have pictured Satan as a creature with hooves and horns. Such a notion has no biblical basis. Satan and his demons surround the earth like an atmosphere, a force of evil that seeks to separate and divide us (Eph. 2:1–2; 6:12). His sole aim is to blind humans with self-interest and egoism: “You will be like God.” And instead of going the way of simple obedience, we allow ourselves to be tempted and give in.
Like Adam and Eve, all of us are divided and estranged by our sin.
Adam and Eve’s first sin symbolizes the fall of each one of us. We cannot ignore the fact that the original image of God in us has been terribly distorted. Instead of being content to reflect the image of God, we strive for equality with God. We have turned the highest qualities within us against God’s will. In our worldly “freedom” we are no longer even concerned about God or his image. We are estranged from him and moved only by the affairs of the world. We are at odds with ourselves and one another, trapped by the guilt of our own dividedness.
Cut off from God in this way, we place ourselves at the center of the universe and try to find peace in possessions and pleasure. But these idols only leave us troubled with anxiety and anguish. Then arises the first mistrustful question, “Why?” and the second, “Is God really there?” We begin to doubt the guidance of the Spirit, and we ask, “Why do I have it so hard? Why me?”
Such questions eat away at our trust, not only in God but in each other, and when we ask them we are never far from sinning. Simple faith takes the hand that God is offering and goes the way he leads. Even if the way leads through darkness or suffering, through hard places, over rocks and deserts, trust will help us to follow. If we take God’s hand, nothing can harm us. But as soon as we let go of God and question him, we will begin to despair. That is always the challenge: to hold on to God.
Jesus had to endure every human suffering; he was spared nothing – not hunger, thirst, loneliness, temptation, nor torment. But he did not attempt to escape from his misery. He is near to us, and he is always ready to help us, to give us the strength to overcome (Heb. 2:14–18). Even the most satanic temptations, the most terrible hours of darkness, are overcome by these words of Jesus: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only” (Matt. 4:10). This is the secret. Here Satan loses all power over us, and the first sin no longer binds.
5
Restoring the Image of God
The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. . . . Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 3:17–18; 5:17
More important than any human relationship is our relationship to God. All other relationships are merely symbols of it. First and foremost, we bear God’s image and we need to find reverence for that fact again and again.
The greatest hope for every person, and for every relationship or marriage, is to recognize that even though we have distorted this image and fallen away from God, a faint reflection still remains in us. Despite our corruption, God does not want us to lose our destiny as creatures made in his image. Therefore he sent his son Jesus, the second Adam, to break into our hearts (Rom. 5:17–19). Through Jesus the image of God can be restored in every man and woman, and to every relationship.
Jesus opens the way to God and to each other.
Jesus is God’s reconciler: he has come to reconcile us to God and to others and to heal the inner discord in our lives (Eph. 2:11–19). When we become discouraged or downcast, then more than ever we must seek him. Everyone who seeks will find God. This is a promise. Jeremiah says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13). And there are the wonderful words in the gospels: “Everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Luke 11:10). These words are true today, and if we take them seriously, God will become living in our hearts.
The way to God is open for everyone. No human being is excluded from this gift, because Jesus came as a human being and lived among us. God sent him to restore his image in us. Through him we have access to the Father. But this can only happen when the experience of Pentecost – of personal repentance, conversion, and faith – becomes a burning reality for us.
The miracle of Pentecost, in which the Holy Spirit descended to earth in power and love, can happen anywhere in the world at any time. It can happen wherever people cry out, “Brothers, sisters, what shall we do?” and wherever they are ready to hear the age-old answer of Peter, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. . . . Save yourselves from this corrupt generation” (Acts 2:37–40).
Freedom comes through surrender, not human strength.
We can find forgiveness and salvation only at the cross. At the cross we undergo death – a dying to self-will. This death liberates us from everything that has prevented fellowship with God and with others and renews our relationship with them. In giving up the sin and evil which has enslaved us, we find freedom in Jesus. We can never redeem ourselves or better ourselves by our own strength. All we can do is surrender ourselves completely to Jesus and his love, so that our lives no longer belong to us but to him.
My father, J. Heinrich Arnold, writes:
If we want to be healed of the wounds made by Satan’s tricks and arrows . . . we must have the same absolute trust in Jesus as he had in God. Ultimately, all we have is our sin. But we must lay our sin before him in trust. Then he will give us forgiveness, cleansing, and peace of heart; and these lead to a love that cannot be described.11
What does it mean to “lay our sin before him in trust?” Freedom and the possibility for reconciliation begin whenever we confess the accusations of our conscience. Sin lives in darkness and wants to remain there. But when, as the following story of an acquaintance, Darlene, shows, we bring to light the sins that burden us – when we admit them without reserve – we can be cleansed and freed:
By the ninth grade, I had picked out my “future husband.” I spent many secret hours writing to him in my diary, dreaming about him, and watching his house in the hope of seeing him through a window. Several years later he married someone else, and my fantasy world fell apart.
Through my high school years I tried to be part of the “in” crowd, always conscious of what I said, did, and wore. But by the time I graduated, I had flirted with countless boys, and though I felt guilty about this because of my upbringing, I simply chose to ignore it. I squashed my protesting conscience and convinced myself that I could handle any situation.
After high school I traveled to Israel, intending to spend a year at a kibbutz. At first I was shocked by the constant partying and the preoccupation with sex among the teens there, but soon I was hanging out in guys’ rooms and going to drinking parties and discos like everyone else. I told myself I could withdraw from any situation at any time, but within weeks I had let myself be sucked into a relationship with a boy who said he truly loved me. I wanted so much to believe him that I fell for him, even though I knew he was the Don Juan of the kibbutz. I felt more and more guilty; I could see I was doing exactly what I had claimed I was strong enough to resist. I panicked when I saw him a few nights later with another girl.
I returned home and, during the next two years, thought I had overcome my problem. But I had not. I fell again.
A man promised me a wonderful future, and he told me constantly how much he loved me and how beautiful I was. I wanted desperately
