Is Satan the Only Angel to Sin?

A reader recently wrote in to ask,

“Is Satan the first of God’s creation to sin, besides Adam and Eve? Is Satan the only angel to sin?”

Thanks for asking, Lucy!

Yes, Satan was the first created being to sin. Often when Christians think of the first sin, they think of Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the garden of Eden. That was the first human sin, but the first sin according to Scripture was committed by Satan. We learn about his fall in Isaiah 14:12–15:

How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.

Satan’s sin was pride. He was a beautiful, wise, and powerful angelic being. The Bible calls him a “cherub” in Ezekiel 28:16 and says that he can disguise himself as an “angel of light” in 2 Corinthians 11:14. Satan became jealous of God’s authority. Instead of serving and worshipping God, Satan wanted to be served and worshipped himself.

The Bible does not tell us of another sin before Satan’s. If God wanted us to know, we can trust that he would have told us in his Word. Because he didn’t, we can safely assume that Satan was the first created being to sin, and Adam and Eve were the first humans to sin.

Satan’s rebellion probably happened sometime after creation week. After God had made everything, including Satan and the angels, he “saw everything that he had made, and . . . it was very good” (Genesis 1:31–2:1). According to Ezekiel 28:15, Satan was originally “blameless.” So even Satan was considered very good at one time!

God wouldn’t have called Satan’s rebellion “very good,” so it must have happened after day six. Satan’s fall probably didn’t happen on day seven of creation week either, as God sanctified (blessed) the seventh day, and God probably wouldn’t bless a day when a great rebellion happened. Satan likely sinned shortly after day seven.

Satan wasn’t the only angelic being to sin against his Creator. Other angels followed him in this rebellion. Satan became “the evil one” (1 John 3:12), and God cast him and his followers out of heaven (Isaiah 14:12; Revelation 12:7–12).

After this angelic fall, Satan tempted Eve. Sadly, Adam and Eve chose to listen to Satan and disobey God by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God had forbidden. Even though Satan had sinned first, according to Romans 5:12–21, sin entered the world through Adam: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

Satan and his angels continue doing evil to this day, but ultimately, they are defeated. In the end, God will throw them into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:7–10; Matthew 25:41).

Jesus won the victory over Satan, sin, and death when he died on the cross and rose again. We have nothing to fear when we put our hope and trust in him!

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