Why didn’t God just
destroy Satan?
In yesterday’s message at Hollywood Community Church, we
studied the person of Satan – his origin, his fall and his present task of
attempting to prevent the work and plans of God. The topic, once again, brought up the valid
question, “Why didn’t God just get rid of this guy?” Certainly, with infinite power and unlimited
authority, God could have eliminated Lucifer with a simple thought or the blink
of an eye. How come He didn’t? Why did God tolerate Satan to live and why
does He allow him continued freedom to mess up people’s lives?
First of all, we must recognize that God operates outside of
the realm of human reasoning. By that I
mean, that God’s ways and works do not always make human sense. He doesn’t organize, administrate or operate
in a way that we can completely comprehend. Isaiah 55:8, 9 states, “My thoughts are
nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so my ways are higher than you ways and my thoughts higher than your
thoughts.” Although, eradicating our
number one adversary, certainly makes sense to us, it did not fit within God’s
sovereign plans.
What purposes, then, could God have in mind for allowing the
Devil to operate? Let me clearly state
that the Bible does not give us a well-defined answer to that question. If only Jesus would have elucidated us on
God’s divine purposes for the devil or if Paul in Ephesians would have answered
the “why” questions as to Satan’s existence, but neither chose to do that. So we are left to biblically speculate. By that I mean, we must take the truth that
God has given us in His word and thus arrive at biblical conclusions. With that said, here are the reasons why I
believe God chose to not destroy Satan.
1. Satan lives today to shine light on God’s
divine beauty
The Gospel of John clearly articulates many contrasts (light
and darkness, truth and error, and life and death). Just as darkness draws attention to the
brightness of light and error is exposed by truth, so God’s infinite, matchless
beauty is emphasized and made even more beautiful when contrasted with the
ugliness and the evilness of Satan.
In discussing this exact point, John Piper makes the
following statement…
The glory of Christ is
seen in his absolute right and power to annihilate or incapacitate Satan and
all demons. But the reason he refrains from destroying and disabling them
altogether is to manifest more clearly his superior beauty and worth. If Christ
obliterated all devils and demons now (which he could do), his sheer power
would be seen as glorious, but his superior beauty and worth would not shine as
brightly as when humans renounce the promises of Satan and take pleasure in the
greater glory of Christ.
2. Satan lives today to shine light on the
power of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.
The simple truth is that life is a struggle. Not only do we face the enticements of our
enemy, but we also confront the daily battles with the world and our own flesh
(I John 2:15-17). By allowing Satan, temptation
and evil to exist, God helps us to see that the transforming power of the
crucified and risen Christ is greater than Satan’s enticements. In
Ephesians 1:19, 20 Paul says, “I also pray that you will understand the
incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe Him. This is the same mighty power that raised
Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God’s right hand
in the heavenly realms.”
One writer said it this way..
God has ordained that
Satan have a long leash—with God holding onto it—because he knows that when we
walk in and out of those temptations, struggling both with the physical and
moral effects that they bring, more of God's glory will shine in that battle
than if he took Satan out yesterday.
Each believer is a shining testimony to the fact that the
Spirit that lives within us is greater than the spirit that lives in the world
(I John 4:4). God’s power working in us
and through us is a glorious testimony to the fact that God’s transforming
power is stronger than Satan’s temptations.
3. Satan lives today to make a clear
distinction between good and evil
One of the foundational principles of post-modernism is the
absence of absolute truth. What is right
for you may not be right for me. And,
what is sin to you isn’t necessarily sin for me. The barrier between right and wrong and
between good and evil is slowly being eliminated from the fabric of our
society. Yet, there clearly is a
difference. God’s holiness stands out in
stark contrast to the moral obscurity that is postulated today.
How does God respond to that? Quite frankly, God does not desire to be
joined to the world or randomly joined together with the impure, the immoral or
the ungodly. In II Corinthians 6:14, 15
Paul states, “Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with
wickedness? How can light live with
darkness? What harmony can there be between
Christ and the devil?” Allowing Satan to
still be around demonstrates a clear distinction between God’s holiness and the
enemy’s blasphemous desires.
4. Satan lives today because God has his final
fate precisely planned
Let us not be mistaken into thinking that Satan is alive
today because he somehow has been able to avoid or escape God’s wrath. He is not any more of a threat to God than a
tiny ant is to you and me. No, his fate
is eternally sealed. He has no chance
for victory. There is no possibility of
delay or even a commutation of his sentence.
God is simply waiting for the “fullness of time” to fulfill His plan
with His chief adversary.
Revelation 20:10
states, “Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake
of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night
forever and ever. Be sure that the
wheels of God’s divine plan are slowly moving forward and one day, in God’s
perfect time, the devil’s eternal fate will be sealed. You can count on that!
5. Satan lives today to demonstrate that life
absent from the presence of God is worse than even destruction.
Frequently, we hold to the false assumption that destruction
is the worst thing that could have happened to Satan, but that is not the
case. Annihilation would have been a
gracious release in comparison to a life void of God. The fact that Satan and his cohorts will live
forever and forever separated from God is the worse punishment that they could
have ever received.
