368 The Spiritual Man
he absolutely must resist making all confessions to men which are
motivated by sheer force from outside, for the enemy often tries to
compel him to do this.
Real conviction from the Holy Spirit leads us to holiness while the
aim of Satan is solely to accuse. He indicts us to make us indict
ourselves. His motive is nothing other than to make Christians suffer.
Sometimes after one has accepted the enemy’s imputation and
confessed accordingly, Satan may next fill him with a false peace.
This is no small danger for it deprives the believer of any real
contrition over defeat. The reproach of conscience ceases once the
sin is confessed and cleansed by the precious blood, but the
accusation of the enemy continues even after what is accused has
been dealt with. The former leads us to the precious blood; the latter
drives us to despair, causing us to reckon ourselves irredeemable.
The purpose of Satan is to engineer our fall through accusations:
“Since we cannot be perfect,” sighs the believer resignedly, “then
what is the use?”
At times the accusation of Satan is added to the rebuke of
conscience. The sin is real, but when it has been treated according to
the mind of the Holy Spirit the accusation continues because the evil
spirit has joined his indictment to the reproach of the conscience. It is
therefore a matter of utmost concern that we preserve an
uncompromising attitude towards sin: not merely yielding no ground
to the enemy to indict but also learning how to differentiate between
the reprimand of the Holy Spirit and the accusation of the evil spirit
and learning how to distinguish what is exclusively the enemy’s
charge from what is his charge mixed in with the reproach of
conscience. We must realize most assuredly that the Holy Spirit
never reproves further if the sin is cleansed by the precious blood and
forsaken.