How Did Christ Defeat Satan, that is, Death ?
When we examine the Scriptures carefully, we see the wisdom, the plan, and the operation of God, in the creating and the raising of men, male and female, from the physical realm, to His Spiritual realm. That was God’s purpose from the very beginning, not as some suppose, to improve the behavior of men. And, we also will be able to see ourselves as God sees us, and understand why this second earth age, is, as the Apostle Peter says, an age of ungodly men.
2nd Peter 3:1 “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved under fire against the judgement and perdition of ungodly men”.
Someone might say, yes I know that verse is in the Bible but that doesn’t apply to me.
Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
And; 1st John 1:10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
Every one born of the similitude of Adam’s transgression, Romans 5:14, is deserving of the death penalty. We were all the progeny of Adam so these verses include us.
Genesis 1:1 gives us the initial creation before it’s destruction, and verse 2 tells us of God renewing and restoring His original creation of the earth for the habitation of His children.
The Apostle Peter tells us of the angels who sinned, 2nd Peter 2:4, led by Lucifer and those under his authority, thereby destroying the earth.
2nd Peter 3:6, “Whereby, the earth that then was, being overflowed with water perished.”
There was an earth age before this present earth age which perished or was destroyed. It is through the searching of the scriptures that the complete history of the earth and man are revealed.
In the Book of Job, a question is asked of Job by God, “where were you when the morning stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy,” Job 38:7. Of course this is before the physical creation of the earth and before the inclusion of time. God is Spirit, John 4:24, and all the sons of God were spirit also. Spirit is not subject to the element of time. We need to think of time that is added to this earth age as a bridge, connecting the age that was, to the age of the Kingdom of God, which will be eternal. This present earth age uses the word ,dispensation as a division of time, for the purpose of the progression of God’s plan and purpose. All souls belong to God, as His right of creation, Ezekiel 18:4, and these souls were never filled inwardly with the righteousness of Christ. If they, the sons of God, were filled inwardly with the nature of their Father, there would never have been a rebellion in the age that was, and causing the destruction of the Earth. So God had to bring His children into this present earth age, made in His image outwardly and fill them with His virtuous nature inwardly, as was His purpose of the planting of trees, symbolic of men, in the Garden, Genesis 2:16. But they were not to touch the tree that was in the midst of the Garden, the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.
For six days God renewed the face of the earth. On the Seventh Day, He and those who are called male and female, created on the sixth day, rested with Him on the His created Sabbath, the Seventh Day. On the Eight day, God resumed His work and created Adam and then Eve. God then instructed Adam to eat of any Tree of the Garden except of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They didn’t take God’s advice, so they were both put out of the Garden, a curse placed upon the ground, and they were subject to the death penalty. This is the inheritance for all those born after the similitude of Adam.
Challenge That God Faced
This is also the challenge God was faced with. If there was to be a solution to remedy the situation with His children, He would need someone who would redeem His children, take away the element of time, remove the curse placed upon the ground, and take away the death penalty.
So who could fulfill the purpose and remedy this dilemma. Could Abraham do it? How about Moses? Could the law be the remedy? How about David? He killed the giant Goliath. These were all warriors who God would use during a time of service, but they could not be used to fully solve the dilemma for God’s children in a natural but self existing way.
The Promised Seed
Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; It shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise His heel.
A seed has within it a variety of characteristics which are important,but its main function is a new beginning. We read of this new beginning in Isaiah 7:14.
Immanuel
Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,and shall call His name Immanuel”.
This woman, although a progeny of Adam, and her flesh being contaminated by the Serpent as we all are, nevertheless, it was through mans sinful flesh, and because of her faith, that Her Seed would be born. The name Immanuel means God with us. God was always working with man alongside, or outside of man. But now, God as a seed, is within man, through a virgin, to be manifested to the world. It was said, “call His name Jesus,” Luke 1:31. Jesus then became the Son of man, as well as the last Adam,1st Corinthians 15:45. Everyone and everything would find a new beginning in Christ. In the Book of Matthew we read:
Matthew 3:16, And Jesus, when He was baptized, went straightway out of the water; and lo, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him. 17, And lo, a voice from heaven saying, “this is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus was not only the Son of Man, He was now the Son of God also. He was a God-man.
Jesus as Our Redeemer
Whenever the Nation of Israel sinned or were a stubborn people, God would sell them to a Gentile King. From their earliest wanderings, God did this many times, Book of Judges, 2:14;3:8; 4:2; 10:7; Esther 7:4; Isaiah 50:1; 52:3. According to God’s law, sin is reckoned as a debt. During those times, when they were in bondage to a Gentile King or leader, they would repent and God would restore the people again.
During the course of time, the nation of Israel became two Houses, The House of Israel, And the House of Judah, 2nd Kings 17:18. The northern Tribes consisted of ten tribes, who God eventually scattered and later divorced, Jeremiah 3:8. The House of Judah consisted of two Tribes, Judah and Benjamin. Both Houses had a part of the Tribe of Levi within it, who were the priests. Jesus would be born into this House because of Mary, the mother of Jesus, would be part Levi on her mothers side, and part Judah from her fathers side. Jesus was born into the House of Judah. He was not born of fornication as the religious leaders said, John 8:41. They should have known the scriptures which said that a virgin would conceive, Isaiah 7:14. Because the house of Judah had no formal king other than Caesar, Jesus, because of His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and acceptance by His heavenly Father, could qualify and redeem those who were willingly joined to Him, not only as their King, but also as their High Priest. He paid the debt incurred by all mankind, with His life, thereby fulfilling the vow of redemption.
Exodus 6:6, Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments.
Hence, His title then qualified Him as the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
Eliminating the Serpentine Nature at the Cross
In the Garden of Eden, Adam was told to take of any tree of the Garden except the tree in the midst of the Garden, the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam disobeyed God and Adam as well as Eve were put out of the Garden. They didn’t leave empty but were filled with a mixture of the poisonous and the Serpentine nature within them and passed that nature on to all who would be born of the similitude of Adam, Romans 5:14.
God stated that all souls are His, Ezekiel 18:4. When Adam, who was a living soul, Genesis 2:7, took of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the spirit within him became deadened, for we read:
Ephesians 2:1, “And you hath He quickened, (Those who are now believers, who were once a progeny of Satan ), who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
1st Peter 3:18, For Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,but quickened by the Spirit.
Before we were baptized, we were without God, Galatians 4:9, and not known of God. But now, repenting and being baptized, we have our spirit quickened, Galatians 4:6, and made alive by His Spirit. As we bring every negative thought or action of our sin nature to the cross, we fill our vessel, 2nd Timothy 2:21, with His righteousness. We crucify our flesh, where Satan dwells, just as Christ did. Although Christ’s died at the cross, the Spirit within Him was resurrected and returned to God.
Ecclesiastes 12:7, Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the Spirit shall return unto God Who gave it.
Satan, in the Garden, had challenged God’s purpose by contaminating Adam and Eve. It seams that he never realized that the flesh man he conquered in the Garden, would be brought to the cross just as Jesus was brought to the cross to be judged by God’s fiery law, Deuteronomy 33:2. Satan, who inhabited the flesh of man caused his own death. This same law would judge all men, thereby eliminating the flesh nature in which Satan dwells. Baptism into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are those who are reckoned as dead, and have been quickened, and their spirit made alive in Christ. Upon their death, they will return to their Father and God as Christ did.
God, with one action, in His wisdom, defeated Satan four different ways. 1st, Christ redeemed us by buying our debt, our sin debt, with His life, Exodus 6:6; 2nd, after death, through baptism, our spirit is quickened and made alive and enter into resurrection and into eternal Life. Spirit is not subject to time and time is eliminated; 3rd, He fulfilled the promise given to Abram of inheriting a new land, Genesis 13:14-17. The curse was placed upon Adam and the land, and we, as the progeny of Adam, who were created from the land, have inherited his curse. In our redemption, the curse upon us, as the land, is removed, because we have entered into Christ as our new promised land. And 4th, because our Serpentine nature was crucified at the cross, the same spirit which raised Christ will raise us also.
These precious truths are hidden in God’s word. Our work today is to glorify God while we are in these flesh bodies, not through our own efforts, but seeking the righteousness of Christ, proving to us , that God’s love for us never fails.
Malachi 4:3, And ye shall tred down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
These ashes are the remains of our once flesh nature judged by God’s fiery law.