The God of Peace will Crush Satan under our Feet as we Corporately Enjoy Christ as Peace

When we in the church life are dependent on the Lord and on the Body, and when we enjoy Christ and experience Him as our peace offering in the Body, the God of peace will crush Satan under our feet shortly.

The God of peace crushes Satan under the feet of those who live the church life and experience Christ as their peace. On the cross all the differences among mankind, the differences due to ordinances, were abolished by Christ, and in so doing, Christ made peace for His body.

This peace should bind us as believers in Christ together, and this peace should be a uniting bond in which we keep the oneness of the Spirit.

If we truly see this and realise that all the differences have been abolished by Christ on the cross, we see the divine thought concerning the peace offering, and we will allow Christ to deal with any negative thing in us that hinders Christ from having His body.

The key to having peace in the family life and the church life is remaining on the cross. When the cross of Christ operates in us and terminates all the negative things and all the differences, we will keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.

If we allow the divine Spirit, which is the uniting Spirit, to pass through us and link us, build us up, and bind us with the saints in the Body, we will experience the oneness and peace in the Body.

The divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit is the uniting Spirit, the uniting bond of peace, and He wants to cross us and build us up with the saints.

It is a wonderful sight to see saints who may not be very much alike in their natural constitution, but they are open to one another, they are being built together, and all the differences are crossed out, for they allow the uniting Spirit to cross them and link them together.

Furthermore, for the spiritual warfare we need to have our feet shod with the firm foundation of the gospel of peace. When we experience the peace of Christ in the Body of Christ and announce Christ we peace, our feet are firmly shod with the gospel of peace that we may stand in the spiritual warfare.

The gospel of peace, which issues from our experience of Christ as the peace offering, is our firm standing in the spiritual warfare.

Peace and war are opposite, but the God of peace will crush Satan under our feet shortly, when we experience Christ as our peace in the church life corporately, and when we depend not only on Christ but also depend on the Body, being properly related to the Body in peace.

May we look to the Lord in prayer that He would give us the experiences we need for Him to be our peace in the Body and for the Body of Christ.

The God of Peace will Crush Satan under our Feet as we Corporately Enjoy Christ as Peace

After speaking concerning the proper living of the church life in Romans 16, Paul says, Now the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly (Rom. 16:20).

Why does it say that the God of peace will crush Satan, and not the God of power, the God of resurrection, the Sovereign God, or the God of light?

If we prayerfully study the Epistle to the Romans we see that throughout this book Paul addresses both the Jewish and Gentile believers, and all these are being brought into a real oneness of the Body, which is the issue of enjoying Christ as the peace offering.

When in a local church all the saints enjoy Christ as the peace offering with God and with one another, and God and them are at peace, they are in harmony inwardly and with God, and there’s nothing in their being at odds with God.

When a local church is in such a situation, the God of peace will crush Satan under the feet of the saints.

When the church life is constituted with our experience of Christ as the peace offering, when we live in peace, when we experience Christ as peace, and when all the divisive factors are gone, the God of peace will crush Satan under the feet of the church.

God promises that He will crush Satan under the feet of those who live the church life; this shows that the crushing of Satan is related to the church life.

Dealing with Satan is not an individual matter but a Body matter; the God of peace crushes Satan not under the feet of a particular spiritual person but under the feet of the saints living the church life in peace and oneness (see Eph. 6:10-18).

It is only when we have a proper local church as the practical expression of the Body in peace that Satan is crushed under our feet (Rom. 16:1, 4, 20).

Some local churches are in actuality powerless to engage in spiritual warfare – even in their prayer meeting – because Christ as peace has not been experienced and applied for the sake of the Body in the saints’ experience.

May we open to the Lord concerning this matter and be before Him honestly, asking Him in prayer,

Lord Jesus, may we in the church life enjoy and experience Christ as the peace offering so that the God of peace will crush Satan under our feet shortly. May all the saints enjoy and experience Christ as the peace offering in the Body and for the Body, having peace with God and peace with man, so that Satan would be crushed under our feet. Amen, Lord, gain a proper living of the church life in all the local churches, so that every local church would be a practical and proper expression of the Body of Christ and the God of peace would crush Satan under our feet shortly!

Depending on the Lord and on the Body to have Genuine Peace, the Peace of Christ

Through Christ God reconciled all things to Himself, whether the things in the heavens or the things on earth (Col. 1:20). Christ is the active instrument through which God reconciled all things to Himself. Through Christ all things entered into peace with God.

Because of the fall of man, all creation entered into enmity and rebellion toward God; but when Christ came and died on the cross, all things were reconciled to God through the blood of Christ on the cross. Hallelujah!

We believers have been called to the peace of Christ in one Body (Col. 3:15). On one hand we long to live in a personal peace with the Lord by bringing all things to Him, conversing with Him, and living a life of forbearance and without any anxiety.

But actually our peace needs to be corporate and real, and such a peace comes by depending not only on the Lord but also on the Body of Christ. No one who is independent of the Body has real peace; dependence on the Body brings in genuine peace (Gal. 6:16).

Dependence on the Lord and dependence on the Body brings in real peace. How do we know that we are dependent on God? It is by having a genuine peace within us. How do we know we depend on the Body? It is by having peace within us.

However, this peace has to be genuine; if we are independent of the Body and claim we have peace, then this peace is not real.

If we think that we don’t need the brothers and the sisters in the church life, but we can live the Christian life on our own and we can preach the gospel and care for people by ourselves, and we claim we have peace, this peace is not genuine.

When we are dependent on the Lord and on the Body, there’s no need for the self to manufacture a kind of peace and then strive to maintain it. When the self manufactures peace, after a while this peace disappears, and we are not at peace with the Lord and with the Body.

But if we really depend on the Lord and on the Body, we will automatically have true peace, genuine peace, which is the peace of Christ to which we were called in one Body. No one who is independent of the Body can have real peace; instead of peace, they have the self, and what they claim to be peace is a self-manufactured peace.

Our peace is in the realm of the Body. We need to allow the peace of Christ, which is Christ Himself as the peace of the Body, to arbitrate in our hearts, adjusting us and deciding all things in our hearts in our relationships with the members of His Body (Col. 3:15).

The peace of Christ needs to be the umpire, the presiding factor, in our being; the peace needs to be enthroned as a ruler and decider of everything.

We are called to peace in one Body; for the proper Body life we need the peace of Christ to arbitrate and adjust all things in our heart, especially in the relationships between us and the members of the Body of Christ.

And we need to be thankful. As the peace of Christ arbitrates in our heart and we live the church life in peace and oneness, the God of peace will crush Satan under our feet shortly, and we are thankful.

In the church life our heart should always be thankful to the Lord and in a peaceful condition toward the saints.

We are complicated beings: we are no longer under the rule of Satan by default, but we know the Lord and His word; so there are many “conferences” and disputes in our being between Satan (represented by the flesh, the self, and the natural man) and Christ (represented by the Spirit with our spirit).

We need inward arbitration to settle the disputes within us; we need someone or something to preside over the disputes and disagreements in our being.

Lord Jesus, we want to depend on You and depend on the Body to have real and genuine peace, the peace in the Body of Christ. Save us from manufacturing our own peace which comes from the self. We want to let Your peace arbitrate in our hearts and be the decider and arbitrator of all the disputes in us and also in our relationship with the saints in the Body. Thank You Lord for calling us into the peace in the Body of Christ. Keep our heart in a peaceful condition with You and with all the saints in the Body.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1965, vol. 3, “The Heavenly Vision,” ch. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 11, Experiencing Christ as the Peace Offering for the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Christ’s saving life when expressed in each town, / Strengthens the saints causing grace to abound; / And by the reigning in life every church / Is blent together, and Satan is crushed. (Song on, Being Saved in His Life)
  # Nevermore we fear the devil, / Christ destroyed him on the cross, / Stripping off the authorities; / Now we live His victory. / God of peace now crushes Satan / Under overcoming feet; / Our rejoicing overthrows him, / Shaming every enemy. (Song on, Living Christ, Our Victory)
  # As in a team we’d never / Act independently, / But in coordination, / Each would dependent be; / Not acting by our choosing / But following the flow, / Distraction never bringing, / The Spirit’s way we’d know. (Hymns #867)