The Lord Jesus Defeated and Destroyed the Devil, Undid his Works, and Cast him out!

After rebelling against God, Satan has his own kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, where he rules; however, praise the Lord, the Lord Jesus was victorious over Satan at Golgotha, and He came to defeat him, destroy him, and annul his works and cast him out! Hallelujah!

When we read the book of Job we can’t but feel for this dear one, for the suffering that befell him was horrible and unimaginable.

However, Job didn’t understand the fact that it wasn’t God who did this to him but rather, there’s an evil force working to do all these things, and God used Satan to accomplish a negative aspect of His purpose.

God would never hurt us or do us evil; however, He would allow Satan to touch us and do certain things to us so that He may have a way to work Himself into us.

God cannot use His excellent angels to do an evil work or to inflict suffering on us; however, Satan as the enemy of God and the adversary of God, this evil and pernicious one, he is more than willing to do us evil.

Satan thinks that he does a great job when he causes us suffering, and he may think that he will even get to destroy us, thus ruining God’s purpose, but he is not wise; God uses this one to do His work, to do something that helps Him to do His work.

On one hand, Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and on the cross, He has overcome Satan, He destroyed the devil, and He cast him out.

On the other hand, God still allows Satan to remain free to be purposely used by God as an ugly tool to execute God’s severe dealings with His loving ones.

Satan still has access to God’s presence in the heavens, and God still allows Satan to do something on the earth; however, God is working behind the scenes, and He would not allow Satan to do full damage or to destroy His people – He always comes in to gain the victory.

Satan may gain a few battles, but God will win the war. Satan thinks he can do whatever he wants to do, but God is in control; He allows Satan to do certain things to a certain extent, not to the uttermost, for the purpose of fulfilling a negative aspect of God’s intention.

Our wise God is in control, He is really behind the scenes allowing things and working out things; we simply need to remain open to Him.

The more we open to the Lord and learn to enjoy Him, even through difficulties and sufferings, the more He has a way to work Himself into us.

And when perplexing things happen to us, when we are in an unimaginably difficult situation and suffering upon suffering is our portion, may we simply come to the Lord and open our being to Him; even our complaining to God is a very good prayer, for He has a way to dispense more of Himself into us as we open to Him.

We shouldn’t be afraid of what will God do to us or what will happen to us; rather, we should simply enjoy the Lord, keep our being open to Him, and allow Him to work Himself into us. Even tell Him,

Lord, work Yourself into me more for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ! No matter what I go through, no matter what happens to me, and no matter the suffering and difficulties, keep my being open to Your divine dispensing so that You may gain in me what You are after!

Realizing that Satan has his Kingdom – the Authority of Darkness, and being Delivered from it!

Satan didn’t just rebel against God; he made his own kingdom, the authority of darkness (Matt. 12:26; Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13).

When we were saved and regenerated, we didn’t only receive the divine life of God into our spirit, and we were not only reconciled to God; even more, we were transferred out of the authority of darkness (the kingdom of Satan) into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.

Satan has his authority and his angels (Matt. 25:41); he has his subordinates as rulers, authorities, and world-rulers of the darkness of this world.

The whole world lies in the evil one, in the sphere of his influence, and Satan operates in the world through his subordinates to accomplish his evil schemes and stratagems.

He is constantly operating in his kingdom of darkness to ruin the man God created in His image and according to His likeness and to delay the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

We need to realize that, besides the kingdom of God there is another kingdom – the kingdom of Satan, the authority of darkness (Col. 1:18), and we as believers in Christ have begun to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love at the time of our regeneration.

We are born in the kingdom of darkness, and when we hear the gospel, the light of the kingdom of God shines on us, and we choose the Lord and His kingdom of light; through faith in Christ and baptism, we are being transferred out of Satan’s kingdom and into the kingdom of God.

Satan is the ruler of this world and the ruler of the authority of the air (John 12:31; Eph. 2:2). The spirits (v. 2), in apposition to the authority of the air, refers to the aggregate power, the aggregate of all the evil angelic authorities, over which Satan is the ruler. Oh, Lord Jesus!

When we were dead in offenses and sins (Eph. 2:1), we walked according to the age of this world (v. 2), which is the modern appearance, the present course of the world, the satanic system.

The whole world is a satanic system, being developed and perfected by Satan to usurp man from serving God and enjoying God; the world has a modern aspect, a present aspect of the world, which is used by Satan today to occupy and usurp man from enjoying God.

But praise the Lord, as we enjoy Him and are sanctified in His word, we are being delivered from the world and the authority of darkness is being exposed and eliminated in us.

In the kingdom of Satan, there are the rulers, the authorities, and the world-rulers of this darkness; these are the rebellious angels, who followed Satan in his rebellion against God, and who now rule in the heavenlies over the nations of the world (see Dan. 10:20).

This indicates that the devil, Satan, has his kingdom in which he occupies the highest position, and in which the rebellious angels are under him.

May we realize that Satan has his kingdom of darkness, and may we cooperate with the Lord to be delivered out of this kingdom more and more!

Lord Jesus, shine in us and on us to expose any and every aspect of the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of Satan. Deliver us more and more from the kingdom of darkness and transfer us into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. Amen, Lord, we choose You, we stand one with You, and we want to live in the mingled spirit, not walking according to the age of this world. We praise You, Lord Jesus, for You as a Man came to destroy the devil and his works, and in us, You are destroying the works of the devil! Amen, Lord Jesus, fully expose the kingdom of darkness and bring our whole being with everything related to our daily living into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love!

The Lord Jesus Defeated and Destroyed the Devil, Undid his Works, and Cast him out!

Praise the Lord, the Son of Man has come to deal with Satan; when He came, He came as the King with the kingdom of God, for when He was on earth, the kingdom of God was among men, and when He comes into us, the kingdom of God comes into us!

We are so blessed to live in the age of today, not lacking the revelation of Satan and his authority of darkness, and how the Lord Jesus was victorious over Satan!

Through His ministry on earth and His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus was victorious over Satan (see 1 John 3:8; Matt. 27:51-53; Col. 2:14-15; Heb. 2:14).

Other than our dear Lord Jesus Christ, no one is an overcomer; He was manifested as the Son of God to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

As the Seed of the woman, Christ came to bruise the serpent (the devil, Satan) on the head (Gen. 3:15).

Hallelujah, Christ is Victor! He has overcome, and when we join ourselves to Him and are one with Him, we also overcome the enemy! In His earthly ministry, the victorious Christ defeated the devil and destroyed his works (Matt. 4:1-11; 1 John 3:8).

For Him to accomplish His ministry for the kingdom of the heavens, the Lord Jesus had to defeat God’s enemy, the devil, Satan (Matt. 4:1, 11) – and this He had to do as a man, so He stood as a man to confront the enemy of God (vv. 6-7).

The devil’s temptation of Adam (the first man) was a success, but his temptation of Christ (the second man) was an absolute failure. Hallelujah!

In His ministry on earth, the Lord Jesus destroyed the works of the devil (1 John 3:8); the Greek word for “destroy” may also be translated as “undo” or “dissolve”.

Hallelujah, Christ as the Son of God was manifested so that He might undo and destroy the sinful deeds of the devil, that is, condemn sin initiated by him!

Through His death on the cross, Christ condemned sin in the flesh, and He destroyed the power of sin, the sinful nature of the devil, and He also took away both sin and sins (Rom. 8:3; Heb. 2:14; John 1:29).

This is the word of our testimony; we stand in the victory of Christ, we stand one with Christ, and we declare the divine facts, for Christ has overcome the devil, He destroyed the power of sin, and He took away both sin and sins!

We overcome the enemy not because of our spiritual strength or because of our spotless living; we overcome him by the blood of the Lamb (who has overcome him) and by the word of our testimony!

We testify that, in His crucifixion, the victorious Christ cast out the ruler of this world, He destroyed the devil, He caused the rulers and authorities to be stripped of, and He nullified death (John 12:31; Matt. 27:51; Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15; 2 Tim. 1:10). Wow!

In His work on the cross, Christ cast out the ruler of this world and He also judged the world. Satan was cast out by Christ’s work in His death; he as the ruler of the world was cast out, and simultaneously, the world system related to Satan was judged (1 John 5:19).

The entire world was judged, and Satan was judged.

According to Matt. 27:51, when Christ died the base of Satan’s rebellion was shaken, and the strongholds of Satan’s earthly kingdom were broken. Hallelujah!

In His crucifixion, Christ destroyed the devil (Heb. 2:14); the Greek word for “destroy” can also be rendered as “bring to nought, make of none effect, do away with, abolish, annul, discard”.

In His humanity and through His work on the cross, Christ has destroyed the devil (John 3:14).

In His work on the cross, Christ nullified death, making it of none effect, through His devil-destroying death (Heb. 2:14) and death-swallowing resurrection (1 Cor. 15:52-54). Hallelujah!

Christ went into death, fought with death, overcame the power of death, and emerged victorious over everything!

Christ defeated Satan and all his authorities through His death on the cross at Golgotha!

And now we are joined to Him, standing on the basis of His victory at Golgotha; we don’t try to gain another victory over Satan but rather, stand in His victory, and declare His victory over Satan! Hallelujah!

We are defeated when we trust in ourselves and in what we can do, but we are victorious when we stand on the ground of Christ’s victory, proclaiming His victory!

When we are in Christ, we are overcomers, for He is the Overcomer.

He gave us the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and this is because we are one with the Lord, even in the Lord’s name (Luke 10:19-20; Mark 16:17).

Even more, we can cooperate with the Lord to preach the gospel of the kingdom, so that through the gospel, God would bring people out of the authority of darkness and under the ruling of the heavenly authority so that they may become His kingdom (Matt. 24:14; Rev. 1:5-6).

We can abide in the Lord all the time, do all things in the name of the Lord, and stand in His victory; then, we will spontaneously speak the gospel of the kingdom and bring others under the heavenly rule!

Praise You Lord Jesus for Your victory over Satan at the cross! Hallelujah, the victorious Christ defeated the devil and destroyed his works! A man, Jesus Christ, overcame not only the temptation of the devil, but He also destroyed the devil, dissolved his works, and condemned sin on the cross! Praise the Lord, 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! We stand one with You, dear Lord, and we abide in You; we stand in Your victory, we declare Your victory, and we apply Your victory to the enemy! Hallelujah, through His crucifixion Christ destroyed the devil, and we proclaim His victory! Praise the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man who was victorious over Satan! And Hallelujah, we are in Him, we are one with Him, and in Him, we are overcomers over the evil one!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 1, pp. 99-101, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 2, God, Man, and Satan.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – 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)
  – There’s a Man in the glory / Whose Life is for me. / He overcame Satan; / From bondage He’s free. / In Life He is reigning; / How kingly is He! / His Life in the glory, / My life must be; / His Life in the glory, / My life must be. (Hymns #505)
  – Hallelujah, Christ the Victor / Triumphed on Mount Calvary! / Hallelujah, resurrected, / He displays His victory! / Hallelujah, now ascended, / He shall reign eternally! (Hymns #124)