At The Cross: Triumph

The other day I heard my children playing a war game:  Stuffed animals versus Lego Men.  As they discussed who would die, I saw sadness on my daughter’s face. She was thinking about Rinty, her stuffed German Shepherd dying. 

           

I interrupted the game and told my daughter that Rinty could have an invisible, indestructible body suit that was created by the secret, mad scientist in her laboratory.  (Moms can have a good imagination also). 

           

My son quickly protested, “That’s not fair.  How can I win if he can never die?”  Good point.  We sorted out some details and the game continued, but my son’s words stuck with me.

 ‘How can I win, if He can’t die?  How can I win?’ I bet that’s a little how Satan feels about Jesus.  ‘This isn’t fair.  He can’t die.  How can I ever win?’ 

Colossians 2:15 says, “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Let’s break this verse down by defining some words. 

            Disarmed:  to divest, set aside, or spoil.

            Powers:  chief or magistrates.

            Authorities:  force or capacity. (1)

Do you see the win?  Jesus absolutely stripped Satan of all power, all force, and all capacity to have authority.  He didn’t just take away Satan’s momentum, or slightly “turn the table.”  He didn’t just “buy more time.”  He didn’t just get a little breathing room in order to execute the next move.   He completely destroyed any authority or rule of Satan.

The verse goes on to tell us the how of this triumph,  “the cross.”   Because of the cross, “The devil and all the powers of hell were conquered and disarmed...” (2)

One last word from Colossians I want to share with you.  Triumphing means an exclamatory procession, or to conquer. (3)  Jesus wasn’t about secrecy or hiding His victory.  He was about proclaiming it to the world.   We should be about proclaiming it also.

Because of the cross Satan can only ask, “How can I win?”  To which we answer—you can’t.  We serve God who in His great wisdom and power, has given His Son indestructible life which He has offered to us.  To Him be the glory!

1. Vine, W. E.  Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words.   Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN.  1996.

2.  Henry, Matthew.  Matthew Henry Commentary.  Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI.  1992.

3.  Strong, James.  Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.  Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA.