As soon as Christ was identified on earth as the Son of God, the devil was hell bent to get rid of Him! In his mind, once accomplished, he would have rendered God’s plan to save the world a failure. He let loose his fury on Jesus in a fabricated, unjust trial with one beating after another even pounding a crown of thorns into his skull and thrusting a sword into His side! Then, of all the deaths he could have selected to display his absolute control of this world, Christ would be murdered on a humiliating cross in a horrendous mockery of God versus his satanic power. Then, at 3:00 in the afternoon, Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” The devil’s immediate response was, “I won!” But in the spiritual world, just the opposite occurred. He royally got his rear end kicked.
Colossians 2:13-14, shares what God planned all along, “And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.” On the Cross, Jesus forgave each one of us for our sins. And by forgiving us, He had erased our “certificate of debt” setting us free!Then, in verse 15, the spiritual world realized what a shellacking our Lord and Savior gave the devil, “He (Jesus) disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.” The devil must have screamed out in utter dismay, “Oh No! I made a colossal mistake!” Make sure you understand the magnitude of the power of the cross. The devil and his forces were “disarmed” and “disgraced”. We are charged to live out this wonderful grace and mercy daily celebrating the victory. Christ in you is triumphant!
Romans 12:37-39 says this way, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
A couple days ago, my sister texted me the following quote, “Does it sometimes seem to you that Satan has the upper hand in the struggle of the ages? Does it look like he is the one who knows how to fight to win, and God always seems to pick the losing strategy? Turn the other cheek. Bless those who persecute you. Love your enemies. Preach Christ and Him crucified and not with what the world thinks in eloquent wisdom. Choose the weak things of the world. It’s almost as though God shows up on the playground to pick His team, and instead of picking the guys who look like they can play, He picks the obviously inferior team. And how does it always turn out? God triumphs every time” (Jim Hamilton).
Barnabas Man 