The good news of the gospel includes Christ’s triumph over Satan at the cross.
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”(Colossians 2:15)
How did Jesus disarm the powers and authorities? The previous verse says:
“And you ... He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13-14)
The ‘handwriting of requirements’ against us was the law! As long as we were under the law, our relationship with God was based on our performance (rather than Christ’s). And because mankind fell short so often, the law became a curse to us.
While we were enslaved by the law, Satan (the accuser of the brethren) could accuse us day and night before God.
But Jesus came and smashed this arrangement! Jesus, the perfect lamb of God, came down to earth as a man and fulfilled the law in its entirety! Because of this, we have been freed from the law, and the sin which it empowered! We’ve been freed from having to perform for God!
We are now in Christ, and assume His righteousness. There is now no condemnation in Christ! We don’t need to earn brownie points from God. Our good works are now merely a response to His love revealed on the cross. We love because he first loved us. How sweet it is to have a relationship with the Father based on what Christ did for us, and not through our own works. We have nothing to prove. Jesus did it all!
So when Satan comes to accuse – his mouth is SHUT! He can’t say anything to us. His weapon of accusation has been stripped from him. He is powerless to condemn. He has been disarmed! When he came to tempt Jesus, he found nothing in Him, and now that we are in Christ, he can find nothing in us!
We are no longer under the power of the enemy, law, sin or death. Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Authority Reclaimed
After dying for us, Christ rose from the dead and sat down at the right hand of the Father.
“He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under His feet.” (Ephesians 1v20-23)
The enemy is under his feet! Crushed beneath those sandals!
But there’s more: God has also raised us up in Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly places! (Ephesians 2v6). Therefore, any time we bump into the enemy we are looking down on him from our throne! We are peering down at his bald spot.
Victory is hard-wired into our new creation DNA.
In Christ, we have authority over the enemy. The original authority that God gave Adam in the garden, and which was lost to the enemy at the fall, was reclaimed by Christ at His resurrection, and He then passed this authority back to those who are His.
The enemy has nothing on a Christian! We can turn our backs on him in rest, knowing that we are covered, just like Smith Wigglesworth did when the devil appeared to him in his room. “Oh, its only you” he is reported to have said, turning over in his bed and going back to sleep.
Nothing can pluck us from our Father’s hand! (John 10v29) Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. What joy there is in this. Let us rest in the finished works of the cross, assured of our triumphant union with Christ.
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”(Colossians 2:15)
How did Jesus disarm the powers and authorities? The previous verse says:
“And you ... He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13-14)
The ‘handwriting of requirements’ against us was the law! As long as we were under the law, our relationship with God was based on our performance (rather than Christ’s). And because mankind fell short so often, the law became a curse to us.
While we were enslaved by the law, Satan (the accuser of the brethren) could accuse us day and night before God.
But Jesus came and smashed this arrangement! Jesus, the perfect lamb of God, came down to earth as a man and fulfilled the law in its entirety! Because of this, we have been freed from the law, and the sin which it empowered! We’ve been freed from having to perform for God!
We are now in Christ, and assume His righteousness. There is now no condemnation in Christ! We don’t need to earn brownie points from God. Our good works are now merely a response to His love revealed on the cross. We love because he first loved us. How sweet it is to have a relationship with the Father based on what Christ did for us, and not through our own works. We have nothing to prove. Jesus did it all!
So when Satan comes to accuse – his mouth is SHUT! He can’t say anything to us. His weapon of accusation has been stripped from him. He is powerless to condemn. He has been disarmed! When he came to tempt Jesus, he found nothing in Him, and now that we are in Christ, he can find nothing in us!
We are no longer under the power of the enemy, law, sin or death. Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Authority Reclaimed
After dying for us, Christ rose from the dead and sat down at the right hand of the Father.
“He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under His feet.” (Ephesians 1v20-23)
The enemy is under his feet! Crushed beneath those sandals!
But there’s more: God has also raised us up in Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly places! (Ephesians 2v6). Therefore, any time we bump into the enemy we are looking down on him from our throne! We are peering down at his bald spot.
Victory is hard-wired into our new creation DNA.
In Christ, we have authority over the enemy. The original authority that God gave Adam in the garden, and which was lost to the enemy at the fall, was reclaimed by Christ at His resurrection, and He then passed this authority back to those who are His.
The enemy has nothing on a Christian! We can turn our backs on him in rest, knowing that we are covered, just like Smith Wigglesworth did when the devil appeared to him in his room. “Oh, its only you” he is reported to have said, turning over in his bed and going back to sleep.
Nothing can pluck us from our Father’s hand! (John 10v29) Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. What joy there is in this. Let us rest in the finished works of the cross, assured of our triumphant union with Christ.
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