The Death of Christ

Christ Destroying the Devil

“Since there for the children have shared in blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner partook to of the same, that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil.” (Heb. 2:14)

Herein is divine wisdom. On the eve of Christ’s crucifixion, Satan instigated the Lord’s own disciple Judas to betray Him (Luke 22:3) and to deliver Him to the Jewish priests and elders, who had been seeking to do away with Him. The Jewish religionists then falsely accused the Lord Jesus before the Roman rulers. Pilate the governor, finding the Lord guiltless, sought to release Him, but the devil incited a mob to unreasonably demand the Savior’s death. Soon afterward, while the Lord Jesus suffered meekly on the cross, as the faith of His disciples wavered, and as the rest of His followers looked on sorrowfully and helplessly, it seemed that Satan had at last triumphed over God. Yet according to God’s wonderful design, Christ through His ensuing death destroyed the devil, and through His resurrection defeated and humiliated the rulers of Satan’s kingdom of darkness (Col. 2:15).

The death of the Lord Jesus was no ordinary death. Beyond the observable physical realm, in the divine and mystical realm, the crucifixion of the Man-Savior resulted not only in the decease of His physical body, but also in the triumphant termination of sin, the world, the flesh, and the old man, as well as the destruction of His age-old nemesis Satan. The Lord Jesus “through death destroyed him who has the might of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). On the cross, He fulfilled God’s promise of the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15) who would one day bruise the serpent’s head.

In order to apprehend how Satan was destroyed on the cross, we must first know how he entered into the sphere of human flesh. When man partook of the tree of knowledge in the fall, he received the sinful nature of Satan, indeed, Satan himself, into his flesh. For this reason, Paul personifies and characterizes sin in the book of Romans. He speaks of sin entering into the world (Rom. 5:12), sin dwelling in him (7:17), sin deceiving him and killing him (7:11), and sin reigning in death (5:21). The sin who dwells in man’s flesh is Satan, the originator of sin. To deal with Satan and his sinful activity in man’s flesh, God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin to condemn sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3). Actually, “the phrase sin in the flesh refers to the source of sin, the devil.” (Lee Affirmation 17). The Lord Himself had no sin and knew no sin (Heb. 4:14; 2 Cor. 5:21). But His vicarious death as a man in the flesh crucified all sinful flesh, and in so doing He also destroyed Satan as the sinful nature indwelling man’s flesh.

Of course, we in no way suggest that Satan was dealt with only by association in the sense of being the sinful nature within man, and that the objective person of Satan was somehow spared. Christ in His death destroyed the devil completely and decisively, for He died on the cross as the reality of the brass serpent (Num. 21: 4-9; John 3:14). As the brass serpent, He not only died vicariously for all sinners who have received the sinful serpentine nature; His death as the brass serpent also encompassed Satan, who is the ancient serpent (Rev. 21:9). When Christ as the representative brass serpent was crucified, Satan the actual serpent was also crucified and destroyed. Christ’s death was God’s absolute judgment on the devil, the ruler of this world (John 12:31).

[The Old Man] [Sin] [The World] [The Devil] [Ordinances]

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