The first point to make clear is that _there is a Devil_. This is
plain from our first text, John 8:44: +"The Devil. . . .is."+ The
whole verse reads: +"Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts
of your father it is your will to do: He was a murderer from the
beginning, 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 thereof."+ These are the words of Jesus Christ. With
any one who has any right to call himself a Christian, the words of
Jesus Christ have infinitely more weight than the words of Mrs. Mary
Baker Eddy or any one else, or all others together, and Jesus here
says, +"The Devil. . . .is."+ But this is not the only passage by
any means in which our Lord Jesus asserts in the most emphatic and most
unmistakable terms the existence of the Devil. Turn to Matt. 13:19,
and you will read these words: +"When any one heareth the word of
God, and understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one and snatcheth
away that which has been sown in his heart."+ These words are found
in the interpretation of a parable—the Parable of the Sower. It is
impossible to say that these words are figurative. In parables we have
figures, in the explanation of the parables we have the literal facts
that the figures symbolise, and these words are not taken from the
parable, but from our Lord's own explanation of the parable, and here
we are distinctly told that there is _a person_, who is here called
"The Evil One," whose business it is to snatch away the Word of God
when it has been sown in hearts that do not understand and heed it. If
evil is only impersonal and our Lord had only referred to impersonal
influences, or human influences, as taking away the Word out of the
hearts where it had been sown, these words of His would be utterly
without meaning. That Jesus Christ believed that there was a person
of whom He here speaks as "The Evil One" and of whom He elsewhere
speaks, as we shall see directly, as "The Devil," admits of no doubt if
we grant that the Lord Jesus was an honest man. _We must_, therefore,
_if we believe in the Lord Jesus, believe that there is a Devil. We
can deny his existence only by questioning either the honesty or
the intelligence of our Lord._ He certainly taught that there was a
Devil. It would be easy to show from the teachings of Peter (1 Pet.
5:8, 9; Acts 5:3) and from the teachings of John (John 13:2) and from
the teachings of Paul (Eph. 6:10-12) also that there is a Devil; but
that is unnecessary for any one who has any right to call himself a
Christian, for if the Lord says so, that settles it, and the Lord Jesus
does say +"The devil. . . .is."+ If there is no Devil, then our Lord
Jesus was either a fool or a fraud. The question of believing in the
personality of the Devil involves the honour of our Lord Jesus. If His
teaching is not to be trusted on this point, it is not to be trusted
on any other point, and the denial of a personal Devil involves the
trustworthiness of the Lord Jesus as a Teacher and a Saviour at every
point. So we see that the question of the existence of the Devil is
fundamental and of vital importance.