By Tim Rowe
The first promise in the Bible concerning Jesus Christ has two distinct themes in this amazing verse. It is both a declaration of war and a declaration of victory. There will be war between Christ and the Devil, all his cohorts and systems of the world, and there will be a crushing victory by Christ over the Devil and everything he represents. This is the pattern, the declaration of war, the model of everything concerning Christ in the Bible. God sets forth these amazing truths concerning Christ in the very first verse he is mentioned in the Bible and to truly understand the uniqueness and magnificence of Christianity, you must understand not only the spiritual battle that is raging, but that Christianity is always about and centered in this crushing, triumphant victory. How many of us realize or have forgotten the victory dance of Christianity?
Genesis 3:15 (Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible):
And enmity shall I put between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed,-
He shall crush thy head, but thou shall crush
his heel.
This is a declaration of war! This verse sets forth the fulcrum point of all history and defines the ceaseless battle that has raged since Adam’s fall in the Garden of Eden. This verse is the central theme of all scriptures. God proclaims that the destiny of this seed of the women (Christ) is to destroy the devil and all his works. God promises the destiny of the serpent is utter destruction at the hands of Christ. The Second Adam will “crush the head of the serpent.” Every policy, every purpose, every plot and every plan of Satan’s kingdom was crushed in Christ. The word “crush” in the Hebrew means: to break or smite in pieces and to greatly injure or wound. E. W. Bullinger, in The Companion Bible, states:
When it is said (v.15), “He shall crush thy head,”
it means something more than a skull of bone, and
brain and hair. It means all Satan’s plans and plots,
policy and purposes, will one day be finally crushed
and ended, never more to mar or to hinder the
purposes of God.
God states that there will be great enmity between the serpent and the second Adam, Christ. The word “enmity” in the Hebrew means: hatred and hostility with a desire to injure. There is no truce in this battle. There is no peace agreement. So every Christian must realize that there is an intense spiritual battle that is raging against Christ in every town, city, country, and continent on the Earth. Our God is a warrior and Christianity was born on the battlefield of war. But the even greater truth is that Christianity is born with the crushing victory of Christ to Satan’s kingdom. You must realize that Jesus Christ crushed the Devil’s kingdom with the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and the very essence of Christianity is victory on such a scale that it is breathtaking. The Devil has without success tried to wipe out the Christ line since Genesis and was even waiting to devour the baby Jesus when he was born in Bethlehem, but he failed miserably and Christ achieved the most amazing and complete victory in all of human history.
Revelation 12:1-4 (NIV):
1 Then I witnessed in heaven an event of great significance. I saw a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head. (this verse pinpoints the birth of Christ by the position of the sun and moon in the constellation Virgo observable in Palestine which occurred between sunset [6:18pm] and moonset [7:39pm] on Tishri 1, the Day of Trumpets on the Jewish calendar, which is September 11, 3BC) 2 She was pregnant, and she cried out because of her labor pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 Then I witnessed in heaven another significant event. I saw a large red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky, and he threw them to the earth. He stood in front of the woman as she was about to give birth, ready to devour her baby as soon as it was born.
The goodness of God has its ultimate triumph in the Lord Jesus Christ. Evil has its sentence of doom and ultimate destruction in the Lord Jesus Christ. What Jesus Christ accomplished at Calvary is so magnificent, so awesome and so astounding, that it permanently crippled Satan’s kingdom and one day will obliterate every remnant of it from off the face of the earth. The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the most important event in all of human history, because he broke the curse of sin and death that hangs over the world like a dark cloud. He regained everything that Adam and Eve had lost on that tragic day in the Garden of Eden and so much more. He paid the price for the complete redemption and salvation of the soul of every person who comes to Him. Through Jesus Christ, righteousness is restored to a person so that they can stand in the presence of God without any sense of fear, shortcoming, guilt, or unworthiness. The ability to have deep fellowship and communion with the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ has been recovered and given as a gift to all those who confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior and believe God has raised him from the dead.
The Court of God has wiped our slate clean; we are as white as snow, as our redeemer has paid the ransom and penalty for our sin. We no longer have to live in bondage to sin, fear, worry, sickness, disease, poverty, misery, hatred, selfishness, and ignorance, for we reign as kings in life through the Lord Jesus Christ. We can walk in great power, wreaking havoc in Satan’s kingdom on the earth as we touch people with the great healing love and wholeness available in Jesus Christ. You are a super-conqueror; you are a new creation; you are a glorious son or daughter of God with all the dignity that comes with God’s calling through Jesus Christ. This is the victory dance of Christianity. This is Christianity’s victory song that no religion on earth can claim to have this type of magnificent triumph over every enemy to the human race.
Colossians 1:13 (Phillips Translation):
For we must never forget that he has rescued
us from the power of darkness and reestablished
us in the kingdom of his beloved Son, that is, in
the kingdom of light.
Wuest Translation:
Who delivered us out of the tyrannical rule of the
darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of
the Son of His love, in whom we are having our
liberation, procured by the payment of ransom.
Lightfoot Translation:
Yes, by a strong arm he rescued us from the lawless
tyranny of darkness, removed us from the land of
our bondage, and settled us as free citizens in our
new and glorious home, where his Son,
the offspring and representative of his love, is King.
Deliver (rhuomai or ruomai or rhyomai from rhúo = to draw, drag along the ground) means to draw or snatch to oneself and invariably refers to a snatching from danger, evil or an enemy. This basic idea is that of bringing someone out of severe and acute danger, and so to save, rescue, deliver, preserve. Rhuomai emphasizes greatness of peril from which deliverance is given by a mighty act of power. In the New Testament rhuomai is always associated with God as the Deliverer and with a person as the object of His deliverance. In context rhuomai means God drew, or snatched us to Himself out of danger and rescued us away from the clutches of our mortal evil enemy, Satan and his minions, who rule in the “domain of darkness“.
Rhuomai was used to describe a soldier going to a wounded comrade on the battlefield and snatching him to safety. What a mind picture! God rescued us from being a permanent causality on the battlefield.
Transferred (methistemi from meta = denoting change of place or condition + histemi =place, stand) literally means to remove or transfer from one place to another. The verb methistemi is in the aorist tense which points to an immediate transference from one spiritual region or kingdom to another.
Note that in the present context methistemi speaks of a total removal from the rule of Satan. The verb is in the aorist tense which indicates a past completed action at a point in time and thus the moment we were saved, at that point in time, God transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We were set free from the power of the darkness and placed under God’s authority. Believers no longer are in or subject to the “domain of darkness” and therefore are not obligated to live in submission to the power of Satan nor to the power of the old SIN nature which seeks like Satan to reign over us. How we have failed to truly believe this! We have twisted the concept of suffering to choke the victory out of Christianity and have more faith in our defeated enemy to afflict us with continual blows then we have in the victory and power of God to always deliver us. From the moment of the new birth in Christ, we must stand firmly and boldly on this victory and triumph that God has given us in Christ.
Power–exousía means the power to do something; to exercise power with liberty of action without hindrance and it was a technical term used in the law courts of a legal right. Exousia properly signifies liberty of action and the authority to rule. The Devil has no more authority to rule your life or liberty to impose one ounce of darkness in any area of your life because you have been delivered by Christ from the power of darkness. What victory lies in Christianity! No other religion can claim that they offer deliverance from the kingdom of darkness and all its authority to rule on the earth or over their lives. Only in Jesus Christ is the kingdom of darkness crushed.
I John 3:8 (b) (New King James):
For this purpose was the Son of God manifested,
that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Amplified:
The reason the Son of God was made manifest
(visible) was to undo (destroy, loosen, and
dissolve) the works the devil has done.
Phillips:
Now the Son of God came to earth with the express
purpose of undoing the devil’s work.
Wuest:
For this purpose there was manifested the Son of
God, in order that He might bring to naught the
works of the devil.
The word “destroy” is the Greek word luo, which means: to loose something tied or bound, to break up that which is compacted together, to dissolve, to sever, to break in pieces, to set free, to melt and to demolish. The word means “a destruction by undoing or dissolving that which forms the bond of cohesion.” Jesus Christ came to loosen people from the works of the devil and set them free. We all had a bond of cohesion to Satan’s kingdom through sin and death, but Jesus Christ dissolved the bond, and we broke free. The word luo is used in the gospels when John the Baptist said that he was not worthy to unloose (luo) the thong or strap of Jesus’ sandals. This gives a great mind picture of Jesus unloosening the works of the devil in people’s lives, like un-strapping a sandal, so that the works can be thrown off of the body, heart, and soul of a person and one can enjoy true freedom.
The Greek word luo is used again in Acts 27:41 when the ship taking the Apostle Paul to Rome was “broken (luo) on the violence of the waves.” This was a huge boat with enough room for 276 people, yet the fierce strength of the waves shattered the hinder part of the boat into pieces. Many of the soldiers were saved by grabbing onto a broken piece of the ship and floating to shore. This should paint a vivid picture for you. Jesus Christ shattered the devil’s works into a million pieces by the awesome power of God. Like a ship helplessly run into the ground and continuously beat with the relentless pounding of the waves, Jesus Christ continually pounded the schemes, deceptions, and purposes of the devil with the great force of the Word of God. He was relentless in his destruction of the devil’s works, as the boat of Satan’s kingdom could not escape the light and truth of His purpose upon the earth. Jesus Christ shook and shattered the devil’s kingdom into broken pieces.
The Greek word luo is also used in II Peter 3:10,12 when the present heaven, earth and elements melt (luo) with fervent heat and dissolve (luo) by fire at the time of the last judgments described in the Book of Revelation. What a mind picture! For something to melt, you have to apply intense heat to it. It requires energy to melt anything. When increasing temperature is applied to an element and it melts, the energy being applied to it is greater than the energy holding it together. The heat overcomes the internal forces of attraction within the solid to transform it into a liquid. Thus it begins to change form and melt.
Jesus Christ put intense heat on the purposes, works, and schemes of the devil and melted and dissolved them. Jesus Christ operated spiritual power, and when this spiritual energy of God was applied to the works of the devil, it was greater than any force holding his works together. The power of God disintegrates any plot, scheme, or purpose of Satan and no matter how attractively it is held together by evil, it cannot overcome the energy and dynamic power that rest in God. Jesus Christ put the intense heat of the truth of the Word of God right upon the kingdom of darkness, and it shined as a brilliant light, exposing the wicked works of the Evil One. This white hot heat of God’s Word melted the hardened and callous hearts of many and melted the devil’s evil foothold of bondage that robs people of joy, peace, love, and wholeness.
Interestingly, this same Greek word, luo, is also used in John 10:35, when it declares, “the scripture cannot be broken (luo).” The devil can never break, dissolve, melt, or demolish the Word of God. I Peter 1:23 says that “the word of God lives and abides forever.” The Word of God is life. The Word of God is good, pure, powerful, and faithful. It cannot be dissolved away into nothing. No matter how much heat or pressure the devil applies to the Word, it does not melt under the burning heat. Satan does not have enough energy or power to break the Word of God. Jesus Christ is the living Word. The devil does not have enough energy or power to break or shatter the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Word of God is so powerful and so energetic that it dissolves and melts every evil work of Satan. Jesus Christ believed, obeyed, trusted, spoke, lived, studied, and knew the Word of God intimately and deeply. Jesus Christ’s main weapon in the destruction of the devil’s works is the Word of God. The Word was his sword of the Spirit. The devil cannot overcome the “It is written” mentality that Jesus Christ demonstrated during his temptations in the wilderness and throughout his ministry. Jesus Christ’s confrontation with the seed of the serpent was clearly defined in their first head to head battle in the wilderness, as Jesus Christ used the Word of God to back the devil down and defeat his temptations. We must have that same mentality as Christians as the Word of God is our sword of victory.
Colossians further elaborates on this head crushing of the serpent by the Seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 2:14,15 (Message):
When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life,
you were incapable of responding to God. God
brought you alive-right along with Christ! Think
of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that
old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s
cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants of the
universe of their sham authority at the Cross and
marched them naked through the streets.
Verse 15 (Phillips):
And having drawn the sting of all powers ranged
against us, he exposed them, shattered, empty
and defeated, in his final glorious triumphant act.
Lightfoot:
Taking on him our human nature, he stripped off
and cast aside all the powers of evil which clung
to it like a poisonous garment. As a mighty conqueror
he displayed these his fallen enemies to an astonished
world, leading them in triumph on his cross.
Weymouth:
And the hostile princes and rulers He shook off from
Himself, and boldly displayed them as His conquests,
when by the cross he triumphed over them.
Moffatt Translation:
When he cut away the angelic Rulers and Powers
from us, exposing them to all the world and triumphing
over them in the cross.
II Corinthians 2:14 (Amplified):
But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere
God’s Word Translation: 14But I thank God, who always leads us in victory because of Christ. Wherever we go, God uses us to make clear what it means to know Christ. It’s like a fragrance that fills the air.
At Calvary, Jesus Christ stripped and disarmed the power and authority of the devil’s kingdom for every born again believer. No devil spirit in the devil’s kingdom, no matter what its rank, can defeat you when you stand in the strength of the Lord’s redemptive work for you at the cross. The picture Paul is painting is of a triumphant general who has routed the enemy and leads the captive foes and spoils of his victory behind his chariot in a grand public procession through the city.
In the Roman world, this was the highest honor that could be bestowed upon a victorious Roman general. It was called “the triumph.” There must have been at least 5,000 enemy soldiers killed, and there must have been a gain of Roman territory in the conquest. It was an awesome display of the power, strength, and might of the Roman Empire. It was a spectacle that few would forget its images, as the triumph declared to the world that the enemy had been overwhelmed and crushed, now to be publicly humiliated through the streets of the city.
How much greater is the triumph of Christ as the captain of our salvation? What a triumph on the cross! What a victory against the forces of darkness! What a crushing blow to Satan’s kingdom! What a public display of victory to all those who have eyes to see and ears to hear! You become identified and in vital union with this triumph on the cross and all its far-reaching glorious effects when you become a new creation in Christ at the new birth. You are marching right beside Jesus Christ in this magnificent victory march with every wretched captive in chains under your feet. With great freedom, the power of the old sin nature has been stripped off and crippled, and the power of Christ in you flows and energizes every cell of your human body. You are a super conqueror who always triumphs in Christ. Jesus Christ cut away Satan’s firm grip on us and smashed the kingdom of darkness’s authority, control, and rule over our lives. No longer must we be a slave to sin or the bondage of this world. Jesus Christ victoriously led captivity captive for every Christian, according to the book of Ephesians, as he crushed and defeated every form of mental, physical, or spiritual bondage. What a triumph on the cross! What a victory in Christ!
Ephesians 1:19-23 (ESV): 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of) his great might 20that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and) seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21) far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Since Christ is in us, and we are a part of His body and the fullness of him fills us completely, our position of authority in this world is that all things are under our feet including the devil and every devil spirit or influence of the kingdom of darkness. This is part of the exceeding greatness of our faith that we claim such a position of authority and victory in this world through Christ’s crushing triumph. Spiritually we have our foot on the neck of our vanquished foe, the devil, and he is crushed under our feet. This is the amazing position and victory of every Christian. We don’t have to be kicked around by the devil in any circumstance of life; no devil spirit can wreck and ruin our lives when we claim this power and authority: Satan get behind me for you are crushed under my feet by the mighty work of Christ. Rise up and claim your authority. Resolve to never again be pushed around by any power of the kingdom of darkness for you can shine as a light in the amazing crushing victory of Christ. Satan has your shoe print all over his face.
Romans 8:37
NASB: But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
Amplified: Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.
ICB: But in all these things we have full victory through God who showed His love for us.
KJV: Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
NLT: No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
Overwhelmingly conquer (hupernikao from hupér = above, degree which is beyond that of a compared scale of extent = more than, to a greater degree than, beyond + nikáo = to conquer, overcome, carry off the victory, come off victorious) means to come off more than victorious or to gain a surpassing victory and the present tense signifies continually.
It describes one who is super-victorious, who wins more than an ordinary victory, and who is overpowering in achieving abundant victory. It describes a lopsided victory in which the enemy or opponent is completely routed.
We are not just a conqueror in Christ, we are more or a super-conqueror in Christ. The victory is such a complete rout that it is almost unfathomable to realize how big, how great, how complete and how gigantic the victory in Christ is for every single Christian. We have failed as Christians to see and believe the immeasurable greatness of our status as super-conquerors in Christ. I pray God enlightens the eyes of your understanding to this victory dance of Christianity that applies to you in every circumstance, every problem and every area of your life.
This time of year these truths about the victory dance of Christianity brings new meaning to the words that resounded in great joy on the greatest night in the history of civilization.
Luke 2:11 (KJV): For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Christ is the Savior, the one who through whom we have complete wholeness deliverance, freedom, healing, victory and salvation. It is in the sphere of His victory that we are to live our lives with mighty confidence and boldness
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