Tuesday 3 May 2016

THE DEVIL

'The devil is normal. The ways of the devil are not what the witch-hunters suppose, some preternatural and recognizably dark power. The devil's power is to leave us where we are, under the sentence of accusation, hiding behind whatever we can find - ideology, philosophy, religion, morality, pleasure, success, or whatever - to keep us from paying attention to where we are going. The devil's way is the "course of this world" (Eph.2:1-2). In this fallen world, the devil is normal: it's the gospel that is strange. 
Believers are no longer "captured" by the devil, meaning that his accusing power is defanged by the forgiveness of sins that comes through the gospel. And yet, we are consistently wrestling with our inner satanists, as we struggle to submit to the lordship of Christ, which still seems strange even to us. The line between light and darkness doesn't line up by party affiliation or by moral values, but right through every one of our hearts and souls.' 
Russell Moore, Onward, p.193.