According to the record of the Bible, the devil has been involved in six actions in the universe from the beginning to the end.
1. “You said in your heart: / I will ascend to heaven; / Above the stars of God / I will exalt my throne. / And I will sit upon the mount of assembly / In the uttermost parts of the north. / I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; / I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa. 14:13-14).
The first action of the devil was to rebel against God because of his pride. The central point in his rebellion was his desire to elevate himself to compete with God as an equal and to be like God by taking His high place in the universe. The intention of all the devil’s work among man is to cause man to elevate himself to oppose God. He causes man to foolishly desire to be like God, to be God, and to stand in the place of God. This is his consistent intention in the universe.
1. “The serpent...said to the woman...For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make oneself wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen. 3:1, 5-6).
The devil’s second action was to spoil the first Adam. God made the first Adam in order to deal with the devil and his rebellion. However, before Adam could deal with the devil, the devil came in and spoiled him. His method of spoiling man was to inject his thought of wanting to be like God into man. He seemed to say, “God knows that in the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, your eyes will be opened and you will become like God, knowing good and evil; therefore, He does not want you to eat of it.” Once man was poisoned with this devilish thought, he rebelled against God, became corrupted, and fell into the devil’s hand.
1. “Jesus was...tempted by the devil...And the tempter came and said to Him, If You are the Son of God...He answered and said, It is written, ‘Man shall not live...’ ...Go away, Satan!...Then the devil left Him” (Matt. 4:1, 3-4, 10-11).
Because the first man, the first Adam, who was created by God to deal with the devil, was spoiled by the devil, the Son of God, God incarnate, came as the last Adam to deal with God’s enemy in man (1 Cor. 15:45; 1 John 3:8). The devil rebelled against God and attempted in vain to become God, but when God came to deal with the devil, He willingly became a man. God did not want to deal with His rebellious creature from His position as the Creator; He wanted to stand as a creature to deal with a rebellious creature. Therefore, God came in the position of a created man to deal with this rebellious, created angel. Thus, He is the last Adam. The devil came to tempt Christ as the last Adam because he wanted to spoil Him as well. This was the devil’s third action. He was successful in his previous actions, but he was not successful in this attempt. The last Adam, Jesus Christ, could not be led astray. When the devil tempted the first Adam, he imparted his desire to be like God into man, but when he tempted the last Adam, he tried to lure Christ to leave His position as a man. He knew that the Son of God could deal with him only from the position of a man. He tempted the Lord by saying, “If You are the Son of God,” because he was trying to get Him to leave His position as a man and to hold on to His position as the Son of God. But the Lord answered, “Man shall not live.” In His answer, the Lord was saying, “I am a man; I cannot leave My position as a man. I am standing in the position of a man to deal with you.” When the devil failed in this action, he left the Lord.
1. “The devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, that he should betray Him”; “Satan entered into him”; “Stretch out your hands against Me. But this is your hour and the authority of darkness” (John 13:2, 27; Luke 22:53).
When the devil was unsuccessful in tempting the Lord Jesus, he killed the Lord. This was his fourth action. He put the thought of betraying the Lord Jesus into the heart of Judas, and he personally entered into Judas to compel him to betray the Lord Jesus. The Jews who arrested the Lord Jesus and the Romans who crucified Him were all controlled and moved by the devil. The devil killed the Lord Jesus because the Lord constantly stood in the position of a man without denying that He was God (John 5:18; 10:30-39). The Lord was condemned because He would not deny that He was the Son of God, but even though He did not deny this truth, He always stood in the position of a man in order to deal with the devil (Matt. 26:59-66). Although this action seemed to be successful, the devil’s own cleverness caused him to be judged and destroyed through the Lord’s death on the cross in His human flesh (John 12:31-32; 16:11; Heb. 2:14).