The cross victory

We can imagine the victory laps Satan and his demons were doing the day Jesus was crucified. They really thought they'd stopped the greatest mission in history. They were convinced they had snuffed out the salvation plan of the Father. Lying in a cold dark tomb was their evidence - God's only Son, broken, bruised, beaten.

But Satan the deceiver was deceived. As Philip Yancey writes in The Jesus I Never Knew, 'In the most ironic twist of all history, what Satan meant for evil, God meant for good. Jesus' death bridged the gap between a perfect God and a fatally-flawed humanity. On Good Friday God defeated sin, routed death, triumphed over Satan and got his family back ... He took the worst deed of history and turned it into the greatest victory ... Between the cross and the empty tomb hovers the promise of history: hope for the world, and hope for each of us who lives in it.'

At the cross, Jesus cancelled the record of wrongs against us, nailing them up (see Colossians 2:13-15). And he disarmed the devil and all the spiritual rulers and authorities at his command, nailing them down. He comprehensively triumphed over Satan. In fact, it was a victory planned in Heaven: 'The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work' (1 John 3:8 NIV). Now who's doing the victory laps?



So what now? As you celebrate Jesus' resurrection, remind Satan of Jesus' victory over him and his works in your life. And thank Jesus that you are free indeed (see John 8:36).





— SCRIPTURE —

'With the cross, he won the victory.' Colossians 2:15 NCV
— SOULFOOD —

1 Cor 15, Luke 24:1-53