Temptation: The Flesh Or Satan?

For the sinful nature [the flesh] desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.

Galatians 5:17

Our human nature doesn’t like to take responsibility for our actions, preferring instead to blame someone else. We look for a scapegoat to impugn for our sinful deeds. “The devil made me do it” is a favorite.

Satan

We give Satan too much credit. Satan is fallen. He cannot foretell the future. He is limited in time and space—he can only be one place at a time. He is not eternal. He will someday be put to the second death.

It is impossible for Satan to make you sin. Sin is a choice. Satan can tempt us, but we decide to sin. “By his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed” (James 1:14). Since the devil is unable to make us sin, we need to reconsider blaming him for our wrong choices.

On the other hand, Satan has successfully created an environment that promotes and encourages sin, much like a company which has done a particularly good job promoting its products. But let’s give God credit, too. He has created an environment as well, giving us everything we need to overcome temptation and live a life of power, purpose, and meaning.

True, Satan can provoke a man to evil, but the man must still choose for himself whether evil will be his trademark. Satan’s power can be resisted by any believer with the enabling power of the Holy Spirit with whom every Christian is indwelt.

Satan is less powerful than one “temptee” who relies on the Holy Spirit to resist. For Satan to go up against one surrendered saint filled with the Holy Spirit is like a bantam-weight boxer standing before the explosive fury of a heavyweight champion-of-the-world’s knock-out punch. He’s going to lose.

The Flesh

The Spirit doesn’t war against Satan; He wars against the flesh. Satan (death) has already been warred against and defeated at the cross. It is our sinful nature that we must each day crucify anew as we take up our cross daily.

There is no way to know, of course, but I suspect most of our sins result from yielding to the flesh, not yielding to Satan. Perhaps his puny demons lurk around, whispering devious deceptions to our feeble flesh, but we have the Spirit’s knock-out punch at our eternal disposal. So sin is better blamed on our sinful nature—not Satan.

Satan’s real influence doesn’t come from his power but from the temporary jurisdiction he has been granted over Earth. He does not, however, have jurisdiction over Christians. Even in those rare Job-like experiences when Satan personally attacks, God is yet sovereign, and the devil acts only by His permission.

Because the devil has temporary jurisdiction, he has been able to sabotage the world. Satan is much like the capable-but-crooked branch manager who pursued immoral motives, then fled in disgrace, abandoning a strife-torn field office left in shambles. This temporary jurisdiction is like the short term of the dinky little dictator who became president of a tiny outpost country. Satan is but a teetering tyrant whose term is almost up.

The bigger enemy is our flesh. To square off against Satan is easy by comparison. The flesh must be battled daily, even momentarily. That’s why the Scriptures say, “For the…Spirit [desires] what is contrary to the sinful nature.” and not “The Spirit desires what is contrary to Satan.” That battle against Satan is already won. The ongoing battle is with the flesh.

The solution: Surrender the flesh to the Spirit. And stop blaming Satan for the sins you enjoy. Rather than saying, “The devil made me do it,” we should begin to say, “The flesh made me do it.”

I SURRENDER

Heavenly Father, I need to take the responsibility for my actions and stop blaming others. I acknowledge that my sinful nature is my downfall, not Satan. I surrender my flesh to the Spirit. Fill me with the power to be led by the Spirit. Amen.