Articles
God and Satan
In the beginning God made the Heavens and the Earth. God made the waters and blue skies, the dry land and the plants and trees, the birds and the fish He made them alive. The living creatures, the sun moon and stars, and perhaps His greatest creation, man, all came from Him! The bible says all that He made, He said it was very good! But in Genesis 3 we come across the serpent who tempted Eve and the rest is history (Man’s fall, Gen. 3:15). Since then, there has been a cosmic struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, sin and life. Satan has been seeking to turn people away from God and looking to attack and defeat God (Job, 1 Pet. 5:8, 2 Cor. 4:4). While Satan has tried his best time and time again to lead men away from God, God set a plan in motion that would crush Satan forever and deliver such a powerful blow that he would never recover from. We may often think of God and Satan as going back and forth, as an ongoing chess game but it is not so! God has won the battle and the victory is His!
1. God is Victorious- God is all-powerful (Jer. 32:17), God is all knowing, and God loves You! Jesus Christ was the fullest realization of God’s plan to destroy Satan and redeem man and so it happened. The victory was gained at the Cross. The cross of Christ. The destruction of Satan’s stronghold has already been guaranteed through Christ’s death, burial and resurrection from the dead. It was a defeat for Satan in that his activity—his power in some real way—was and is curtailed towards God’s people. As Revelation 12:11 says regarding faithful Christians, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” Christ’s ministry was also an invasion of Satan’s realm. Christ came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people”(Matthew 4:23). Christ preached the Kingdom of God and then demonstrated its power. He told the people of His day that casting out demons was clearly the work of God’s Kingdom (Matthew 12:24-29).
2. Satan is Finished- Satan is limited, Satan lacks all understanding and Satan Hates You! The following passages demonstrate the defeat and failure of the devil. Gen. 3:15, 1 Jn. 3:8, Rev. 1:18, Heb. 2:14-15, Matt. 25:41, Rev. 20:10. He wants you to fail! Satan’s greatest scheme is the fear of death that we all have, but Christ defeated! Christ has the keys to Death and Hades and like Jesus we too can overcome death if we are abiding in Him! The Devil knows he is done for and he is going to hell. He uses all his time looking to devour those that are for God and for life! The Scriptures make it clear that Satan’s evil influence over mankind is destined to end. Speaking of Christ, Hebrews 2:14-15 says, “Through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” The word destroy in this passage means to ruin, put out of action or render inoperative. God has conquered Satan and death. He has demolished he who stands against us and it is up to you and me to make a decision and choose whose side we will be on. “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”(Matt. 12:30) In the end God will welcome all those that have listened to Him and obeyed His commandments into Heaven and He will banish those you haven’t from His presence forever. We can choose to live forever with Him or we can choose to face destruction for eternity with the devil in Hell. We need not fear the devil when God is on our side.
We must constantly look to Him for He is the author and finisher of our faith. Through His blood we can conquer sin and death. “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”(Rev. 12:11) These Christians when faced with death chose to die for their faith because they knew they’d live forever with God. They understood that if God was for them who could be against them. They were willing to die for that. Would you be able to do the same?
I don’t know about you, but I want to be in the victor’s court. When the clock starts ticking down and it comes down to one last shot I want to be with the one that can help we win and give me hope. Christ has defeated Satan and given us an opportunity to live forever with Him! Resist the devil and fight him with the armor of God. Walk with God and He will guide your paths. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Prov. 3:5-6)
