Our Ancient Foe
Week Six | The Purgative Way
To understand temptation, we have to probe its source — we have to drive toward the origin point.
What we’ve managed to piece together from our Scriptures is a kind of biographical sketch of the one who has come to be the root of all the temptation we experience along the way of Christ.
In a way that we can scarcely understand, this angelic being — once full of light and strength and intelligence — rejected his place in God’s order and reached for something beyond his grasp (Ezekiel 28:17–18). The result was his souring into something dark and weak and confused.
On second thought, maybe we can understand Satan’s fall — wasn’t his pattern ours?
The need to go it alone, to separate, to achieve some kind of something on our own. Our misplaced significance in the self, this exaltation of the “I.”
Satan’s plunge is our plunge.
We saw it in the heavens, we saw it in the garden, and we see it in our souls. Our choice to separate from our Creator - the great divorce - is always possible. It doesn’t matter if you’re a human being made in the image of God or an archangel wrapped in power and light.
Room to Reflect
In what ways are you tempted to “go it alone” or seek significance apart from God?
How do you typically respond when you feel the pull to separate from God? What helps draw you back?
How might a deeper understanding of the nature of temptation help you respond to it differently in the future?