Sin Matrix: The Why of Spiritual Warfare

Before turning to Christ, I hoped I was good enough. Good enough for God. Sure, I did some terrible things in my life, but I never killed anyone! Attending Sunday church service sometimes was good enough, right? I helped when I could with my family, occasionally opened the door for the elderly and I even showed up to work on time. Usually. Overall, I tried to be good. Surely these efforts would allow me to be OK with God, right?

These deeds made me feel good and sometimes helped others. But did they bring me closer to God? Could they bring me closer to God? Would God overlook my sin because of these good works?

God shares with us in His Word how He views our works. Our works cannot save us from our sin as our works are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). And no one is good except God alone (Mark 10:18). So what are we to do? What are the options for the unsaved? Try to outwit God? Pretend sin doesn’t exist? Some combination thereof? To put it nicely, these options fall short when reconciling the spiritual with the physical. The reason for this division is sin.

Sin and its history is a dark and broad road. This journey will lead us to ask a few more questions:

• Is there a link between sin and spiritual warfare?
• Should a Bible-Believing Christian concern themselves with spiritual warfare?
• Didn’t Jesus defeat Satan, therefore we are free from the enemy’s influence?

Yes, sin is the reason for spiritual warfare. Yes, all should concern themselves with spiritual warfare. Yes, Jesus defeated Satan at the cross, but the issue isn’t with Jesus.  The Bible shares with us that His work was enough (1 Corinthians 1:18, Hebrews 12:2, 1 Peter 2:24-25).

The problem is with us, regardless if we are saved or unsaved, as we are all still in our flesh, and we still sin. And no amount of our work can correct us before the Lord.

Let’s dig deeper and explore sin’s origin and see where this trek takes us. First stop, the Garden of Eden.

The Fall of Man

What is sin? Sin means to miss the mark of God. In the Old Testament, we encounter the first mention of the word “sin” in Genesis 4:7, with the story of Cain and Abel. But we discover the concept of sin in the chapter prior with the nachash’s (the serpent’s) introduction in the Garden of Eden.

The sin of the serpent, Adam, and Eve, has yielded a fallen world where everyone has sin’s stench upon them. Because of believing the lie the serpent told, and acting upon it, Adam and Eve suffered spiritual death and intertwined a death code into all earthly life’s DNA (Romans 5:12).

Their sin has separated us from the Creator of the Universe, God, as God is holy and sacred. Therefore, sin separates us from entering God’s presence.

Sin is prevalent in the world as everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Our sin complicates our lives and the lives of those around us. Our sin also impacts future generations. As the Genesis 3 account of the fall of man attests to, sin’s formation starts as a subtle temptation. When this temptation takes root, it transforms into a possibility. This possibility leads to a decision. Will I or will I not make the correct free will decision? Here lies sin’s turning point in our life. If I cave into temptation and sin, chaotic results will emerge immediately or shortly thereafter.

But it gets worse, as the Genesis 3 account isn’t the only fall with consequences for Adam’s progeny. We need to stop and consider the Genesis 6 account. And then another.

The Fall of the Angels

Ever have a horrific, blasphemous or lustful thought? An idea so far beyond the ordinary scope of your imagination? Or perhaps a slight nudge or subtle thought, where the repercussions of following through with this idea leads to sin? 

These are a few ways demons sway humanity by influencing one’s thought life, like the way the serpent manipulated Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (fiery darts of Ephesians 6:16). Therefore, we need to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ as Paul stresses in 2 Corinthians 10:5.

Keep in mind not all thoughts originate with these wicked wraiths. For example, a lustful thought when viewing nudity in a movie or the urge to get drunk in a bar. These we force upon ourselves by putting ourselves in these situations. In these instances, turn off the television and exit the bar.

Following through with 2 Corinthians 10:5 while understanding the Bible as the word of God, (2 Timothy 3:16), permits us to submit life’s questions and mental machinations to the Lord and He will reveal the answer (Matthew 7:7, Mark 11:24, 1 John 5:14-15). This revelation can arise from the Holy Spirit, another individual, and/or the Holy Bible. Realizing our thoughts are not all our own may be a relief for some while unsettling for others. Either way, it is not without Biblical references.

In Acts 5:3, Peter asks Ananias and Saphira why Satan influenced them:

But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?”

Another example is the betrayer of Jesus, Judas Iscariot as described in John 13:2:

And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him

If the enemy’s troops possess the ability to influence our thought life, where did these seditious spirits originate? Genesis 6:1-4 imparts insight:

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

As mentioned in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 1:6, we know what happened to those angels who sinned. But what happened to the spirits of the Nephilim (the giants), the offspring of the angels who mated with women? Dr. Michael Heiser provides a detailed explanation. He posits the demons’ lineage as the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim. Other theories postulate the fallen angels as demons. Regardless of their genesis, demons exist and are the enemy’s hellish henchmen. One way or another, the fall of the angels spawned the demons which haunt humankind.

Between the fallen angels and demons, our struggle is with them and their acolytes and not our fellow man (Ephesians 6:12). Accepting this as the truth will empower us to see our fellow man, not as a foe but an exploited vector the enemy coerces to transmit its will in this spiritual war.

Fill the Earth

But there’s a third fall that we need to discuss. After the flood, God instructed Noah in Genesis 9:1-3:

So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.”

Compare that with what God told Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28:

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

In both instances, God commanded them to:

• be fruitful
• multiply
• fill the earth
• subdue it
• take dominion over earth’s creatures

But sadly, just like Adam and Eve, Noah’s descendants fell short.

This leads us to the third fall. One with dire consequences for mankind and society. Our third stop on this sin matrix expedition is on the plains of Shinar at the Tower of Babel.

The Fall of Society

Genesis 11:1-4 states:

Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

There is a lot to unpack in Genesis 11. But our focus is on the rebellion of society (the world) against God’s command to Noah and his sons to fill the earth as explained in Genesis 9:1.

The time between Genesis 9 and 11 is roughly 300-400 years with the world population estimated at a few hundred up to hundreds of thousands! Regardless of the number, they failed to worship the Creator by defying His command to fill the earth and worshiped themselves in the process (Genesis 11:4). This is akin to Adam and Eve’s choice in Genesis 3 and the angels’ in Genesis 6.

Adam and Eve believed the serpent’s words in Genesis 3 and ignored the Lord’s word in Genesis 2:17. In Genesis 6, the angels transitioned their God-given mandate from watching over the people to lusting after the women and ultimately fornicating with them. And in Genesis 11, society turned their back on God by worrying about being scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth, while establishing a name for themselves. The aftermath of these actions affected the entire human race.

Spiritual Warfare

Each of these three Falls; the fall of man (Genesis 3 account), the fall of the angels (Genesis 6 account), and the fall of society (Genesis 11 account) are the paths the enemy and his horde traverse to attack humanity. Our flesh, demons, and the world is the nucleus of the sin matrix. By not trusting in God but trusting in ourselves, enticed by the enemy and his minions, and persuaded by the world, is the expressway to sin.

Let’s connect this to the Bible where Paul summarizes this as the flesh (Genesis 3 account), the devil (Genesis 6 account), and the world (Genesis 11 account) in Ephesians 2:1-3:

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

James confirms the sin matrix triumvirate in James 3:14-16 where he illustrates the lie against the truth is earthly (Genesis 11 account), sensual (Genesis 3 account), and demonic (Genesis 6 account):

But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

The ability to recognize sin’s pathway in our life through the sin matrix is a powerful resource in spiritual warfare. This sin matrix is the why of spiritual warfare.

No matter what we do, or try, sin will find us out (Numbers 32:23). So where do we turn? Who or what can save us from our sins? Who is our redeemer? There is someone who can sympathize with our weaknesses as He, in every way, was tempted the way we are (Hebrews 4:15). Yet, He did not yield to temptation but overcame sin and the grave (Isaiah 53:9, 1 Peter 2:22, Romans 8:2).

Redemption

Since the moment sin entered and corrupted the world via the serpent, Adam, and Eve, sacrifices were required to allow a man to enter God’s presence. God performed the first sacrifice when He supplied animal coverings for the newly fearful and afraid Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). And Exodus 29 along with Leviticus 4, Numbers 19 and elsewhere, prescribed animal sacrifices for the covering of sin. These sacrifices needed to be continuous for they did not remove sin as they were temporary as articulated in Hebrews 10:1-4.

But God had a greater plan. An ultimate sacrifice not for the covering of sin, but for the removal of sin. Jesus is the fulfillment of that plan. As Jesus said, “I did not come to abolish the law, but fulfill it” (Matthew 5:17-18). There is now no need for further sacrifice, as Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension grant us entry to the Lord’s throne of grace (Hebrews 10:8-14 and Hebrews 4:16). Jesus is our redeemer. He delivered us from death to life (Colossians 2:13-14). Hebrews 10:1-14 presents a sweeping summary.

How to Overcome the Sin Matrix

We provide the enemy with a gateway or access point into our lives when we yield to temptation and sin (John 5:14, 1 John 3:8). But, no matter what we go through, we know Someone who understands our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15) and He always makes room for our escape during times of temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).

But if you haven’t given yourself to Jesus yet, you are powerless in this battle. If you are ready to make Jesus the Lord of your life, it’s simple and available to everyone. Romans 10 says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart then you will be saved. This is the decisive step towards spiritual victories in your life and your soul’s redemption.

For those who placed their hope and faith in Jesus Christ, our battlefield is in the spiritual dimension. And when we sin, we grant the enemy a place in our life. Only through the strength and might of the Lord can we fight off the temptation to sin and overcome the sin matrix. And when we do, we experience victory through the Lord!