God is true and every man a liar. Liars, however, dress like their father. That is, just as the devil appears as an angel of light, so he, and his minions, appear as tellers, indeed lovers of the truth. As such we wrongly tend to attach that word “liar” to a specific kind of liar. We think liars are dishonest lawyers, cheating used car salesmen and drug addicts. They are instead pastors, news commentators and doctors of philosophy.
Liars can also be silent. That is, what defines the liar is not just the speaking of lies, but the loving of lies. To believe the lie is at the very least to lie to oneself. Enter Dr. Faustus. Christopher Marlowe’s tale, itself based on earlier folk tales, tells of the man who sold his soul to the devil. It has been retold over the years in sundry forms, including Goethe’s poetic version.
What intrigues us about the story, however, isn’t the form in which it is told. Our interest in the story, what captures our attention is the folly of the trade. Jesus, the Truth, wisely asked what it profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul. Faustus wanted the whole world, and traded his soul to get it.
The truth is, however, that the deal Faustus made was not selling his soul for the world, but trading the truth for lies. Not content with what he had learned in his theological studies, he wanted a different truth. Faustus leaves behind a medieval world of revelation for a renaissance world of science. In doing so he comes to symbolize the whole of western culture. His story is our story, and his end is our end.
Things are not going well for us. The kingdom of God, in the west, in our day, is less visible than it once was. We are, culturally speaking, in full retreat. We have “evangelical” leaders denying the reality of hell. Bible believers are broadly speaking perceived to be backward, throwbacks at best, unhinged jihadists at worst. What went wrong? Does Dr. Faustus have anything to teach us? It is certainly the case that moving from truth to lies is the beginning of the end. But where did that begin? Did our cultural decline begin with the advent of the Renaissance?
That particular epochal shift, however, the renaissance’s rejection of God’s revelation in favor of our own wisdom, is small potatoes compared to the original epochal shift. If we really want to understand the horror of someone selling their soul to the devil, we need to look to history rather than fiction. When Solomon sought the wind, he reaped the whirlwind of vanity. Earlier still, however, our mother and father set the pattern.
If we want to understand how we got where we are, if we want to understand how a learned man like Faustus could play such a fool, we have to go back to the garden. There a man and a woman did far worse than Dr. Faustus. They didn’t merely sell their own souls to the devil. They sold the souls of their children, their children’s children and all who would follow.
Unlike Dr. Faustus, Eve was not looking to cut a deal. Faustus called for the devil, whereas Eve merely conversed with him. One could argue that the root of the first sin, if not the first sin itself is found here. When the serpent first offered up his lies beginning his seduction with these deadly words, “Has God indeed said…” the wise thing, the prudent thing, would have been to end the conversation.
To even begin to consider that perhaps the Word we have been given isn’t really God’s Word is just how we come to believe the lie that God lies. Eve, however, corrected the serpent. No, God had not in fact said they could not eat of any of the trees in the garden. He had in fact said, she said, that they could eat of any tree in the garden, save one. That fruit, she explained, they had been forbidden to eat. Indeed, they were forbidden to touch it.
At this point I suspect the serpent was encouraged. Yes, Eve has stood firm on the generosity and grace of God. But she had taken the first step to believing something other than the truth. She did not take away from what God said; she added to it. God had not said they could not touch the fruit of that tree. Eve is adding her own wisdom to God’s, and making the two equal. Her words become God’s words. Like every Pelagian that would one day call Eve mother, she wanted to contribute. She wanted to give rather than receive. And all it took was to “correct” God, to add to His Word.
It was not long, of course, before this one small step for woman became a giant leap for mankind. The devil offered up a different truth. God had said that Eve would die if she ate of the tree. The Serpent said, “You shall not die.” Eve believed the devil, as have all her children since then.
Imagine the folly of this woman. The devil had to offer an explanation for God’s lie. Eve was living in a paradise that God had created. She enjoyed every imaginable blessing. God had showered her with grace from her beginning. “But,” the devil explained, “God is jealous of His power, and if you eat of the tree, you will be like Him.”
Eve believes God could be jealously guarding His power because what she lusts for is that power. The devil is more crafty than any of the beasts of the field. He knew what to offer, how to cast a shadow on God’s character. Satan knew how to get good and loyal creatures to turn on their Creator. He knew this, of course, because he had been through it himself. He knew the thinking that had lead to his own fall, and led Eve right along that garden path.
Dr. Faustus was a much easier mark than Eve. He was already fallen, already given to heed the wisdom of his “father.” What sets him apart from the rest of us is all that he was able to win. That is, the shocking part of the story isn’t that he gave up so much, his soul, for so little, a lifetime of power, but that we give up so much for even less.
We are not promised great power as he was. Nor are we promised astonishing insights as he was. We are not offered the power to astonish the world as he was. Instead we are offered so much less. If we will believe the lie, all we get in return in our own pride. We sell our souls for the foolish notion that we can help to save our souls, for the fleeting pleasant thought that we’re better than our neighbor. So that we might believe this simple lie- we don’t already stand guilty before the throne of God.
Which highlights the raw silliness of all such soul selling stories. Since Eve believed the serpent we have all been born the property of the serpent. He has our souls, and so need not give up anything to get them. We are fallen from the start. We have nothing to offer Mephistopheles, and he has nothing to offer us. This world belongs to Jesus. Its wisdom is foolishness. Our souls, if we have professed our need to Him, belong to Him. Nothing, not even our own foolish pride, can free us from His loving grip.
God’s truth is not good for our pride. It manifests His glory and exposes our sin. Pride, in the end kept Dr. Faustus from repenting. As his death approached, as he saw the end of the line coming closer, he was given opportunity to turn. Time and again he was called to repent. His contract included an escape clause. All he had to do was release the lies. All he had to do was come to grips with what he was, a creature. But he missed the power. His longing for power made him miss the most potent words ever uttered on our planet- Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.
Excellent!