Our Victory In Christ

For much of the time, as we get on with our day to day lives, we’re not so directly aware of the spiritual battle that is raging in the heavenlies, between truth and error, holiness and godlessness, light and darkness, righteousness and sin, love and hate, kindness and selfishness, life and death, good and evil, God and Satan.

But to those who know God, it sometimes – or even – often becomes more obvious. For example, when we are gripped by fear that a situation or a person we must face seems too much for us to cope with, so that we either lose our freedom to express ourselves or we lose control of our temper. Or lust that feels like it must be satisfied, even though its outcome would not be in keeping with God’s pure best for us. Or perhaps it’s the feeling that we’re just not good enough to be accepted by others. Or it could even be an essentially good desire to speak God’s needed challenge into someone’s life, which is then corrupted by self-righteousness with us thinking we’re better than them because we’re not doing what they are. In the end we push them further away from God rather than drawing them closer.

As C.S. Lewis so ably and humorously depicts in his classic “The Screwtape Letters”, demonic forces are still very much at work, seeking to distract us from our true lives and witness in Christ and to bring destruction into our relationships and society.

Thankfully our verse today (v15) reminds us that on the cross Jesus won the decisive victory over these forces.
His “disarming” them means he stripped them of their power to accuse Christians (those alive in Christ) before God.
His “putting them [the evil forces] to open shame” means exposing their inability to prevent God’s plan of salvation for those in Christ, to forgive our sin, deliver us from evil, and make us more like Jesus.

His “triumphing over them” conjures up images of military conquests where the defeated armies were “paraded, straggling behind the conquering army. Shamed, and exposed to public gaze, everyone can see that there is nothing to fear from these once proud soldiers” (R.C. Lucas).

Dear Lord Jesus, I praise you that on the cross you have defeated Satan and all his forces, so as to be able to forgive me my sin and give me your new life. I gladly and confidently pray ’lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil`’. Please teach me to discern when these enemy forces are causing me to lose perspective on who I am in you. In any such case today, I declare and trust, from the bottom of my heart, that you are the sovereign Lord over me and the whole situation. In the name of Jesus. Amen.