When one obeys the gospel of Christ, he lands a blow to the tyranny of Satan.  The devil, however, is resilient.  He does not give up easily.  The truth is, after one obeys the gospel, Satan tries harder than ever to destroy him.  The result is that we are constantly under the attack of the devil.

Baptism does some great things for us, but it will not stop us from being tempted by Satan.  Not only was Jesus tempted after He was baptized (Matthew 4:1-11), but the devil continued to harass Him after the first round of temptations that he hurled at Him.

Luke 4:13 (ESV)
¹³  And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

We are promised that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us (James 4:7), but what we are not promised is that he will stay away.   In fact, we know from experience that he will not.  We also know that if Satan had the audacity to attack our Lord, he will not hesitate to come after us as well.  No wonder Paul exhorted us to put on the whole armor of God (Ephesian 6:10-17).

While baptism is a part of the process that transforms us into new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), making us children of God, it also makes us soldiers in the Lord’s army.  That tells us that we are now engaged in spiritual warfare.  Paul often used language that reminds us of this truth.  Telling us to put on the armor of God is a warning that we are at war.  It is only on the battlefield that armor is necessary.  Paul wrote to the saints at Corinth about this war in which we are participating.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (ESV)
³  For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

It was military language that Jude used when he said that we must earnestly “contend” for the faith (Jude 1:3).  What is the point of all this?  Satan is our primary adversary.  He is on the prowl, trying to find his next victim.

1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)
⁸  Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

How does he attempt to devour us?  In part, he does so by tempting us with evil.  If we are to avoid becoming one of his casualties, we must be aware of his tactics.  We must never think, “Well, now that I have been baptized, I do not have to worry about that old serpent anymore.”  Thinking like this will lead to our demise for sure.

It is not an indictment of our spiritual strength to say that we will be tempted.  As we have seen, even Jesus was tempted by the devil.  That is not to say that He ever had any notion to give in to the temptation, but the devil kept trying away, and, to be sure, he will keep trying with us as well.  Be ready for it.  Prepare yourself to withstand Satan’s attacks because now that you have been baptized, you are in his crosshairs.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.