Has Satan Whispered Condemnation in Your Ear?

Mike Hosey, Elder

The word “condemn” is a very strong word. It carries with it two distinct meanings.  On one hand, it means to sentence someone to death.  On the other hand, it means to express total public disapproval and rejection.  There is nothing rosy about the term.

And while we too often associate the word with God (we inaccurately think of how He sentences people to hell, or how He condemns them for their sins) it is really a tool used more by Satan.  You see, God offers a clean way out of condemnation through submission to the Lordship of His son Jesus. Unlike God, however, Satan likes to remind you of your sins.  He likes to dredge up the lie you told, the lust you acted on, the one drink too many you consumed, the unrighteous anger you loosed on your spouse, the idea you stole, or the psychological or physical mistreatment of another human being you perpetrated. He then tells you that you are damned beyond rescue.  He brings it up constantly, so often, in fact, that he can withdraw from your head, and your own brain will continue to echo his voice of condemnation, parroting it until it sounds like gospel truth and you feel like a death row inmate, or a dead man walking.   

And when his voice of condemnation doesn’t make you feel like a doomed prisoner, it will make you feel like a pariah – an outcast, rejected and permanently separated from God’s people, their comfort, and their familial intimacy. But his power over you is completely rooted in his deception. As one Christian thinker put it, take away his power to deceive, and his voice no longer has power over you. Without his lies, he is an impotent shadow. 

And his lies are no match for God’s truth.  God tells us in Philippians 1:6 that He will finish the good work that He started in us.  And he tells us in Romans 8:1 that there is no longer any condemnation for those of us who know Jesus. Romans 5:1 tells us that we have been declared righteous, and that we have peace with God.  For every lie that Satan whispers in your ear, a powerful truth of God counters it. This is why it is important to remember that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4)!