G3 Insider

I have always hated that saying. I guess by saying it it makes us feel better  or less guilty about our actions. In all reality the devil can’t make us do anything. He didn’t force the fruit down Adam and Eve’s throat. He tempted them and they made the conscious choice to eat it. Before we became believers we were slaves to sin and the ability to please God was impossible because sin owned us. We could not choose good or be good or live in a good way because of our sinful nature controlling our actions. But when we took on Christ we also gained the power of the Holy Spirit and now we have the power to choose to not sin. Not because of us but because of Him.

The devil has no control over the actions we make in our lives or the sins we commit. That is all on us and we can keep trying to make ourselves feel better by blaming the devil or we can take responsibility for our actions and ask the Lord to forgive us for falling into the trap of temptation and sin.

In Colossians Paul lays out how the devil has no power in our lives. I love how he puts it in chapter 2:11-15.

When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.  In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

I love it. Christ death on the cross “shamed them publicly” not just in front of humans but ALL of Heaven and earth. It was an embarrassing and humiliating defeat for satan. And when we, regenerated believers in Christ, resist the devil’s temptations and refuse to give into sin we continue to shame him. We are no longer under his control and authority. We now belong to Christ. We now have the power to resist the devil and his only option is to flee in shame. We are no longer slaves to this world and the evil in it.  Instead we are foreigners in a strange land. Heaven is our true home and Christ is our only King. The devil can make us do nothing when Christ rules over us and in us.

As long as we remain in this fallen world satan and his demons will continue to bring about evil and temptation. But always remember the cross. Always remember that what Christ did brought shame to satan because the cross publicly reveals the failure of demonic powers to thwart God’s plan of salvation and regeneration. And every time we resist the temptation to sin and continue to choose Christ we are defeating the devil and bringing glory to the true King.