Jesus Came to Defeat Satan: Page 70

Jesus Came to Defeat Satan
 

Second, Christ left the heavenly home of His Father and came down to the earth, to enemy territory, to demonstrate His great love for us (Ephesians 2:4),

 

and to initiate the downward spiral of Satan, the great deceiver, the one that had corrupted the earth (Genesis 1:28); 

 

for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth (Genesis 6:12), 

 

2 walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2).
 

God says in Ezekiel 18:4, Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. 

 

What Christ was about to accomplish was not understood. 

 

7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 

 

8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (I Corinthians 2:7-8). 

 

God had blinded the mind of Satan, the angels, and man to what would be accomplished by the cross work (Ephesians 3:9-12).

 

God’s justice was satisfied. 

Christ would first defeat sin and death. Satan had deceived and ambushed and claimed so much of God’s creation, one third of the angels (Revelation 12:4) 

 

and an innumerable number of men’s souls. 

 

Jesus said to the Pharisees 

 

44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it (John 8:44).
 

10b BUT NOW, Christ hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel (II Timothy 1:10b).
 

12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 

 

13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 

 

14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 

 

15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if had so be that the dead rise not. 

 

16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 

 

17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 

 

18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 

 

19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 

 

20 BUT NOW is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. 

 

21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 

 

22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit (I Corinthians 15:12-22, 45).
 

14 That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil (Hebrews 2:14).
 

15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it (Colossians 2:15).
 

18 And (the resurrected) Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18).

Jesus reassured His disciples that after His death, burial, and resurrection, He would go to the Father and the Comforter would come, and Satan would be judged; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged (John 16:11). 

 

What a glorious day it must have been when the Lord Jesus Christ ascended through the heavens, through a maze of fallen angels, into the presence of His heavenly Father, and then was asked to sit down at the right hand of the power of God (Luke 22:69). 

 

What a joyous day it must have been when the faithful angels were present to praise God as the risen Jesus Christ ascended to His rightful position in heaven. 

 

This was God’s celebrated initial step toward restoring the heavens.
 

7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels 

 

8 and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 

 

9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him (Revelation 12:7-9).
 

The havoc that Satan and his entourage of fallen angels had been creating on earth will finally come to an end during a latter portion of the Dispensation of the AGES TOo COME (Isaiah 27:1; Revelation 12:9). 

 

From our heavenly seats, we will witness Satan’s displacement from the third heaven to the second heaven, to the earth, where he will be temporarily chained in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, and then be loosed for a short season to deceive the nations. 

 

After his judgment, he will receive his just due. He will be cast into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:2, 7, 10).