The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

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Scripture is clear that Satan’s eternal destiny is the unrelenting lake of fire. It is the place into which the antichrist, the false prophet, and all unbelievers are cast as well. It does not appear there is any reversal of fortune for those in hell. Nevertheless, some in the early church took a different view. 

Clement of Alexandria, for example, thought there was hope for the devil based on God’s limitless mercy. Clement’s pupil, Origen, took it a step further. He argued for apocatastasis, or the idea that all things made by God return to him. He once wrote, “We believe that the goodness of God through Christ will restore his entire creation to one end, even his enemies being conquered and subdued.”

 In Origen’s view, everyone – including Satan, evil spirits, and the most wicked humans – ultimately submit to God’s sovereignty and are saved. Thus, Satan ceases to be evil and has his angelic nature restored. 

Origen’s view never gained much traction. Jerome and Augustine countered it. And the Council of Constantinople II in AD 553 anathematized the idea that the demonic could revert to the angelic in nature. In Against the Darkness, Graham Cole summarizes, “The darkness won’t extinguish the light. The destiny of the darkness is its destruction. Fallen angels will experience the eternal fire. The devil may be the prince of this world. Be that as it may, in the next he has no kingdom.”

Satan cannot be saved – that is, restored to angelic holiness – for at least three reasons:

First, God has decreed that Satan will not be saved. The Lord has prepared the fires of hell for Satan and rebellious angels, who are cast into hell to be tormented night and day forever and ever – an unceasing suffering. Scripture offers no salvation to humans beyond the grave, or to Satan at any point after his rebellion. The biblical account is straightforward. The evil one rebelled, God prepared the lake of fire for him, and in the end God casts him into this place of unrelenting torment.

Second, Satan would refuse salvation if offered. Satan’s rebellion, committed in the perfection of the created order, and done with superior knowledge, wisdom, and power, was such that it is irrevocable. Nothing in Scripture hints at the possibility of Satan seeing the error of his ways and repenting. He knows his time is short, yet rather than repent – as humans facing their own mortality are urged to do – he turns up the heat to wreak as much havoc as possible on God’s reputation and God’s people. After a thousand years in the abyss, Satan is neither contrite nor converted. His first act is not to repent, but to lead a global rebellion.

Third, there is no provision for salvation for Satan and fallen angels. Jesus did not come in the likeness of sinful angels, but in the likeness of sinful human beings. Forgiveness of sins, eternal life, adoption as children of God, and much more are reserved only for those whose salvation was secured in the sinless life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, the God-Man. As the writer of Hebrews notes:

Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death ​— ​that is, the devil ​— ​and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. For it is clear that he does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring. Therefore, he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people (Heb. 2:14-17).

A real place

Jesus is clear that gehenna – hell, the lake of fire and sulfur, outer darkness – is a real place prepared for Satan and evil spirits. It is a place of separation, darkness, torment, hopelessness, and regret (but not remorse). And yet it is a place fully within the scope of God’s omnipresence, for Satan and demons are tormented in the presence of God and his holy angels, as are the wicked followers of the beast (Rev. 14:10).  

God designed hell as a final destination for Satan and rebellious angels. There is no hope of redemption for them. Not now. Not ever. But there is hope for sinful and fallen human beings. Christ came in the likeness of sinful humans, adding full humanity to his deity, and living a sinless life so he could offer it up to the Father as an acceptable substitute for us. 

Christ’s eternal life pays an eternal debt we owe an eternally offended God. Jesus’ death took the place of ours. His resurrection secured the keys of death and hades so that he is the firstfruits of the righteous dead (1 Cor. 15:20-23); we have his promise of future resurrection and glorification. 

Every person lives forever. But where, and how, are the key questions. And these questions are answered in our response to the most important question Jesus ever posed: “Who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). Many people answer wrongly today. They regard Jesus as a good man, a prophet, or perhaps even a god. But it’s not good enough to have a high opinion of Jesus. We must answer as Peter did: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). 

If we read chapters 12 and 20 of Revelation together, we gain a concise history of the evil one: (1) The dragon begins in the heavens (12:3); (2) he tries unsuccessfully to destroy Christ at his incarnation (12:4); (3) he is thrown to the earth for a season and deceives the nations (12:12); (4) he is cast into the abyss for a thousand years (20:3); (5) he is released for a short time and proceeds at once to deceive the nations (20:8); finally, (6) he is thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur to be tormented forever (20:10).

The same holy fire that lights the way for Israelites crossing the desert, that resides in the Holy of Holies above the mercy seat, and that blazes in the human spirits of the redeemed, finally engulfs Satan, evil spirits, and human unbelievers. The holiness of God warms; it also burns.

Next: Engaging the Evil One