Satan and Healing

It has been a few months since I have written any thoughts on pain, forgiveness, and healing. I want to focus this post on an enemy of the latter two—Satan.

The men’s group is reading Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis and I have been continuing my reading of The Sacred Romance by Curtis/Eldredge. What was impressed very strongly to me in reading Sacred Romance is the vulnerability of people to Satan. It is fair to say that we believe that Satan hates God. But what can he do with his hatred? God is all-powerful – can Satan successfully attack God directly? Not really. But he can attack God a different way—by attacking the people God loves. The intense hatred that Satan feels for people is his burning hatred for God Himself. Milton, in Paradise Lost, says (quoted in Sacred Romance):

Heav’n, whose high walls fear no assault or siege
Or ambush from the Deep. What if we find some easier enterprise?...
There is a place…
Of some new Race call’d Man, about this time…
In his [God’s] own strength, this place may be expos’d…
By sudden onset, either with Hell fire
To waste his whole Creation, or possess
All as our own, and drive as we were driven
The puny inhabitants, or if not drive
Seduce them to our Party, that their God
May prove their foe, and with repenting hand
Abolish his own works.

I will admit that I am a bit unhappy with being put in the middle of God and Satan’s “disagreement” (to put it lightly). Part of me wants to be a little irritated – really now, can we just all get along? A bit of wishful thinking on my part. It isn’t this way, and wishing it won’t change anything.

How does this relate to healing? Satan does not want you healed. He will do everything in his power to keep you from forgiveness and healing. Because the existence of such in the life of an individual will draw that person closer to the heart of God, and will open wide the gates of ministry towards others. As long as I am covered by anger, bitterness, hatred, and malice toward others, I am blind to my own sin and pain, the pain of others, and to the graciousness of God. A broken back prevents me from looking up… to Him.

What I want to emphasize here is that there is an enemy who does not want your healing. And one of his favorite methods of working is invisibly, so we do not suspect it is he blocking our path. James says to “stand firm and resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (4:7b). This resistance is preceded by our submission to God in humility (see verses 6 and 7a). How interesting that when we stop resisting God and humble ourselves towards Him in obedience, we then have the strength from Him to stand firm and resist. Healing then, depends on the submission of my will to God, and my understanding that there is an enemy that I can only resist in my Father’s strength.

"But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.' Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:6-7)

Innocence

It is amazing to me how music brings to mind memories of the past, some pleasant and perhaps some not. I am sitting here listening to John Michael Talbot and am drawn back to the early days of my childhood. These are happy memories his songs evoke, memories of sitting in my daddy’s lap, rocking to sleep, feeling the warmth and safety of his arms. It reminds me of a time when I was innocent.

What a beautiful thing innocence is. I remember the time where clothing, money, jobs, bills, safety, food, and the myriad of things that now are a part of my life did not even cross my mind. While innocence and immaturity can (but does not always) go hand in hand, there is great delight in the memory of such times.

Why is a picture or memory of such a time a thing of delight or beauty? Maybe it is because at one time, we were created for such living. Milton refers to it as Paradise Lost—it was Innocence Lost. Was that not Satan’s temptation to Adam and Eve? Knowing good and evil? As opposed to just knowing… God… the source of all goodness? Satan mocked innocence, and in our rejection of God, it was lost. And two thousand years later, innocence returned in order to purchase it—redeem it—for us once again.

How many things do we find beautiful that can be described as innocent, pure, undefiled, pristine, untouched, clean, or spotless? Is it not the heart’s cry for what it was originally created for? Somewhere deep within, we have a knowledge of and desire for what we lost. It seems rather odd that such a desire would even exist unless there was (at least at one time) a fulfillment of it.

The church is pictured as being dressed in white as the bride of Christ. Revelation says we are washed clean in the blood of the Lamb (7:14). Our innocence will be restored! What we long for, what we desire, will one day be given to us once again. And our response then? “Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” (Rev. 19:7) What can our response now to this hope be? “So then dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him.” (1 Pet. 3:14)

A final random note: even when innocence is restored, it is in slightly different form than it was before. Before, “they were naked and unashamed”; after, “wearing white robes”.

The Bachelor/Bachelorette Party

I am not at a place in my life where this is a concern of mine, but I have had some thoughts regarding this event that I want to share. The primary point here is to think through some of the appropriateness of certain things occurring at such a party.

There seems to be a common attitude among many singles that the bachelor/bachelorette party is one last hurrah of the single life experience before marriage begins. While the idea of living a single life to its fullest is one I entirely support, I think certain activities at this particular hurrah can be inappropriate. It is my opinion that when you decide to be in a committed relationship with someone, and especially the day you agree to marry someone, it is not appropriate to look back. If you have doubts or wish to dabble once again in single life, you are not at a place where you need to be married. A verse comes to mind that Christ shared in reference to committing to His kingdom:

No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62).

I would suggest that the same applies to marriage. If you are at a place in your life where you feel the need to have a party and “live it up” one last time (in ways disrespectful to a committed relationship), you aren’t ready to begin married life. Once you make that decision to marry, go forward. Sure, go into it with your eyes wide open (or at least half open), but do so fully committed to your beloved with the spirit of respect and love that the commitment between the two of you entails.

I am not suggesting not to have a party. What I am suggesting is to do things at the party that are appropriate for committed life. You arent single any more - those days ended when you agreed to be exclusive with the person, and they certainly ended when you agreed to marriage. Let me suggest a few questions that determine the appropriateness of activity at such a party:

1) Would you do such activity if Christ were there? (since He is)
2) Would you do such activity if your fiancée were there?
3) Would you do such activity and be able to look your fiancée in the eye and tell them exactly what you did?
4) Is such activity respectful both to the wishes of Christ and to the love and respect that you share with your fiancée?

If you can answer a resounding Yes to all four of the questions above, then such activity is appropriate.

No one who puts his/her hand to [a committed relationship] and looks back is [ready] for [the institution of marriage].

What is love?

Love is patient
[The Lord] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

Love is kind
God's kindness leads you toward repentance (Romans 2:4)

love does not brag and is not arrogant
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! (Phil 2:8)

It is not rude
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Matt. 19:14)

it is not self-seeking
[Christ], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing (Phil 2:6-7)

is not easily angered
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. (Ps 103:8)

it keeps no record of wrongs
As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. (Ps 103:12)

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6)

It always protects,
How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. (Ps. 36:7)

Always trusts,
How blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust (Ps. 40:4)

Always hopes,
In his name the nations will put their hope. (Matt. 12:21)

Always endures.
Even they will perish, but You endure (Ps 102.26)

Love never fails
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; My savior, You save me from violence. (2 Sam 22:3)

Who is love?
God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16)

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Les Mis

One of the greatest stories ever told is one by Victor Hugo called Les Miserables. I had the joy of seeing the musical a week ago with several of my closest friends. It was an amazing experience and one that has been a window of the soul into the heart of grace. I want to share a scene in the musical that spoke to me. I am assuming here that you are familiar with the story – if not, there is a movie version that is almost as good.

Javert is an inspector who has spent his life following the Law to its letter. And he has spent it hunting down Valjean, a criminal who had his life “bought” who now seeks to do good. But Javert, one bound to the Law and its letter, has no understanding of change. Once a criminal, always a criminal. And from his point of view, Valjean deserves prison for life. For years Javert hunts him, coming close several times, but never capturing him, until one day the tables are turned. It is Valjean who decides Javert’s fate, and in a moment of grace, Valjean releases Javert. Javert is furious:

Who is this man?
What sort of devil is he
To have me caught in a trap
And chose to let me go free?
It was his hour at last
To put a seal on my fate
Wipe out the past
And wash me clean off the slate!
All it would take was a flick of his knife.
Vengeance was his and he gave me back my life!
Damned if I'll live in the debt of thief
Damned if I'll yield at the end of the chase
I am the law and the law is not mocked
I'll spit his pity right back in his face
There is nothing on Earth that we share
It is either Valjean or Javert!

How can I now allow this man
To hold dominion over me?
This desperate man that I have hunted
He gave me my life. He gave me freedom.
I should have perished by his hand
It was his right
It was my right to die as well
Instead I live.. but live in hell
And my thoughts fly apart
Can this man be believed?
Shall his sins be forgiven?
Shall his crimes be reprieved?
And must I now begin to doubt
Who never doubted all these years?
My heart is stone and still it trembles
The world I have known is lost in shadow
Is he from heaven or from hell?

And does he know
That granting me my life today
This man has killed me, even so?
I am reaching but I fall
And the stars are black and cold
As I stare into the void
Of a world that cannot hold
I'll escape now from that world
From the world of Jean Valjean
There is nowhere I can turn
There is no way to go on

And so Javert casts himself into the river and drowns himself.

I am drawn back to a scene earlier in the play where Valjean is arrested for stealing from a priest who has lodged him for the night. The priest not only saves him from certain prison again, but gives him even more silver to get him started in his life. Valjean is shocked, and his reaction is worth noting as well:

What have I done?
Sweet Jesus, what have I done?
Become a thief in the night,
Become a dog on the run
And have I fallen so far,
And is the hour so late
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate,
The cries in the dark that nobody hears,
Here where I stand at the turning of the years?

If there's another way to go
I missed it twenty long years ago
My life was a war that could never be won
They gave me a number and murdered Valjean
When they chained me and left me for dead
Just for stealing a mouthful of bread

Yet why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust
He called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate the world
This world that always hated me

Take an eye for an eye!
Turn your heart into stone!
This is all I have lived for!
This is all I have known!

One word from him and I'd be back
Beneath the lash, upon the rack
Instead he offers me my freedom
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul,
How does he know?
What spirit comes to move my life?
Is there another way to go?

I am reaching, but I fall
And the night is closing in
And I stare into the void
To the whirlpool of my sin
I'll escape now from the world
From the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now
Another story must begin!

And Valjean leaves a changed man, one bought for God.

What do you see here? How poor words are in describing the scene! Both men escape from this world of Jean Valjean, but in different ways. In the later scene described here first, one escapes through death – physical death. In the earlier scene listed here second, one escapes through death – spiritual death.

What I would like you to see here is that escape from the Law is only possible through death. What does Scripture say?

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. (Gal. 2:19, 20a)

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life… because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (Rom 6:4, 7)

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ (Rom 7:4)

Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules (Col 2:20)

Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him (2 Tim. 2:11)

Christ’s death not only paid the price for our sins and enabled us to have a relationship with God by faith, but it gave us the example to follow: we die in Christ to sin and to the Law that we might live to God. The Javert character is correct in that there is no escape without death. The problem was the mechanism by which he carried it out. What he did not see was that it was a different kind of death, a death to the self, a death to the vision, the belief that he could actually fully abide by the law. Do you see it? The death that we die in Christ is one where we give up, where we release this idea that we can actually be “good enough” to merit the favor of God, and instead cast our eternal destiny on His grace.

I find I am more like the Javert character than I am Valjean. What a struggle it is to daily die to myself and trust fully in His grace. What an strange way to live—by dying—to me. I hope that you and I can remain open like Valjean – in the light of His grace, we stand in undeserving gratitude, and die to ourselves, forever changed people.