What Led Lucifer To Sin?

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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Johnathan Hernandez and Gary Schick.

Gary Schick
Hey, I've got a kind of interesting question today. "What led Lucifer to sin?" You know, in the light of all the evil in the world, I mean, with what's going on in Israel and Ukraine and just the condition of our own country. Sometimes I think we forget, we tend to look at all the problems in the world and we think of all the people involved. And to be sure, human beings really don't need any help to make a mess. But what does the scripture tell us? Ephesians 6:12, "for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm." Sometimes I think we forget there is such a thing as evil out there. In fact, it's what led the human race to sin. It was Satan who came along and tempted Adam and Eve and he's still doing what he does. So Jonathan, what are some things you were able to dig up on the subject of Lucifer and his fall?

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, so just looking at some scripture we see in Ezekiel 28:14,15, it says, "you were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you." So here we see them talking about Lucifer. And then if we look at Isaiah 14:12--15, we see here it says, "how you are fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning. How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations. For you have said in your heart, 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mountain of the congregation of the furthest side of the north. I will send above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high." Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol to the lowest depths of the pit." So we think about what led Lucifer to sin, and it was really that place of pride. He wanted to be who everybody worshiped. And that's not the case. We were not created to worship Satan. Right? That's furthest from the truth.

Gary Schick
There are people that do though, apparently in the world.

Jonathan Hernandez
Oh yeah. And so we look at that, and I think as believers also, we need to realize Satan and God are on the same level, not opposites. Satan and Jesus, they're not opposites. Lucifer isn't God, He wasn't a God. He never will be a God. He was an angel. And so if we're looking for someone that would be in the sense of an opposite I guess of him, we would think of Gabriel or Michael or another angel. And so I think as believers, we need to make sure we have that right. Also, that when we're thinking of God, we're not saying, "Satan's the opposite," because then I think we start getting into some crazy theology and different things that start going in opposite directions. And so, man, Lucifer had such a heart to be worshiped. He wanted to worshiped, he wanted to be 'that.' You know what I mean? We just read that he wanted to be the high of the high. He wanted all of heaven to exalt him and worship him and be like, "okay God. You go somewhere else. Because here, I am the master, I am above everything." And obviously, we see that he got put in his place, right? It didn't last very long. So if we think of what led him to that, to sin, it would be that place of pride, him being so prideful. And I mean, we see this throughout scripture. If we're walking in pride, guess what? We're going to be put down pretty quick, in a sense. Pride comes before destruction, right? We see this and we know this. And so there's times I have to say, "okay John, is there a place in my heart that I have pride rising up?" And if I do, "okay Holy Spirit, highlight this for me so I can deal with it." I can give it to God and say, "okay, I'm dealing with pride. I don't want to walk in this anymore." And so, gosh, if we could realize, hey, we have this place of pride in our hearts, let's try to get this out. I know in my life there's been some places I've been pretty prideful,

Gary Schick
All of us have.

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah. And so for me, that's where my answer goes straight to, is pride led Lucifer to really take that dive of fall.

Gary Schick
I think that's good. And I kind of like where you started with that about God and Satan are not equal opposites. That's kind of an Eastern idea. The light and the dark; the yin and the yang. The balance of the good and the bad. And probably, that idea again, comes from Satan himself because he wants that. I think the real key to that passage in Isaiah, I'll come back to it in a minute, is where he says, "I will be like God." The very thing that he tempts Adam and Eve with. And so this idea of equal polar opposites; the positive and the negative forces in the universe may not be all he wants. But he's pretty content with the idea of being raised to that level. I think where we kind of need to begin is a biblical worldview. Do we have a biblical worldview? You know, I just got a little bit of this in seminary, but this is probably the least studied part of scripture, is what they call Angelology, the study of angels. And basically a secularist has a very monochromatic worldview. Just, there's man and the creation and that's it. Western Christians are a little bit better. We see man and creation, and we see God above; kind of two realms. You go among primitive people, and they also see two realms, although they're slightly different. They see man and the creation and they see the world of good and evil spirits, what the Bible would refer to as angels. But actually, a biblical worldview is actually that there are three realms of being. There is God who is a creator of all and rules overall. There is the realm of the spiritual, the good and the bad. You know, Revelation 12 actually kind of alludes to the fall of Satan. Where a third of the stars, or another reference to angels there, fall with him. And so only a third of the angels, but still significant number. And even in their rebellion, nevertheless, God rules and He sets the boundaries for Satan and evil. And then there is the realm of humankind.

Gary Schick
So really, kind of a three tier system. As we look at him in scripture, and we've kind of used all of his names, the devil and Satan,these are words that mean adversary and accuser. And he certainly is our adversary, and he certainly is the accuser of the saints. Lucifer's kind of an interesting one. And that is actually the one referred to in Isaiah, the light bearer. Lucifer is actually a Latin translation of that. Jesus is called the Bright and Morningstar. And again, Satan wants to take that. And in the, what is it, 2 Corinthians? It's in Corinthians where it says, "that we should be aware of him, because he can still masquerade as an angel of light." But in terms of his fall and what led to it, it is the same thing that he used to lead our forebearers to fall. "I will be like God," what did he tell Eve? "You will be like God." And what is it that gets us into trouble when we decide we're going to take the position of God? And really, you think about it, pride, that's one that's not really hard for people to admit. They're going to hesitate on some of what we would consider the bigger issues. The sexual things or the anger things or whatever. But underneath it all is P-R-I-D-E. That sense that, "I can get by with this. I can do this. God may say no, but who's going to know?" Well, scripture has a warning, pride comes before a fall. And people do ask the question, "is it legit to go to the very passage that he went to?" Ezekiel is actually addressed to the king of Tyre. Isaiah, that broader passage I addressed, to the king of Babylon. But again, going back to what you mentioned about Michael and a little bit of angelology in Daniel. Michael is sent in response to one of Daniel's prayers and he basically says, "sorry it took me so long. I was battling on behalf of your people, Israel, against the spiritual forces over the nations around you." We see battles like what's going on in Israel and what's going on in Ukraine. And what's even going on with some of the division in our own government. It's just a human strife. And it is that, but there is also a spiritual component. And one of the things we learn as we look at scripture and what it says about angels, they seem right from the beginning to have been put over different aspects of the natural world. And even they have turf that they kind of defend and battle for. And so, okay, here's Ezekiel addressing the king of Tyre, but talking about him as a cherub who was in the Garden of Eden. Well, that physical king was never an angel in Eden, but the spiritual power behind him, Lucifer, certainly was. The king of Babylon doesn't quite fit the description there, but the power, the spiritual force there,Lucifer. So, can we say legitimately these passages apply to Satan, Lucifer? Absolutely. Because there is the physical evil empire, so to speak---to quote Ronald Reagan as he was talking about the Russians. But the evil is not the people. As Paul says, "our struggle is not against the flesh and the blood." It's the spiritual forces of evil, the heavenly realms that are motivating humans in those horrific directions. And praise God! In Christ, we have the victory. Jesus said, "in this world you'll have trouble, but take courage. I have overcome the world." Satan wants us either to be obsessed with him or to just, no, that's a bunch of Halloween nonsense. No, no, he's real enough. But the power in us, Christ, has already overcome. So take courage listeners, in that. Jonathan, you want to wrap us up with some final thoughts?

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, so just a final thought I was just thinking about. I think one of Satan's tricks, I guess, is that he always tries to get is for us to not realize our identity. He did that with Eve, right? "If you eat this, you'll become like God," trying to get her to question who she is and question identity. He does the same thing when Jesus was baptized and God said, "you are my son whom I'm well pleased." And then later on Satan goes, "well, if you are the Son of God." So he tries to question that and he does that same thing to us. He tries to get us to question who we are, and we need to realize that our identity is found in Christ. In Christ alone, nothing else. So yeah, I'll leave it with that.

Gary Schick
I'm so appreciative that you brought out that last part about our identity, because, you know, it's a funny thing. When we're walking in pride, "I will be like God," we're never less like him, but when we humble ourselves and receive what we need to forgive our sins, Christ is our savior. What is the promise of scripture? And we will be like him when we stop claiming what's not our ground. But humble ourselves and say, "I will be who you made me to be in Christ." That is actually what raises us up to a very special place in the universe; in Christ. And so listeners, there's kind of two ways people go, either pride, "I don't need God," or another subtler form of pride. "Well, I need to clean up my life first." No, no, no. As one of my parishioners, one of the people in our church said to me, "the fisherman goes out and he catches the fish and then he cleans it. God gets ahold of us in Christ and then he cleans our life." Yeah, this is something we can do for ourselves. So listeners, if you haven't already, turned your life over to Jesus, that is where true life begins.