In Search of the Cross

If "Flesh and blood" could not comprehend the ldea of the cross, could Satan understand it? There is nothing dense or unintelligent about him-he understands well what lie is doing.

Therefore, in order to be the enemy of the cross, he must have understood it clearly. Were there a residual knowledge of salvation unknown to him, to that extent his opposition to truth would be blind and innocent. He could not then be "the devil and Satan." But knowing fully, Satan rebels.

Why must always remain the inscrutable "mystery of iniquity". The how of his rebellion included the most determined and intelligent scorning of the cross.

Peter in his human innocence was treading too near to the former Lucifer's ground when he tried to turn Jesus away from the cross.

When Satan tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, his bait was the assurance that in transgression they would reach a higher life than they had been created to enjoy. "You will be as God", he promised. (Genesis 3:5) This desire to be as God the same that led to Satan's original sin in heaven:

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." (Isaiah 14:12-14)

No one can be as God without in fact seeking to displace God, because there can be only one "Most High".

Lucifer's lust led to self-love

This has now become the natural "mind" of us all, apart from redemption. But the love of self leads to an "enmity against God" (Romans 8:7). Enmity in turn leads to murder. Jesus said of the devil, "He was a murderer from the beginning." (John 8:44) This is true because "whoever hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). Satan hated God, and was jealous of Him. So in the very beginning of Lucifer's heavenly rebellion, the stark outline of a cross began to take shape in the shadows of eternity's history.

Doubtless Lucifer began to see where his rebellion would lead. He saw that the crime he nurtured in his soul a dark and ugly one-that of murdering the eternal Son of God. So terrible is one's devotion to the love of self! Five times in Isaiah's passage we read of Lucifer's passion for his "I". Sin has its root in self-centeredness indulged.

Satan's root problem hatred of the idea of agape, a love which is God's character, totally different than anything we humans naturally think of as "love". Our kind of "love" loves nice people; agape loves bad, mean people. Our love is dependent on the beauty of its object; agape loves ugly people, even our enemies. Our love depends on the quality of its object; agape create value in its object. Our love always wants to climb up higher just as Lucifer wanted to set his throne "above the stars of God"; agape is a love that dares to step down lower, as the Son of God did in those seven steps of amazing condescension listed in Philippians 2:5-8. Our human love always want to get; agape is always ready to give. Our human love seeks a reward; agape dares to relinquish it.

Last of all, what Satan hated the most was the ultimate revelation of agape displayed in Christ: agape dares to surrender eternal life, to die the second death. That is the supreme aspect of agape that Lucifer does not want the world or the universe to see. It's the opposite of everything he stands for.

Lucifer must have pondered long and earnestly the path he was choosing. Should he repent while there was still opportunity? If so, there could be only one way in which he might overcome the sin of his angelic soul-this wonderful "1" that sought to be "like the Most High" and to topple Him from His holy throne, would have to die. Self in Lucifer would have to be crucified.

How a bright angel became the devil, or Satan

A spiritual cross on which Lucifer must die to self was the only way out of his dilemma in his incipient war with God. All his pride, his ego, his precious, darling 'I' that he had cherished, must perish willingly of his own free choice so that only truth, and right, and holiness might live. Lucifer came so near to yielding that he was able to grasp the significance of the one way of deliverance for him.

Then emphatically, indignantly, irrevocably, he rejected the idea. No cross for him! Once for all, intelligently and responsibly, Lucifer repudiated the idea of self-denial and self-sacrifice. He would institute a new way of life for the vast universe of God-the love of the "I" the way of self-seeking, self-assertion, self-love. Thus Lucifer rejected the cross.

It was then that he became the devil and Satan, "that serpent of old... who deceives the whole world" (Revelation 12:9). A bright angel who hates the cross becomes God's (and our) enemy.

This one bitter, unrelenting opponent to the divine principle of the cross well knows that the only avenue of return to righteousness for any sinful being in the universe is by way of the cross. Hence his studied, determined plan to blot the knowledge of that way from the consciousness of humanity. Anything satanic is anti-cross; the profound truth follows that anything anti-cross is satanic.

Why was Jesus so outspoken to Peter?

The Savior's stinging rebuke to him becomes more intelligible in this light. It was not an outburst of irritated temper on Jesus' part. Not only was Peter reflecting the "things of men", he was also reflecting the things of Satan! He was unwittingly voicing the sentiments of the enemy when he urged Jesus to put self-interest first and renounce the idea of going to Jerusalem to be crucified. Self-interest, se1f-concern, spiritual self-preservation, are uppermost thoughts to the soul of this fallen mighty angel. They now were to Peter, too. Are they not to us as well?

The "things of men" are shown to have an unfortunate spiritual origin, and Peter has revealed the problem to us. Peter found himself unconsciously in cooperation with Satan in his anti-cross campaign. Rightly understood, the temptation to turn Jesus aside from the cross was Satan's supreme weapon used over and over again throughout His earthly life.

Satan was not ignorant of the principle of the cross, but what he could not comprehend was the divine love revealed in the incarnate Christ that would lead Him to go all the way to the supreme sacrifice, and to do it voluntarily. The last malicious taunt flung at Christ was inspired by Satan-"Save yourself, and come down from the cross!" (Mark 15:30) And now at Caesarea Philippi self-interest is the ruling principle in the heart or dear Peter. He, too, is saying in effect, "Save Yourself, Lord". Jesus addressed him by his proper name when He said, "Get behind Me, Satan." Peter was anti-cross.

Are we like Peter?

We would do well to refrain from a heart attitude or superiority over this man. He was a Christian, and he loved his Master ardently. Not only he a "church member" he was an ordained minister as well. He could point with pride to the experience of" actually casting out devils in the name of Christ! He had just been signally blessed by the commendation of Christ. And yet he was unconsciously in league with Satan in trying to oppose what Christ had to do! We too are Christians who love our Lord ardently. We may work for Him, and we may point with pride and joy to an impressive lifework, rejoicing that apparently the devils are subject to us in Christ's name and that Satan falls like lightning from heaven at our mere word. Is it possible that we should unwittingly be in the same spiritual state of misunderstanding that Peter was in that day when our Lord said, "Get behind Me, Satan"?

If it was possible for dear, winsome, lovable Peter to be blindly in accord with the sentiments of the enemy, it may be no less so for us. Whether or not that highly undesirable epithet applies to us depends upon our heart attitude toward the cross.

"Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." With the disciples, we need to gather closely about Jesus to hear His next lesson on the meaning of the cross.