Thank You, Father, for watching over me and the other bus drivers, teachers, and students this morning with the major storm that came through this morning.
1 Corinthians 15:12-28 (<<click here to read the passage)
I spoke yesterday of Jesus’ victory over sin and death, but there are two more things that He has (and will) overcome in setting things right for us and all creation – Satan and evil.
Satan (and I hate even typing his name) likes to have us believe that he’s powerful and unstoppable, and in reality, he has a snowball’s chance in…well, you know where. He is already defeated but does what he does, not because God Almighty supports or encourages it but because He allows it.
He has many convinced that he is that way, but Jesus, in a heated tongue-lashing of the Jewish spiritual leaders of His day, had this to say of him.
You [the Pharisees] are of your father the devil, and it is your will to practice the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar and the father of lies and half-truths. John 8:44 AMP
Ouch! When it came to His interactions with the ones who should have known better, Jesus sugarcoated nothing!
Satan is that father of lies and half-truths, and he may have thought he won when Jesus proclaimed from the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Jesus’ work was done. He had completed the task assigned Him by the Father that would save our souls and seal Satan’s fate.
First, read this encouraging passage as penned by the Apostle Paul,
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (worldliness, manner of life), God made you alive together with Christ, having [freely] forgiven us all our sins, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of legal demands [which were in force] against us and which were hostile to us. And this certificate He has set aside and completely removed by nailing it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through the cross. Colossians 2:13-15 AMP
Jesus has triumphed over Satan and his minions, and it is also true that Satan was also finished by Jesus’ victory!
He tries his best to hinder us because Satan knows his days are numbered. He hates passages like the one found in Romans 8:37-39,
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us]. For I am convinced [and continue to be convinced—beyond any doubt] that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present and threatening, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the [unlimited] love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. AMP
In Christ, we are invincible! Nothing and no one can stand in our way!
Next time, we will examine Jesus’ ultimate victory over evil!
Feb 28th, 2024, Wed, 12:47 pm
