Sympathy for the Devil?

Martin Luther once noted that, “Satan is God’s Devil…” I think he had it right. When we look at scripture we find than Lucifer is never working outside the will of God. People often have a dualistic view of life, by that I mean that they see God as being on one side and Satan on the other locked in a battle for the souls of men. I guess we can probably come to this conclusion through a cursory examination of scripture. However, when we look at what the Bible says with a little more scrutiny we find that God is sovereign, and that Satan is limited. The authority of the enemy is quite limited in fact. In the book of Job we find that Lucifer must be given permission by God to test Job. In fact Jesus made mention of Satan’s limitations when he said to Peter, “Satan has requested to sift you like wheat…” Are we locked in a battle with a powerful enemy? The answer is yes… However, the victorious outcome has been guaranteed with Jesus’ words, “it is finished”.