There is nothing new under the sun. In our battle with the world, the flesh and the devil there are no tactical advances, no technological upgrades. It’s the same temptations, assaults, dropped payloads as its always been. There are subtleties of course, since the devil is more crafty than any of the beasts of the field. But the subtleties are as old as the hills.
We are prone to think, I think, that his fundamental strategy is to entice us with temptations that we will find so alluring that we will turn our backs on our Maker. The trouble is, he has nothing truly alluring to offer us. He is empty handed. It’s all a scam in which he has no need to deliver. All he has to do is persuade us he can.
When he doesn’t, however, he isn’t through with us. He doesn’t slink away, waiting like Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football to try again. No, after he disappoints us with his enticements, that’s when the real attack begins. Then he accuses us. He points his bony finger at us, rubbing our noses in our failure. He is like the enemy in Psalm 40:15, shouting “A ha!.”
His stratagem works precisely because we have already embraced the allure of the world. Because we are posers, all too often even in the church, desperate for the approval of the world, we are terrified of the world finding out our failures. Now comes the cover-up, the denial, the rationalization. It’s a three-pronged attack. The devil uses our flesh to seduce us, then threatens us with the world’s judgment. As we try to climb out of the morass, the quicksand simply drags us lower.
We would be in desperate straits indeed were it not for the hero of the story. His strategy is as simple and elegant as it is potent and beautiful. We repent and believe the gospel. Luther had it precisely right:
“So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: “I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!”
We have no reason to fear our own flesh, as it was crucified with Him. We have no reason to fear the world, for He has already overcome it. We have no reason to fear the devil, because that name above all earthly powers will fell him. We do, however, continue to have reason to repent and believe. That He might be glorified.
Jesus wins. Every time. No matter what. And He won me, by the working of the Spirit, by the power of His death and resurrection, according to the plan of our Father. I, the rightly accused, have been declared innocent. He, the accuser, has been found guilty. And the judge has made me His son.