What constitutes the devil of the Bible?
It is simply human nature with its fleshly impulses. Human nature, with its lusts, can be manifested in various ways: personally, communally, politically. I possess it. You possess it. Every member of the Adamic race possesses it. And, in order to deliver us from both it and death, Jesus Christ possessed it, as otherwise he could not have destroyed it. The Bible says so. Consider the following references: “He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:26). “For as much then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil” (Heb. 2:14). It is this devil – human nature, or “sin’s flesh”, Romans 8:3 – that tempts us, not the alleged superhuman monster of Christendom. Thus, “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed” (James 1:14). Even of Jesus Christ it is written: “In all points he was tempted like as we are” (Hebrews
