We must always champion the sufficiency of Christ Himself. He is sufficient to justify us once-for-all and to progressively sanctify us over time. It is a ministry that proclaims the sufficiency of Christ that bolsters Christian soldiers against Satan’s devices and empowers them by God’s grace to pursue holiness.

Introduction

Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, “Why believe the devil instead of believing God? Rise up and realize the truth about yourself, that all the past is gone, and you are one with Christ, and all your sins have been blotted out once and for ever. O let us remember that it is a sin to doubt God’s Word, it is a sin to allow the past, which God has dealt with, to rob us of our joy and usefulness in the present and in the future.”

As beautiful and necessary as this truth is, the hard part is to live consistently with the truth. This is why we must continue to study spiritual warfare and Satan’s devices that he uses to hinder our Christian experience.

Recently, GRN General Council Member Clif Daniell wrote a fantastic article called The Fight of Faith: 7 Devices That Satan Uses To Tempt Christians. This current article serves as a follow-up to Clif’s previous article. Satan has two main devices: 1) He tempts us to embrace sin. 2) He tempts us to doubt God’s grace. Because Clif did a wonderful job providing seven devices that Satan uses to tempt Christians to embrace sin, this article provides seven devices that Satan uses to tempt Christians to doubt God’s grace.

Device #1: Satan hounds us to replay our past sins.

When we get in this mindset we can easily have our sin eclipse the sufficiency of Christ. It is one thing—and a very appropriate thing—to have regular biblical self-examination (2 Cor. 13:5). It is quite another thing to let sinful fear drive us to obsess over replaying our past sins. These sins might seem insignificant to some. These sins might seem unthinkable to others. Satan skillfully pinpoints an area of sin and tempts them to regularly replay the event over and over.

Often this leads us to embrace half-truths such as: “Nothing can for sin atone…nothing can for sin atone…” We fail to say to finish the sentence and say “…nothing but the blood of Jesus.” When we succumb to this satanic device of the dark lord we can develop some intense side effects. Our memory of the sinful event can betray us. (1) As we think about our sin or someone else’s sin against us, it certainly is true that some events are genuinely traumatic. It is also true that other events aren’t traumatic but nevertheless are very painful memories. Whether the event is traumatic or not, the obsessive replaying of the event can be in itself so painful that it could rise to the level of trauma. Satan will use this device to eclipse the sufficiency of the Person and Work of Christ.

Device #2: Satan harasses us with false repentance.

There is no Christian who does not repent. Yet, repentance is not penance. As our Confession of Faith says in chapter 15, in no way whatsoever should our repentance “be rested in as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof, which is the act of God’s free grace in Christ” (WCF 15.3; Ek. 36:31; Gal. 2:16). It is very true that we do not “content ourselves with a general repentance” but rather “endeavor to repent of particular sins particularly” (15.5; 2 Sam. 12; Lk. 19:8). At the same time, this is qualitatively different than Satan’s use of false repentance.Satan employs this device by tempting us to think that true repentance is “enough” repentance. “Is your repentance sincere enough? Can you look to God and genuinely say that you’ve repented enough for such a sin? Have you felt sorry enough for what you’ve done?” These are whispers of hell. The direction he wants us to look is strictly inward and not at Christ (2 Cor. 3:18-4:6). We must remember that there is a grand difference between true repentance and enough repentance. Satan tempts us to think that we must reach an “enough-ness” level of repentance before we can rest in Christ’s work for us. In reality, this is a disguised form of works-righteousness.

Device #3: Satan will tempt us to obsess over our sins so that we fail to have faith in Christ.

These can be sins of the past or sins of the present. It can be sinful actions or our sinful nature. The grip of this device is like a python that seeks to choke faith out of us. When we sink to a level of despair over our sin, we can respond with identifying ourselves by our sin. “This is just who you are. You’ll never change.” Our sin becomes the predominant life narrative. This often leads to responses of legalism or, most often, antinomianism. I am my sin. I am the temptation I face. Union with Christ might be true but I am the sin that I struggle with.

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