Satan attacks the church not only with teachings and division but also with death; the attack upon the church comes from the gates of Hades, but the Lord Jesus has overcome death!
From Eden onward, God’s controversy with Satan has been the issue of death and life. When Christ came on earth, He said He came that we may have life and may have it abundantly – He came that we may receive the divine life, be raised up from death, be filled with His life, and have His life abundantly.
But Satan through his temptation of Eve and the fall of man has brought all creation under the slavery of death and in fear of death.
We were born as living human beings but in spiritual death, and after we receive the Lord as our life, we have the life that is really life. Satan’s goal is to saturate us with death. He wants to bring in death in our being, in our family life, in our church life, at work, at school, and everywhere we are.
Wherever there’s no divine life flowing and being manifested, death reigns. Wave upon wave of death attacks the church, but death will not prevail against the builded church (Matt. 16:18).
Death cannot prevail against the church not because the believers are strong in themselves or because they are such good people, but because Christ as resurrection life is in the church, and He infuses His life into all His members, He lives this life out of the saints, and death is simply swallowed up and terminated.
In the church life we need to learn how to discern the attack of death. Our focus shouldn’t be to discern who is right and what is wrong, but learn to minister life to others for the sake of the building up of the Body of Christ.
Satan attacks the church with death, but praise the Lord, we have Christ in us, and He has already overcome death – He entered into death, He tasted death on behalf of everything and everyone, He defeated death, He took the keys of death, and He rendered death powerless.
Yes, the enemy will attack the church with all his might, and he will try his best to infuse death into the church, but Hallelujah, Christ as resurrection life is in us, He is our life, we can enjoy Him and experience Him, we can minister Him to others, and we can live Christ so that this life would also be manifested for the destruction and elimination of death.
When we see situations of death in the church life we shouldn’t try to argue or criticise but simply cooperate with the Lord of life to remain in life, enjoy and experience His life, and pray and minister life to those in death.
Only life can overcome death. Death is much more powerful than we are, but the One who has overcome death, who became dead and is now living again, this One lives in us to overcome death, repel death, swallow up any death, and bring in life, the divine, uncreated, resurrection life of Christ.
Satan Attacks the Church with Death, but Christ has Overcome Death and the Church Manifests His Life
Satan is God’s enemy, His rival, and whatever God does, Satan wants to undo and destroy. God’s goal is the church, so Satan attacks the church again and again.
Satan’s attacks consist not only of stumbling the believers to sin or love the world, but even more he attacks the church with death.
It may be very obvious that Satan attacks the church with sin, the world, the flesh, and the self, but the attack of death is very subtle. We may not sin and we may not live the world, but we are still under Satan’s attack of death.
The ultimate weapon used by Satan to attack the church is death. It’s not easy to identify spiritual death, for it can creep into the church secretly.
Satan uses moral, ethical, and refined things to bring death into the church, utilising these seemingly good and positive things to attack the church with death.
What the church needs is not more teachings, doctrines, good theologies, or wonderful expositions. Teachings and expositions cannot replace the life of Christ, and they can’t repel or overcome death. What the church needs is more of the life of Christ, the life that has already overcome death, the resurrection life.
Only the life of Christ and that which issues from it will prevail against the gates of Hades which attack the church subtly, repeatedly, and consistently.
Many good things in the church, even many good practices, can be used by Satan to attack the church with death. May the Lord have mercy on us that we may be kept from touching death and from bringing death into the church.
May we seek to be filled with life and minister life so that Satan would be subdued and death would be eliminated.
Christ is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). We as the church are His body, the vessel to contain and express His resurrection life.
God intends for the church to manifest and express the resurrection life of Christ, so that anything of death would be removed and swallowed up, and the corporate expression of Christ would come into being.
May God’s life be our focus, and may the resurrection life of Christ fill the church. May our meetings and even our daily living be filled with God’s life.
Christ came that we may have life and may have it abundantly (John 10:10). He came that we may have His divine life, be filled with His life, and flow out this life to others so that any attacks of death would be suppressed, death would be swallowed up, and God’s life would be manifested.
We should stop trying to discern things in the church life according to right and wrong, for both of these issue in death. When we try to understand who is right and who is wrong, what’s good and evil, we end up in spiritual death.
We need to be tree of life persons, those who discern things by life and death. Especially when there is turmoil and tough situations, when this one says this and that one says that – and they both seem to be right, we need to remain in the enjoyment of Christ as life and stay with those who minister life for the building up of the church.
We need to have more experiences of the resurrection life, for only this life counteracts and overcomes death. In ourselves we cannot overcome death, because Satan has injected death into us, and we have death in our very being.
But praise the Lord, the only One who can overcome death is the Lord Jesus Christ, who has overcome death and brought the resurrection life into us (see Rom. 5:12; 7:24; Rev. 1:17-18; 1 Cor. 15:22). He has overcome death, and He lives in us to overcome any form of death.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to remain in life, enjoy and experience Your resurrection life, and be filled with life. Cause us to see that Satan attacks the church with death, and fill us with anti-death, the resurrection life. Save us from trying to discern things according to right or wrong, good or evil. May we have more experiences of the resurrection life and may we live this life, minister this life, and pay attention to the sense of life so that Satan’s attacks of death on the church would be thwarted and rejected.
Christ Tasted Death on Behalf of Everything so that He may Reconcile All things to Himself
Jesus Christ is the only human being that ever lived, died, resurrected, and now lives again; He was made a little inferior to the angels because of suffering of death, and He tasted death on behalf of everything (Heb. 2:9; Col. 2:10).
We may know that the Lord Jesus died for us, the sinners, but the Bible says that He tasted death on behalf of everything.
Because of man’s fall, all creation was brought into the slavery of corruption, the fear of death, and ultimately, death itself. Death operates in every living thing as soon as that living thing starts its life on earth.
Even in us, human beings, death operates in us, and we cannot overcome it. Man lives in fear of death (as much as some think they are not afraid of death, once they are confronted with it, they realize how powerless they are), and death rules.
But the Lord Jesus Christ came; He is God who became a man, being made a little inferior to the angels because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death on behalf of everything.
This means that Christ died not just for us, sinners, but for everything; He tasted death not only for us, human beings, but on behalf of everything, every creature.
The Lord’s redemption was accomplished not only for us, people, but for everything created by God. This is so that God would reconcile not us, men, to God, but that all things may be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.
This is similar to the picture of the ark in the Old Testament; God didn’t just save Noah and his family from the flood, but also many animals, two by two. The ark is a type of Christ who passed through the death waters and came out in resurrection.
Christ tasted death on behalf of everything so that all things might be reconciled to God. Hallelujah, in all things we are to be reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ! His death is an all-terminating death – He terminated and destroyed the devil and even death itself through His death! Praise the Lord!
Thank You Lord for being made a little inferior to the angels in the suffering of death so that by the grace of God You might taste death on behalf of everything. Hallelujah, through the Lord’s death we have been reconciled to God, and all things are reconciled to God! Praise the Lord for the all-terminating death of Christ! Through His death Satan was destroyed, the world was judged, and even death itself was terminated – rendered of none effect! Praise You Lord Jesus for Your death on the cross!
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 Watchman Nee, vol. 44, pp. 841, 875-878, 881-885, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 4, The Significance of Eating and the Defeat of Death.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Though the gates of hades frustrate, / Yet the Church still stands for God, / Overcoming evil spirits / By her Lord’s victorious blood; / And at Christ’s return in triumph / All her foes will then be trod. (Hymns #836)
# Death cannot hold the resurrection life, / Thru every block and barrier it breaks; / Conqu’ring the pow’r of darkness and of hell, / It swallows death and victory partakes. (Hymns #639)
# The gates of hell cannot prevail / Against the builded Church! / The hours are few, the builders too— / Lord, build, O build in us! (Hymns #1248)
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