/adversary language in the Old Testament, developments during the exile and Second Temple period, and then Satan in the Gospels and General Epistles.

Next up is Paul.

And Paul has quite a bit to say!

One thing that has stood out to me as I’ve been reading and studying Paul is that he does not treat Satan as a myth, metaphor, or mere symbol for evil. Satan is a real and dangerous enemy. He blinds, tempts, hinders, schemes, and afflicts God’s people.

But Paul also never gives Satan too much credit.

Satan is active, but he is not sovereign.

That tension shows up again and again in Paul’s letters. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.” But only a couple verses later, he says that God is the one who shines light into darkened hearts.

So Satan blinds, but God gives light.

Paul also says that Satan hindered his ministry, that the tempter seeks to weaken the faith of believers, and that the church must stand firm against the schemes of the devil. And then, of course, there is Paul’s thorn in the flesh, which he calls “a messenger of Satan,” and yet even there, God’s grace is shown to be sufficient.

That is the kind of pattern we’ll begin tracing in the next episode.

Paul gives us a serious view of Satan’s activity in this present age, but he does not do that so we will be afraid. He does it so we will be awake, watchful, discerning, grounded in the gospel, and dependent on Christ.

The Christian life is not lived in spiritually neutral territory, but neither is it lived under the rule of darkness.

Satan is real, active, and dangerous.

But Satan is not Lord.

Recording soon!