The Accuser

C.S. Lewis, in his "Screwtape Letters," suggests that one of the most successful tactics that Satan and his demons use in trying to win Christians back to their side is to get them to dwell on their failures. Once they begin to feel guilty about their performance in their Christian life, they are as good as won.

Have you ever had the experience of feeling that you have hurt or offended someone and instead of asking for their forgiveness, you just try to avoid them? Every time you see the person, you cringe and hope that they don't approach you. Your guilt feelings start to build up and before long, you start to resent that person. You start to feel hostile and alienated toward them, when in fact you do not really know for sure if they are even angry with you.

This is exactly what happens when we feel guilty before God. Our guilt often turns to hostility and we feel alienated from Him. Satan knows this. He loves to get his hands on a "sensitive" Christian and tries to get him to feel unworthy before God. Satan gets him to focus on his sinful life, rather than on the fact that he has been forgiven. "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation" (Colossians 1:22).

Did you know that the word "Satan" means literally, "the Accuser?" The first chapter of the Book of Job gives us a good idea of the kind of scenario that must take place constantly in heaven. I can imagine Satan standing before God's throne with a portfolio on each of God's children. He opens his records on (place your name here) and says, "Aha! Look at what (your name) did. And he is one of your children?" Then, Satan begins to accuse. However, that is when Christ steps up and says, "Father, (your name) believed in me in 19__. The forgiveness I paid for at the cross was then applied to him." And the Father says, "Case dismissed!"

However, Satan doesn't give up. After his accusations before God get nowhere, he begins to work on our conscience. He tries to place us on a hopeless treadmill of sinning, vowing we will not do it again, desperately struggling not to sin, but then sinning again. Finally, Satan has us exactly where he wants us. We become so discouraged that we feel God has given up on us. We begin to doubt whether we really are forgiven of our sins.

But wait a minute; don't we know that Satan is a liar and a deceiver? We don't have to accept the feelings of guilt that Satan dumps on us, because Christ took that guilt along with all our sins and nailed them all to the cross once and for all. Until we accept this fact, we will not be able to respond to God in faith. Ephesians 1:4-7 tells us that He has accepted us just as He has accepted Jesus. "That we should be holy and without blame before him in love... wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." When God looks at us, He doesn't see our sins - He sees Jesus!

This doesn't mean that we can go out and sin and have no conscience about it. We also need to understand that once we have repented of our sins and been washed in the blood of Christ, we no longer need to doubt our forgiveness again. It is already a settled fact with God and He just wants us to claim what is already true. 1 John 1:9 tells us "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The word "confess" means to acknowledge or to agree with someone about something. In this case, it means to agree with God that we have sinned.

If we constantly plead with God for forgiveness for the same sins, we are not really confessing (agreeing about) our sins. We are showing a lack of faith in God's promises that we have already been forgiven at the cross of Christ. Listen to what He did for us at Calvary. "When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him." These rulers and authorities are Satan and his army. They no longer have any legal right to interfere with any child of God. We can allow Satan to come into our lives but we certainly don't need to. Praise God!

Have you been waiting for God to punish you for your sins? Has this guilt produced an estrangement from the one person you need to be closest to - your Heavenly Father? Please take comfort in the fact that no matter how much you have let Him down, if you have accepted His Son as your Savior, God does not condemn you. He only wants you to acknowledge your sins and to thank Him for His forgiveness, so He can put His arms around you and reassure you of His love.

Dennis Thorfeldt