#13 - WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS - Fifteen Reasons God the Son Came To Die (part 2)

JESUS CHRIST DIED ON THE CROSS TO DISARM PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS AND CANCEL THEIR POWER OVER OUR LIVES

2) TO FOCUS OUR ATTENTION ON THE REAL BATTLE OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE, WE HAVE BEEN FREED IN CHRIST FROM FALSE FEARS AND SUPERSTITIONS

It’s at this point that I want to deal with the two other texts of this teaching:

I have seen something that concerns me greatly. I’ve seen it three times in the last month on religious television programs. I’ve seen Joyce Myers and John Hagee and Benny Hinn all call Christians to the front and pray for their deliverance from generational curses.

I wouldn’t have been disturbed if they had simply prayed for people who were afraid they were victims of generational curses and explained to them that these fears had been answered to in the death of Jesus on the cross.

But that wasn’t the case. This wasn’t an explanation of what Jesus had accomplished for them on the cross. It was presented as the actual moment of their deliverance at the hands of the television evangelist.

It was at that time I began thinking about those wonderful, largely unknown words, from Numbers 23:22-23 - “God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of the wild ox. [23] For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel; now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What has God wrought!’”

There are two marvelous thoughts joined together. These people had been delivered from the bondage of Egypt. And because they are a delivered people, they can never be a cursed people. This wasn’t because they were somehow special in themselves. They weren’t always a morally superior people. They weren’t the most numerous or powerful people. But they were a people redeemed and delivered by God. And simply because of that, they were uncursable. Is that a great truth or what?

“That’s Old Testament Israel, Pastor Don. How can you apply that verse to the New Testament body of Christ?”

I apply it like this. The clear, repeated teaching of the New Testament is that any blessings applied to God’s people in the Old Testament, while not always exactly the same in the new covenant, are, if anything, greatly amplified and multiplied through Jesus Christ for His church. This is not some marginal truth in the New Testament, but a central and prolific one. It is the central thesis of Paul’s whole letter to the Galatian church:

Galatians 3:7-9, 29 - “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. [8] And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” [9] So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith....[29] And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

As the redeemed Body of Christ, we don’t get less than Abraham. We get infinitely more. As redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus - bought at such great price - direct recipients of God’s best covenant - we don’t have less than the children of Abraham did under the old covenant. We have so much more. We are now sealed by the Spirit of God in a way not possible under the old covenant.

That brings us into the marvelous truth of our final text:

Colossians 2:13-15 - “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, {14} having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. {15} When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him."

We have already studied verses 13 and 14 in this teaching series in detail. Our focus now is verse 14. When Paul thinks of the event of the cross - when he remembers how the debt of the broken law of God was paid up and silenced forever - he identifies the event of the cross in still another way.

When he refers to the cross he speaks of it as the time when God “....disarmed the rulers and authorities....” - because the chief tool of the enemy was the power he had to justly condemn us through the whip of the law we had truly broken - and “made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him (Christ).”

Jesus Himself saw this victory coming as He faced the cross - John 12:31 - “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” The cross permanently changes the status of Satan. He is still here with us. His minions still do his bidding. But he fights and flails like a dragon with his head already chopped off.

Now we need to put all of this together. If Satan is a defeated foe, is there still such a thing as spiritual warfare? Yes, there is. But it is now warfare of a specific kind. Satan’s power is exercised not directly over Christian people. That’s why Paul says we need to stand against Satan’s wiles or strategies. In another place he says we need to be aware of his devices.

Here’s the important point. Satan uses means to reach people he can’t touch directly. The Bible says he can’t touch you directly - 1 John 5:18-19 - “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. [19] We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

“The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Notice how John puts two sides of truth together in perfect balance. The whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And, at the same time, the “the evil one does not touch him (the one born of God).

Aren’t you so glad John didn’t say “Greater is He that is in you than the other ones who are in you?” No. Only Jesus dwells in us by the Spirit of God. So, if the enemy is going to mess up my life as a child of God he must find some other way to touch or gain influence over my life. And he does this, with great success in many Christians’ lives by using the world to capture my affections and thoughts. He can’t reach me from the inside directly so he tempts and deceives and fascinates me from the outside indirectly.

So here, finally, we see where true spiritual warfare lies for the child of God. You don’t have to live in fear of being taken captive by curses and spirits and demons. My Bible says Satan can’t touch the child of God. Don’t live your life bound in fear and superstition.

But you do need to engage your life in constant spiritual warfare. The battle is with the world as Satan uses it to do one of two things: as he deceives you about the absolute truth of God’s Word and trades it for the relativism of this age. And secondly, as he tempts you with temporary pleasures over the supreme and abiding glory of the will and way of God.

Somehow we’re missing this. We are actually living through a very strange time in the church (and society in general) where people are more and more interested in the supernatural and spiritual warfare and yet, at the very same time, are less and less interested in separation from the world and personal holiness. Either way, Satan laughs. And Christians are distracted from the real issues of spiritual warfare against the wiles of the Devil.

We sing about the power of the cross. But do you know what the power of the cross is for? It’s not just power for forgiveness. It’s power for triumph. Jesus defeated Satan on the cross. His direct power over my life and yours is broken. And that present power of the cross is manifested for a purpose in my life today. The freedom of the power of the cross is freedom to renounce Satan’s temptations and reject his lies. This is how the cross is related to the issue of spiritual warfare today:

Galatians 6:14 - “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Let’s make sure we stand confidently in the security Jesus’ cross brings. And, at the very same time, let’s make sure we’re more alert than many about the daily battle with the schemes of the Devil.