(Part 2 of 2)
“And I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush
your head, and you will strike his heel.”-Genesis 3:15
From the moment that God made
this declaration in the Garden of Eden, Satan’s only strategy has been to
disrupt, distract, and divert people away from God. Knowing that Jesus was
coming he worked overtime to thwart the plans of God all because he knew what
John would later pen to be true:
“For this purpose the son of
God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”-1 John 3:8
Jesus accomplished this by
disarming Satan at the cross!
“You were dead because of
your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made
you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of
charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he
disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his
victory over them on the cross.”-Colossians 2:13-15
The only real weapons Satan had
to use against us were accusations and the fear of death, but Jesus silenced
the accuser (as he rehearsed our sins before God) when he took the penalty for
our sins upon Himself on the cross.
Then Jesus completely disarmed
him when three days later He came out of the tomb:
“Because God’s children are
human beings-made of flesh and blood-the Son also became flesh and blood. For
only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power
of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could He set free
all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.”-Hebrews
2:14-15(NLT)
Satan tormented mankind with
the fear of death. Fear was the key to Satan’s power and Jesus stripped him of
it. We know this because Jesus said in Revelation 1:18:
“I am the living one, I
died, but look-I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys to death and
the grave.”-
Some of you reading this have
been living under the condemnation and accusation of the devil for years. He
keeps whispering in your ear things like: “God doesn’t love you.”, “You will
never be good enough.”, “Your sins are too many.” Can I tell you that Jesus
silenced the accuser at the cross for you.
Some of you are crippled by
fear! Fear of the known and the unknown. You feel distant and separated from
God and see know hope for your future. Can I tell you that Jesus rose from the
grave to give us hope.
Let me encourage you and tell
you with confidence what I know to be true:
“No, despite all these
things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am
convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor
life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither our fears for today nor our worries
about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No
power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation
will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ
Jesus our Lord.”-Romans 8:37-39
Pastor Scott Burr
Dayspring Community Church
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