Does God Love Satan? A Study From the Bible

Does God love Satan? Can Satan repent and be saved? What does the Bible say about how God feels about Satan?

Can Satan Repent?

I have had people ask me why Satan can’t repent and still be saved. All I can answer is that God knows the end from the beginning and that history is His-story. Prophecy is history written in advance and since God knows what will happen into eternity, then He already understands that Satan will not repent, therefore Satan will not ever be saved. How do we know? If we take just a quick reading about Satan’s soon coming fate from the Book of Revelation, we know his ultimate fate, “I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while” (Revelation 20:1-3).

One of the greatest attributes of God is that He is a God of love

Satan is bound for some time but then after “the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:7-10). So we see that Satan’s fate is sealed, otherwise God would not have inspired the Apostle John to write of the Devil’s ultimate fate. That he will be cast into the lake of fire and be forever tormented there, day and night, is as sure as you exist today reading this. This is certain for “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

Could Satan Have Repented?

I believe it is never too late for human beings to repent because as long as they are drawing breath, they have time because they are not judged until they die. With Satan it is different. When God created the angels, they were made for eternity and they determined early on their fate whether they would obey God or not. When Satan’s pride lifted him up and he wanted to not only take over the throne of God but to be in place of God, he was cast out of heaven. At this early point, Satan could have repented and confessed his sin to God but pride has a way of blinding us creatures. Pride destroys our rational thought and behavior and makes us bigger in our own eyes than we actually are. How deceived could Satan be to think that a creature could overtake the Creator Himself? That is unimaginable but that is what pride does.

God is Pleased with His Creation and Creatures

God was well pleased and said after the creation that He “saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31). Since what God originally created was good and He was well pleased with it, we can assume that He was also pleased by His creatures that He had created because humans and the angels were part of His creation. We can conclude that God was pleased with both created things and creatures, including mankind, animals, birds, insects…and surely the angels. The difference here was that the angels had already been in existence before the earth was created. How do we know that? God spoke to Job about this. The Book of Job is believed to be the oldest book of the Bible, written before Genesis. In this book God told Job about the angels in chapter 38:5-7 “Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” The phrase “the sons of God” is understood to be angels. God implies to Job, where were you when the angels were created?

Since God created all the angels at the same time and that they are spirit beings, we know that they will live forever. God speaks to Ezekiel about the fallen angel, Lucifer, who was once perfect, saying in 28:13-15 “You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created. They were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you.” But Satan became proud and his “heart was proud because of [his] beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground” (Ezekiel 28:17). Since God is a God of love, surely he loved His creatures, Lucifer-turned-Satan included.

Conclusion

One of the greatest attributes of God is that He is a God of love (1 John 4:8). He loves us and He so loved the world that Jesus came to die to redeem us (John 3:16). Why would God feel any less than love for His angelic creatures since God is the perfect fulfillment of love? God loves humanity and so how could He not also love His angels…even the fallen ones like Satan and the demons. God hates the sin but loves the sinner so He must also still love Satan and remembers Satan before his fall. A person is loved not by what they do but because they are His creatures. God is love, therefore God loves His creatures and this includes those who have and will reject His Son, Jesus Christ. It is too late for Satan to repent. God knows His ultimate fate (Revelation 20) but there is still time for you to receive eternal life by repenting, confessing your sins and putting your trust in the Savior. That is my prayer for you today because this is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). Tomorrow may be too late. For you who are reading this and are not born again, it is not too late like it is for Satan (Revelation 20:10). Why not put your trust in the only One Who can save you? That is Jesus Christ (Acts 16:30-31). If not, you can read about your own eternal destiny and it is not a pretty picture (Revelation 20:12-15).