The Flesh and The Spirit

But, the objector may say, True, sin is the cause of death; but who prompts the sin? Is it not here that the devil of popular belief has his work? No Bible answer can be more to the point than what has already been quoted from James: "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of HIS OWN LUST, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (Jas. 1:14, 15). This agrees with a man's own experience of himself; sin originates in the untrained natural inclinations. These, in the aggregate, Paul terms "another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind". Every man is conscious of the existence of this law, whose impulse, uncontrolled, would drive him against the dictates of wisdom. The world obeys this law, and "lieth in wickedness". It has no experience of the other law, which is implanted by the truth. "ALL that is in the world" John defines to be "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16).

When a man becomes enlightened in the truth, and is thus made aware of God's will in reference to the state of his mind and the nature of his actions, a new law is introduced. This is styled "the Spirit", because the ideas upon which it is based have been evolved by the Spirit, through inspired men. "The words that I speak unto you", says Jesus, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:64). Hence the warfare established in a man's nature by the introduction of the truth is a warfare of the two principles-the desires of the flesh and the commands of the Spirit. This is described by Paul in the following words: "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other" (Gal. 5:17). "Walk in the spirit", says he "and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (verse 16). He says in another place, "Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof" (Rom. 6:12).

These principles seem brought to a focus in the following extract from his letter to the Roman ecclesia:
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. . . Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Rom. 8:5-9, 12-14).

In view of these declarations of Scripture, the supposition that the personal devil's work is to suggest sin has no place. The suggestions of sin come from a man's own inclinations, which tend to illegitimate activity. These are the origin of sin, and sin is the cause of death. Both together are the devil. "He that committeth sin is of the devil" (1 John 3:8).

The Principle of Personification

But why, it may be asked, should such a plain matter be obscured by personification? No other answer can be given than that it is one of the Bible's peculiarities to deal in imagery where the principles involved are too subtle for ready or literal expression. Thus the world which is merely an aggregation of persons is personified: "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own" (John 15:19). Thus, too, riches are personified: "No man can serve two masters. . . Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24). Sin is personified apart from the terms which define its character as the Great Liar and Adversary: "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin" (John 8:34). "Sin hath reigned unto death" (Rom. 5:21). "Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of SIN unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? . . . Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness" (Rom. 6:16, 18). The Spirit of God is personified: "When HE, the Spirit of truth, is come, HE will guide you into all truth; for HE shall not speak of himself" (John 16:13). Wisdom is personified: "She is more precious than rubies, and all the things that thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour" (Prov. 3:15, 16). "Wisdom hath builded her house; she hath hewn out her seven pillars" (Prov. 9:1). The nation of Israel is personified: "Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O Virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets" (Jer. 31:4). "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn thou me, and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God" (Jer. 31:18). The People of Christ are personified: "Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a PERFECT MAN" (Eph. 4:13). "There is one BODY" (Eph. 4:4). "Ye are THE BODY OF CHRIST (1 Cor. 12: 27). Christ is the head of the church, and he is the saviour of THE BODY" (Eph. 5:23). "He is the head of THE BODY, the church.....I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for HIS BODY'S SAKE, which is the church" (Col. 1:18, 24). "I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2). "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and HIS WIFE hath made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7). The natural disposition to evil which a man forsakes on becoming Christ's, and also the new state of mind developed by the truth, are personified" Ye have put off THE OLD MAN with his deeds (Col. 3:9). "Put off, concerning the former conversation, the OLD MAN which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts . . . put on the NEW MAN, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph.. 4:22-24). "Our old man is crucified with him" (Rom. 6:6). The spirit of disobedience which dwells in the world is personified: "Wherein in time past ye walked, according to the course of this world, according to THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR, THE SPIRIT THAT NOW WORKETH IN THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind" (Eph. 2:2, 3).

Now is the judgment of this world: now shall THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said signifying what death he should die" (John 12:31-33).

These proofs and examples of personification furnish an answer to the question why sin in the abstract should be personified. They show, first, that principles and things are personified in the Bible; and, second, that this is done with great advantage. There is a warmth in such a style of speech, which is wanting in expressions that conform to the strict proprieties of grammar and fact. This warmth and expressiveness are characteristic of the Bible in every part of it, and belong to the Oriental languages generally. Of course it is open to abuse, like every other good, but its effectiveness is beyond question.

"That Old Serpent"

The phrase "THAT OLD SERPENT" , as one of the Bible devil's synonyms, is clearly an allusion to the part performed by the serpent in the original introduction of sin. This part we have already considered. The natural serpent, more observant than other animals, and gifted for the time with the power of expressing its thoughts, reasoned upon the prohibition which God had put upon "the tree in the midst of the garden": and concluding from all he saw and heard, that death would not be the result of eating, he said, "Ye shall not surely die: for God cloth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:4, 5). Thus the serpent became not only a devil, but the devil in the historical sense, for he originated the slander under the belief of which our first parents disobeyed the divine command, and introduced sin and death to the world. He was therefore the natural symbol of all that resulted from his lie. The present constitution of the world is the amplified result of his suggestions; and therefore, it is no unnatural description which symbolically labels the present evil word as "that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan". The individual serpent itself has long since passed away in the course of nature, but the fruits remain, and the principle lives. The idea instilled by it into the minds of our first parents has germinated to the production of generations of human serpents. Mankind has proved but an embodiment of the serpent idea; so that they are all calumniators of God in disbelieving His promises and disobeying His commandments. Hence Jesus could say to the Pharisees, "Ye serpents, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matt. 23:33); and again, "Ye are of your father the devil (slanderer-serpent), and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning (he brought death upon mankind by inciting Adam and Eve to disobedience), and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it" (John 8:44). The children of this world are "the children of the devil" because they are the progeny of a serpent devil-contaminated paternity.

The world as it now is, is the embodiment of the devil-principle. This principle originated in an agent; and for that reason the principle retains the name of the originator in common discourse. Therefore it is that the world in its corporate and organized antagonism to God, as prophetically exhibited to John in the political symbol of a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns is named, that old serpent, the Devil and Satan. Therefore, too, that the putting down of the governments of men and the setting up of the Kingdom of God at the commencement of the millennium is symbolized as the binding of the dragon, "that old serpent, the Devil and Satan" (Rev. 20:2). His deceiving of the whole world refers to the government as distinct from the people.

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"The Trial of Jesus and Job"
"Devils"