What would happen if you removed Satan from the
entire Bible? If you deleted every reference
to the devil, to demons, to spiritual bondage,
how would it change the gospel? How would it
change your understanding of salvation? For many
modern Christians, the answer is not that much.
Salvation would still be about forgiveness. It
would still be about justification. It would
still be about being declared righteous before
God. But when you read the New Testament itself,
something very different appears. Take the Gospel
of Mark, the shortest of the four Gospels. Even
there we see at least four detailed exorcisms.
The demon in the synagogue, the garrison demoniac
called Legion, the Syrophoenician woman's daughter,
and the boy with the unclean spirit. And beyond
those specific cases, Mark repeatedly tells us
that Jesus was casting out many demons throughout
Galilee. If you remove demons from the Gospels,
you would remove a huge portion. of Christ's
ministry, which raises an important question.
If the gospel was mainly about God declaring
sinners righteous, why would exorcism occupy
such a central place in Christ's ministry? The
answer is that the gospel is not simply about
solving a legal problem. It is about liberation.
Humanity has been enslaved by death, by corruption,
and by the powers of darkness. And Christ comes
as the liberator of humanity. To understand salvation,
we have to ask another question. The Bible constantly
speaks about union. Union with Christ. Union
with the Spirit. Union with the body of Christ.
But scripture also speaks about other kinds of
union. Humanity is born into a kind of union
with Adam. Because of that union, we inherit
corruption and mortality. The fact that someday
soon, relatively speaking, you and I will die.
We inherit that. And that fact alone is as serious,
while not nearly as problematic, as original
sin and guilt or total depravity. All the explanatory
power for why we sin and why the world is messed
up comes from death and the demonic and our union
with both. And remember, when we use the word
corruption, I just said a second ago that we
inherit corruption and mortality. Those two words
are actually synonyms. Corruption is like rust,
rot, decay. Think rusted car, rotten apple, moldy
bread, soured milk. It's not yet being used metaphorically
for moral character. Today, it would be weird
to say, the milk is corrupt. We say it's bad.
But then, bad could also be used as a moral judgment.
Bad and corrupt are synonyms in that way. So,
if you think of words that we commonly associate
with an immoral person, they usually started
from words that were describing decay or death
in the natural world. Depraved used to mean bent
out of its proper form, like when wood warps.
And then you can think warped. A warped personality.
A warped mind. Rotten is more obvious, of course.
Corruption originally referred to decaying flesh.
Spoiled could refer to milk, to a child, or to
a disappointing vacation. My point is, even in
language, usually words that later refer to morality
originate with death and decay. Then those words
are used adjectivally to refer to our character.
Think how scripture says, the soul that sins
shall die. What does that mean? It will become
corrupt. It shall rot. it will decay. So when
you think of corruption as in decay, then apply
that to moral character, that's valid. But notice
the order. What came first? Because I've been
saying that that is the order of how we become
sinful. Dying doesn't make you sinful, but it's
there first. And the fact that we inherit death
doesn't automatically make us morally corrupt
until we act in fear in such a way that to survive,
or at least to make us think that this will help
us survive, we ignore God's commandments. and
essentially accuse him of not having our best
interests. Because when we try to survive without
God, we're saying, we're accusing that we're
going to need to protect ourselves because God
may not actually come through and protect us.
And for those of you who know scripture well,
I hope you automatically think of Jesus reassuring
the disciples with, don't fear people. This is
a paraphrase. Don't fear people when all they
can do is kill you. Fear God who can do more
than just kill you. And then he goes on. Aren't
two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one, not
one of them falls to the ground apart from your
father. If you didn't know, sparrows were the
cheapest food in the market in the ancient world.
They're virtually worthless. And yet not one
of them falls to the ground apart from your father.
Even the numbers of hair on your head, every
follicle will make it to the resurrection unharmed
if you remain faithful. So do not fear. You are
of more value than many sparrows. And Jesus'
logic is, This is something everyone thinks is
insignificant, but the father, it's not insignificant
to him. And therefore, neither is your life.
Your life is very significant to God. So the
antidote to fear, which would lead to self -preservation,
apart from God's design, is fearing God because
he loves you and will take care of you. It'll
be just fine even if we lose our lives. After
all, what does it profit? If we gain temporary
survival in this life by sinning repeatedly and
later, lose our souls. So the union we have with
death and our susceptibility to the suggestions
and recommendations of the devil, of the demonic,
must be undone. In a later episode, I'm going
to go into the distinction between unclean and
sinful. But just for now, I'll say that in the
Old Testament, you were regularly getting yourself
unclean without sinning. And you were regularly
sinning without necessarily becoming ritually
defiled. And then there's another word, defiled.
You defile yourself originally, literally, with
dirt, with mud, with filth. And then later that
word is used for character. There's a natural
pattern here evident in our use of language where
eventually today you no longer see words like
defilement as originally being about becoming
unclean, literally unclean, and eventually what
was a metaphor loses its meaning altogether.
But the order that is paralleled is death and
corruption. So you start with literal death and
decay and later that leads to Moral death and
decay. And that's how it played out in our language.
I think this tells us something. It starts with
death and the demonic. So when this is our problem,
original sin and guilt in the Catholic and Reformed
tradition into evangelicalism, it's not just
illogical. It's unbiblical and it's unnecessary.
Our issue is union with death and the demonic.
That's bad enough. That is a big problem. So
scripture speaks about people being enslaved
to spiritual powers. I'll speed this up a little
now. The point is, union is not always a good
thing. Union can also mean bondage. A person
may be united to destructive passions, inclinations
driven by the desire to survive, again, physically,
emotionally, mentally, or even to nefarious spiritual
forces. So the problem of salvation is not simply
guilt. It is misdirected union. Sin is failure
to rightly unite with God. I said in the Born
Afraid episode, That sin is self -preservation
without trust. This is another way of saying
the same thing. When I don't trust, when I don't
place faith, I cut at the union I have with God.
If I keep cutting at it, I sever the union. If
I repent, God is faithful and just to forgive
me my sins. That means salvation is union with
God. Salvation is union with God, with Christ,
with the Holy Spirit. But because humanity has
become joined to death, corruption, and the dominion
of the enemy, salvation means breaking that union
and restoring the right one. Unity is at the
heart of the gospel. Reunion with God, reunion
with humanity. The Eucharist's communion is union
with Christ and with each other, those who also
partake of Christ, and confess in unity, in unison,
the faith once delivered. But this is why the
early church took exorcism before baptism very
seriously. The catechumen, the one preparing
for holy baptism, turns literally to the West
and renounces Satan, renounces his works, his
participation in those works, in those recommendations,
those suggestions, and his uniting to that energy,
renounces his service, and turns literally to
the East, to Christ. These renunciations represent
and make real the breaking of an old allegiance,
the breaking of a false union. The person turns
away from the dominion of darkness and towards
Christ. As St. Paul writes, he has delivered
us from the dominion of darkness and transferred
us into the kingdom of his beloved son, Colossians
1 .13. This is literal, not metaphorical, not
spiritual in the sense of having only to do with
your soul and not your body. You are a unit,
a union of soul and body. Dominion is broken,
freedom is given. Where the spirit of the Lord
is, there is freedom, 2 Corinthians 3 .17. But
exorcism, this is not merely an ancient practice.
In the Orthodox Church, these exorcism prayers
before baptism remain the normal practice to
this day, which tells us something important
about how the church understands salvation. It
is not only forgiveness, it is deliverance and
new life. Now just think for a second, when's
the last time you've been to an exorcism? I've
been to several Orthodox baptisms, and it's nothing
like the exorcist. There are prayers that are
prayed for the person, and these prayers go back
2 ,000 years. But when's the last time you've
been to an exorcism? I know it sounds funny,
but the thing is, why did Satan go missing from
so many churches? I believe the reason is because
when you start with things like total depravity,
original sin and guilt, it becomes confusing
how Satan actually helps explain anything. If
anything, he makes the existence of him in the
pages of scripture confusing. I've already got
a problem bad enough. I'm damned from birth.
I need God to save me. He may not. He may choose
not to. Or he may let me go my own way and I
never had a shot ever. That's bad enough. Especially
when you've got an eternal torture chamber hell
idea that's coming next. That's bad enough. What's
going to happen with Satan when these ideas are
already there? He's going to disappear. If he
doesn't disappear theologically, if you're a
Bible believing Christian, that's not going to
happen because he's all over scripture. but practically
he's going to go away. So after the exorcism,
then through baptism, something extraordinary
happens. The person dies with Christ and rises
with Christ. The old union with Adam marked by
corruption and death begins to be replaced with
a new union, union with Christ himself. St. Paul
describes this as being buried with Christ and
raised with him. An old life ends and a new life.
begins. A new humanity begins. And immediately
after baptism comes chrismation. Through the
anointing with holy chrism, the newly baptized
receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now the
union deepens. The person is not only united
to Christ, the person becomes a temple of the
Holy Spirit. The Spirit begins to dwell within.
The Spirit strengthens the human person. The
Spirit heals the will. The Spirit restores freedom.
Now something becomes possible that was previously
impossible. the human person can begin to cooperate
with the energies of God. This is synergy. This
is the solution to the bondage of the will. Exorcism
and chrismation form the basis for real, functional
freedom to take the energy that has been gifted
to us as creatures and combine it with God's
infinite energy. And it starts now, but it never
ends. Synergy simply means working together.
God acts, man responds. Christ himself illustrates
this in the parable of the talents. The master
gives the gifts. but the servants must work with
what they have received. The gift originates
from God, but the servant must cooperate with
that gift so that it grows. The servants have
in themselves, from their birth, naturally, potentialities
given by God, through the healing of the person
from death, from fear of death, by disentangling.
with the energy of Satan, those potentialities
are awakened. And the gift given to us grows
when in union with God's energy and it never
stops growing. Sin enslaves, grace restores freedom.
When the will is healed by the spirit, the human
person becomes capable of working together with
God. This is why forgiveness is not the end of
the Christian life. It is the beginning. Through
faith in Christ, through faith in his resurrection,
his victory over death, the human heart is awakened
with hope. The will begins to be healed. the
person begins to grow. The potential placed within
humanity from the beginning begins to be realized
through cooperation with the energies of God.
Sometimes people point to the thief on the cross
as the model of salvation, and it is true that
Christ saved him, but the thief represents the
bare minimum. He turned to Christ at the very
end of his life, but the normal Christian life
is not the bare minimum. It is the maximal transformation
of the human person. The thief shows that salvation
is possible in a moment. The saints show what
salvation becomes over a lifetime. The fathers
summarized the goal of salvation very simply.
As Saint Athanasius said, God became man so that
man might become God. Not by nature, but by union,
by participation in the life of God. Often they
described this transformation with the image
of iron placed in fire. The iron remains iron.
You remain you, but it becomes filled with the
energy of the fire, radiant, glowing, transformed.
This is the image of theosis, humanity united
with the life of God. So when orthodoxy speaks
about salvation, it is not primarily about being
declared righteous. It is about being healed,
liberated, and transformed. The false unions
are broken. The true union is restored. And through
that union with Christ and the Holy Spirit, human
beings become participants in the divine life,
partakers, of the divine nature. Listen to St.
Peter from the NET Bible. We participate in God's
nature, which transforms us, saves us. Salvation
is union with God. Assuming we have already disconnected
from death, from Satan, in other words, the corruption
of this world, by reuniting with God in Christ
by the Holy Spirit. There's a footnote in the
NET Bible on partakers of the divine nature.
I'm going to read it. The NET Bible is a translation
done by evangelicals, some from Dallas Theological
Seminary. Quote, he does not mean apotheosis.
man becoming a god in the pagan sense, but rather
that believers have an organic connection with
God. Because of such a connection, God can truly
be called our Father. Conceptually, this bears
the same meaning as Paul's in Christ formula.
The author's statement, though startling at first,
is hardly different from Paul's prayer for the
Ephesians that they may be filled up to all the
fullness of God. Now, let's talk about something
crucial, how different theological frameworks
treat union with God, and sometimes channel it
in ways that affect how vividly it is experienced.
In Reformed and Evangelical theology, union with
Christ often gets framed through imputation.
Adam's sin is imputed to humanity. Christ's righteousness
is imputed to believers, and we are declared
righteous. Legally, this is perfect and powerful.
But notice what happens to union itself. The
living, participatory reality of Christ in the
believer becomes something mostly conceptual.
Your nature is still mortal, still bound to corruption,
still susceptible to fear and bondage. Union
is present in principle, but it is experienced
through a status or a declaration, rather than
a dynamic, energy -filled participation. The
transformative, freedom -giving aspects of union
are there in theory, but filtered through the
framework of accounting for sin and righteousness.
Catholic theology frames union differently. emphasizing
infused grace through the sacraments. Baptism,
penance, and the Eucharist communicate God's
life and sanctifying grace. These are real and
vital channels of union, fully honored and efficacious.
Yet union is often understood in a mediated or
structured way. One is in grace. One's soul is
sanctified. One's nature is oriented toward God.
The participatory, energetic experience The human
person actively cooperating with God's life is
present, but sometimes framed more in terms of
moral and sacramental status. In both frameworks,
union is real, life -giving, and essential, but
it is often absorbed into something else. Legal
imputation, infused grace, moral status, or sacramental
participation. The dynamic, energetic aspect
of union, the kind that awakens the soul, transforms
the will, and releases freedom. is present in
principle, but not always experienced as tangible,
ongoing participation in God's energies. This
is why Orthodox theology emphasizes the experiential,
participatory reality of union. Exorcism before
baptism is not only symbolic, it helps the catechumen
actively break the old union with death and the
powers of darkness and turn toward Christ with
their whole being. Baptism ends the old union
with Adam and begins a new union with Christ.
Chrismation deepens that union. filling the person
with the Holy Spirit, restoring freedom to the
will, and energizing the soul. Here's where synergy
becomes clear. God's energies flow into the person,
and the person responds freely, cooperating with
God's life in a tangible, transformative way.
In contrast, other traditions, Reformed, Evangelical,
and Catholic, still honor union and the grace
of God. Rituals and sacramental life are meaningful
and powerful. But Orthodox practice highlights
participation and energetic engagement in a way
that draws union out of conceptual or mediated
forms into living experience. Exorcism, baptism,
and chrismation are not just rituals. They are
ways for the human person to awaken to God's
life, breaking false bonds and embracing freedom.
Salvation is therefore not only a declaration
or state. It is active, ongoing participation
in God's life, beginning now and continuing forever.
In chrismation, you receive a cross, not to wear,
but to bear. And salvation is not a status, but
a living union with God to carry, live, and be
transformed by every day. Next time on Trouble
in Paradise, we'll explore the images in scripture
that reveal this organic, participatory model
of union, and how they can challenge the way
salvation is often framed in Catholic, Reformed,
and Evangelical thought. If you're enjoying this
podcast, please share it with a friend and leave
a review wherever you listen.