While God created the world to be good and perfect, we know that evil exists in this world. The main adversary against God is Satan, also known as the devil, Lucifer, and some other names. Since good versus evil is one of the main themes of the Bible, Satan is talked about a fair amount.
To start, back in October 2014, Bill Seng wrote a blog post series for Worldview Warriors on Satan and evil, so I’d encourage you to read those posts here, here, here, and here.
The first time we see Satan in the Bible is in Genesis 3 in the Garden of Eden, when he comes to tempt Adam and Eve. He shows up in the form of a serpent and lies to the first humans that they could be like God by eating the fruit God told them not to eat. This leads many scholars to believe that Satan was already fallen and banished from heaven even before the creation of the world, though we don’t have Biblical evidence to prove that.
We see Satan again in the beginning of the story of Job. Satan believes that he can get Job to curse God by afflicting him with all sorts of maladies, and God says that Job will remain faithful. (Spoiler alert: God won that bet.) The Hebrew word for Satan in this passage means “the adversary,” the one who is against God.
In the New Testament, we see Satan described as “the prince of this world” (John 14:30), “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4), and “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Ephesians 2:2).
In both Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, we see accounts of Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness. Satan tries to get Jesus to sin multiple times, so that Jesus would mess up and not be the perfect sacrifice for our sins according to God’s plan. (Spoiler alert: Jesus won that battle.)
Satan was the root cause of Judas Iscariot betraying Jesus before His crucifixion, as we read in Luke 22:1-6. But what Satan determined to use for evil, God used for good, to complete His plan for our salvation. Jesus had to die in order to be raised again for us to have eternal life, and Judas and Satan played roles in that.
Jesus came for the purpose of destroying Satan’s works. 1 John 3:8 says, “The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” John 10:10 says, “The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
But Satan wasn’t just present in Biblical times; he is still active in our world today, trying to lure believers away from God. 1 Peter 5:8-9 says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” Everyone who believes in Jesus is being tempted by Satan, even today, but we have the power of Christ to be able to resist his temptations.
Ultimately, what will happen to Satan? He will be destroyed and thrown into the burning lake of sulfur. You can read about Satan’s ultimate demise in Revelation 20:1-10. But until the end of the world, Satan will still be a part of it, tempting us each and every day. Until then, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
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