In His crucifixion the victorious Christ cast out the ruler of this world, destroyed the devil, caused the rulers and authorities to be stripped off, and nullified death. Our Christ is a victorious Christ, for in every stage He went through and in every step that He took He overcame Satan and defeated the devil.
In His earthly ministry, in His death, in His heavenly ministry, and in His return, Christ fought the battle, won the victory, and has destroyed the devil.
Praise the Lord Jesus Christ, our victorious Head and Leader! Now we as His Body, His enlargement, His continuation, need to stand in His victory, see and enjoy His victory, fight the battle from victory, and apply the victory of Christ to Satan in prayer, so that he may lose ground and suffer loss, and the kingdom of God would be brought in.
The victory of the individual Christ is the basis of our spiritual warfare, for because Christ defeated Satan and destroyed the devil, now we can fight in victory and apply this victory to the enemy in our experience as the church, the one new man.
In His earthly ministry the victorious Christ defeated the devil and was manifested to destroy his works. Hallelujah, when Christ was on earth, He defeated the devil again and again, He caused him to suffer loss, He released those who were bound under Satan, and He destroyed the works of the devil.
Right after Christ was baptised by John the Baptist, the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tested, and Satan tempted Him with the same three main temptations that he tempts all men with. Jesus Christ stood on the ground of being the Son of Man and He defeated the devil through His word.
The Bible doesn’t tell us this, but it must have been that the Lord brought the book of Deuteronomy with Him and prayed over it during the forty days in the wilderness, for all His quotes to the devil were from this book, and they were in a living way a sword to defeat the enemy.
Christ fasted for forty days and forty nights, and at the same time He feasted on God’s word, and He was filled with the Word of God when Satan came to tempt Him.
This is how we can defeat the enemy – by being filled with the Word of God in a living way, by being saturated and permeated with God’s word daily so that we become the embodiment of the word of God.
Satan comes to attack us and he even speaks to us words from the Bible, but he lies to us, tries to deceive us, and he twists God’s word to lead us into his temptation. So we need to be nourished with God’s word in a living way, and we need to speak God’s word to the enemy to put him into his place.
Hallelujah, the devil’s temptation of the second man, Christ, was an absolute failure, for Christ defeated him and put him to shame!
The victorious Christ came to undo and destroy the sinful deeds of the devil. He came to condemn, through His death on the cross in the flesh, sin initiated by Satan, destroy the power of sin, and take away both sin and sins.
After defeating the works of the devil every day of His human life, Christ absolutely destroyed them through His death on the cross.
Christ destroyed Satan and his cosmos, and He crucified sin, sins, and everything relate to the works of the devil. Hallelujah for our victorious Christ who in His human living destroyed the works of the devil and defeated God’s enemy!
In His Crucifixion the Victorious Christ Cast out the Ruler of this World and Judged the World
When the Lord Jesus came, He clearly said that now is the judgment of this world – now shall the ruler of this world be cast out (John 12:31). In His work on the cross Christ cast out the ruler of this world and judged this world.
On the cross Christ died an all-inclusive and all-terminating death, and through His death Christ cast out Satan, the ruler of this world. Satan thought he will terminate the Lord on the cross, but actually he caused himself to be judged, cast out, and even destroyed through the cross.
Satan didn’t just deceive man and get into man as sin, but he also formed a satanic system called the world. The world today seems so interesting, with so many aspects and sections, appealing to all the people with all its things and activities.
Through the world Satan has systematized fallen mankind under his usurping hand. The world is the satanic cosmos that keeps people from the purpose of God and distracts them from the enjoyment of God.
In a sense the enjoyment in the world doesn’t seem to be sinful, but actually it replaces or distracts us from the enjoyment of God and His purpose.
But praise the Lord, this evil world system, this kingdom of darkness, was judged through Christ’s work on the cross! The victorious Christ in His crucifixion judged and destroyed the devil, the ruler of the world, and He judged the world as well.
Satan injected himself into man’s flesh, and the satanic nature is now in man’s flesh. So when Christ died on the cross, He judged Satan – who is in man’s flesh – and He also judged the world. In crucifying the flesh, Christ in His death crucified Satan and his satanic system.
The ruler of this world has been cast out when Satan was cast out by Christ’s work in His death, and simultaneously, the world system related to Stan was also judged (1 John 5:19).
In Matt. 27:51 we see that when Christ died the earth was shaken and the rocks were split. The earth signifies the base of Satan’s rebellion, and the rocks signify the strongholds of Satan’s earthly kingdom.
When Christ died in the cross, He judged Satan, He cast out the ruler of this world, He judged the world, He shook the base of Satan’s rebellion, and He broke the strongholds of Satan’s earthly kingdom.
Hallelujah! What a death! Praise the Lord for His death on the cross, where the victorious Christ destroyed the devil, judged Satan, cast out the ruler of this world, and shook and destroyed his kingdom!
And as are here today to declare the victory of Christ, stand in His victory, and proclaim His victory over the enemy!
Praise You Lord for Your victory over Satan on the cross! Hallelujah, in His work on the cross, the victorious Christ cast out the ruler of this world, He destroyed the devil, and He judged the world. Now Satan is judged, his evil system which illegally usurps fallen mankind is also judged, and Christ is the victorious One! Lord Jesus, we declare Your victory over Satan, the world, and the ruler of this world, and we stand in Your victory today. Hallelujah, the ruler of this world has been cast out, the world system has been judged, the strongholds of Satan’s earthly kingdom were shaken, and the base of Satan’s rebellion was shaken. Praise the Lord!
Seeing and Believing that in His Crucifixion the Victorious Christ Destroyed the Devil
Christ partook of the blood and flesh just like us, so that through His death on the cross He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14).
Through His work on the cross, the victorious Christ destroyed the devil. To destroy here is to bring to naught, to make of none effect, to do away with, to abolish, to annul, to discard.
Satan came in as a serpent and deceived man in the garden of Eden, and he injected his poison, the sin, into man. But God right then and there promises that the seed of the woman will come to bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:18).
When the fulness of the time came, the Son of God came to become flesh (John 1:14; Rom. 8:3) by being born of a virgin (Gal. 4:4), that He might destroy the devil through His death in the flesh on the cross.
This was so that He may abolish Satan, to bring him to naught. Hallelujah, praise the Lord, Satan has been abolished, brought to naught, destroyed, and done away with by Christ on the cross!
This word, “destroy” is the same as in Rom. 6:6 where it says that our old man was made of none effect, destroyed. This doesn’t mean that our old man ceases to exist, but that the old man was rendered useless and powerless.
When Christ destroyed the devil on the cross, He didn’t completely eliminate him and caused him to cease to exist; rather, the devil as a person still exists, but he is rendered powerless. He is a tiger – but he’s a paper tiger; he’s a serpent – but he’s a paper serpent, with no more poison, teeth, and power.
Satan has been nullified. He is still there, still acting and doing things, but in His humanity and through His work on the cross, Christ has destroyed the devil (John 3:14).
If we look at the situation today and if we check with our experience, we may ask, How could the devil have been destroyed when he is so prevailing? This may sound true, but this is NOT true; the Bible doesn’t say that the devil is prevailing, but that Christ destroyed the devil!
We should not believe the lie that Satan is prevailing but believe the word of God. We should not stand with our feeling concerning the work of the enemy but stand with the word of God and believe in the complete work of Christ on the cross.
God’s word tells us that through His death on the cross Christ has destroyed the devil; this is an accomplished fact, a fact that is included in the holy Word of God as the testament bequeathed to us.
We need to exercise our spirit, take in the word of God by means of all prayers and petition, be full of faith, and believe the word of God! When the Lord enlightens us to see the real spiritual scene behind the physical situation, we will see the all-inclusiveness of Christ’s death.
As the victorious Christ in His crucifixion, Christ destroyed the devil, cast out the ruler of this world, judged the world, and nullified death. Hallelujah! Although through experience we realize that death, sin, the devil, the fear of death, and slavery are still here, by faith we can see that they were all truly crossed out in Christ’s crucifixion! Praise the Lord!
Lord Jesus, we believe the word of God which says that Christ has destroyed the devil on the cross. Hallelujah, through the cross Satan has been abolished and done away with. Jesus Christ as the seed of the woman came to bruise the head of the serpent, and today Satan has been brought to naught, made of none effect, done away with, abolished, and discarded! Praise the Lord! Open our eyes, Lord, to see the all-inclusiveness of Your death, and realize in our experience that death, sin, the devil, the fear of death, and slavery all were fully crossed out in Christ’s crucifixion!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 31, 71 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Spiritual Warfare of the Church as the New Man (2018 Memorial Day Conference), week 3, The Victorious Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# As a man, by incarnation, / Flesh and blood didst Thou partake / To destroy the devil, Satan, / In our stead and for our sake. / With the name of Jesus given / And Emmanuel called too, / Thou becam’st our precious Savior, / Bringing us salvation true. (Hymns #62)
# Nevermore we fear the devil, / Christ destroyed him on the cross, / Stripping off the authorities; / Now we live His victory. (Song on Living Christ, our Victory)
# What a victory! What a triumph! / God Himself became a man, / Clothed Himself in human nature / To fulfill His mighty plan. / He through death destroyed the devil; / Risen now, the Son of Man! (Hymns #1174)
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