Across religious tradition, particularly within Christianity, the Devil is portrayed as relentlessly tempting humanity, celebrating every moral failure and every fall from grace. This raises a profound question: why is the Devil so intensely focused on humans? Why not indifference, but active jealousy and hostility?
One powerful explanation lies at the very heart of Christian belief: God did not become an angel, He became a man.
The Incarnation and the Root of Envy
Christian teaching holds that God the Son chose to incarnate as a human being to redeem humankind. This single truth elevates humanity in a way no other creature experiences. Among all creation, humans were deemed worthy of divine union, God sharing our flesh, our suffering, and our mortality.
What could provoke deeper envy than this?
Angels, Freedom, and the Fall
Angels were created first, inhabiting heaven itself. They were endowed with intelligence, power, freedom, and proximity to God’s glory. Nothing was withheld from them in terms of spiritual gifts.
Yet with freedom comes responsibility. Some angels, led by Lucifer, chose pride over obedience and self-exaltation over love. Their fall was not due to weakness, but to refusal, a refusal to serve and to accept their place within God’s order.
Humanity: Created for Growth, Not Instant Perfection
Unlike angels, humans were not created in heaven. We were placed instead in a physical, imperfect world marked by suffering, struggle, and limitation. At first glance, this appears to be a lesser gift, but it is not.
Angels, once created, remain what they are. Their choice for or against God was decisive and final. Humans, however, are given time, time to struggle, to fail, to repent, and to freely choose love again and again.
This process is not a flaw in God’s design. It is the opportunity He offers us.
The Gift Angels Do Not Have
One of the most striking differences between angels and humans is the power to procreate. Angels do not create; they remain singular, unchanging beings. Humans, on the other hand, are invited to participate in God’s creative love.
When a man and a woman unite in love and bring forth a child, they cooperate with God in creation. This is not merely biological, it is profoundly spiritual.
Through parenthood, humans experience a reflection of divine love: a love that sacrifices, protects, forgives, and hopes endlessly for the good of another.
Why the Devil Seeks Our Fall
Here lies the core of the Devil’s jealousy.
Humans are weak, yet redeemable. Wounded, yet capable of holiness. Earth-bound, yet destined for heaven.
Every human who chooses humility, repentance, and love becomes a living reminder of what the fallen angels lost, and can never regain. This is why temptation is relentless and why every human downfall is celebrated in darkness.
Made in the Image and Likeness of God
To be made in the image and likeness of God is not merely about intelligence or dominion. It is about love that creates, love that sacrifices, and love that gives life.
Humans are formed through trial so that, when earthly life ends, we are capable of entering heaven not as entitled beings, but as grateful ones. Heaven is not merely a place of glory; it is a place of perfected love.
And that, perhaps, is the greatest reason for the Devil’s jealousy, because this journey into love is something angels do not have.
References & Further Reading
- Genesis 1:26–28 - Creation in God’s image
- John 1:14 - The Word became flesh
- Hebrews 2:5–18 - Christ’s solidarity with humanity
- St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies
- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters