Live Q&A Follow-up - Satan and Pride

I am almost through the questions we did not have time to answer at the Live Question and Answer night on September 29. Here is another question: If heaven is perfect and there is not sin there, how did Satan have the sin of pride which got him thrown out of heaven?

This question, like the other question, is a good question. Sometimes good questions are not easy to answer. We do have a good sense that at some point Satan had to sin. Some scholars have offered Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 as expressions of that very sin. But not all scholars would agree those passages are directly referring to Satan and his fall. So though they might give us some idea of what the sin of pride looks like, it may not be an actual reference to Satan.

So how did Satan have the sin of pride? I do not believe that the Bible takes the time to deal with that question. The Bible was written to help us live in a world that is marked by Satan and his sin of pride. But given the validity of the question let me offer a suggestion from Augustine. In his book The City of God, Augustine wrote, “For when the will abandons what is above itself, and turns to what is lower, it becomes evil – not because that is evil to which it turns, but because the turning itself is wicked.” What I am suggesting is that perhaps Satan allowed himself to be captured more by the wonder of himself as a creation of God than he was with the God who created him. Pride came into his life because he got caught up in his goodness, but forgot that goodness was a gift of God. Pride came because of failing to focus on the One who was the completeness of goodness. God’s creations are amazing. But they will always be lower than God. When we forget that, we will be in big trouble. I would suggest that Satan got caught up in himself instead of God and the whole of creation has paid ever since. Even in the perfection of heaven, turning attention from lesser good can bring the evil of pride.