By Tim Rowe

Let’s return to Genesis 3 to see some additional truths concerning this battle of good and evil, the curse pronounced on the serpent, and God’s awesome promise of redemption.

Genesis 3:14 (KJV):

And the LORD God said unto the serpent,
Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed
above all cattle, and above every beast
(chayyah-living thing) of the field; upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou
eat all the days of your life.

God reserved the harshest judgment and strongest curse for His archenemy, the devil, as revealed in verses 14 and 15. It was a proclamation of the death penalty; it was an announcement of his ultimate destruction, and it was a message that his future was doomed. Just when it appeared Satan had achieved a great victory, God boldly confronted him with a firm declaration of his annihilation. There was no discussion, no debate, and no question as sentence was at once pronounced. Satan did not get off the hook, but was cursed above every living thing upon the earth. The curse of God fell upon this evil fallen angel and will abide all the days of his existence until his final destruction, as described in the Book of Revelation. Although Satan gained the authority and power over the world from Adam, every action in his evil kingdom has the curse of God hanging over it. His power is not unlimited; his kingdom will not abide forever, and there is a time limit to his exercise of authority over the earth.

The first part of his curse is that “upon thy belly thou shalt go.” Bullinger, in The Companion Bible, states this is a figure of speech referring to the devil and “implies utmost humiliation.” He elaborates:

This figure means infinitely more than the
literal belly of flesh and blood just as the words
“heel” and “head” do in verse 15. It paints for
the eyes of our mind the picture of Satan’s ultimate
humilation; for prostration was ever the most
eloquent sign of subjection. When it says “our
belly shall cleaveth unto the ground” (Psalm 44:25),
it denotes such a prolonged prostration and such a
depth of submission as could never be conveyed or
expressed in literal words.

Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon on the The Serpent’s Sentence, says:

Note THE REMARKABLE PROSTRATION
which fell upon the serpent-”upon your belly
shall you go.” So does the serpent move and so
does evil labor to make progress. Satan moves
always as a fallen one-not with the dignity of
holiness, but groveling low. God has put upon
his every movement the indication that he is
no longer great and wise…The greatest potentate
of evil is doomed to cringe and crawl…All the
objects of the power of evil are groveling.

There is no dignity in Satan’s kingdom. There is no uprightness in Satan’s schemes. He sneaks, grovels, cringes, and crawls, but suffers humiliation on a daily basis. He has to masquerade as an angel of light; he has to deceive, and he has to counterfeit the things of God, for he cannot stand in truth. Even though he is full of pride and arrogance, he must prostrate and be subject to the power of the Word of God. His authority and strength must bow to and coil back from the living Word of God and those who believe it. He cannot extinguish or snuff out the light of God. He cannot conquer those who trust God and believe His Word. Any victory of Satan is short lived when seen in the light of his daily failures and humiliation in his fight against God Almighty. But nothing compares to his ultimate humiliation and destruction right before the eyes of the entire world. Ezekiel and Isaiah prophesied of this final devastating humiliation of the curse in Genesis 3:14, “upon they belly thou shalt go”:

Ezekiel 28:17-19 (English Standard Version):

Your heart was proud because of your
beauty; you corrupted your wisdom
for the sake of your splendor. I cast you
to the ground. I exposed you before kings,
to feast their eyes on you.

By the multitude of your iniquities, in the
unrighteousness of your trade you profaned
your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from
your midst; it consumed you, and I turned
you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all
who saw you.

All who know you among the peoples are
appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful
end and shall be no more forever.

Isaiah 14:15-20 (Christian Holman Standard):

But you will be brought down to Sheol
into the deepest regions of the Pit.

Those who see you will stare at you; they
will look closely at you; “Is this the man
who caused the earth to tremble, who shook
kingdoms,who turned the world into a wilderness, who
trampled its cities and would not release the
prisoners to return home?”

All of the kings of the nations lie in splendor,
each in his own tomb.

But you are thrown out without a grave, like
a worthless branch, covered by those slain
with the sword and dumped into a rocky pit
like a trampled corpse.

You will not join them in burial, because you
destroyed your land and slaughtered your own
people. The offspring of evil doers will never be
remembered.

The god of this world, the devil, who ruined Adam and Eve in the garden, who contaminated God’s creation with sin, who turned the world into a wasteland of evil and trampled its cities, who made people prisoners in the bondage of his snare, who uses and destroys his followers, and who spreads fear throughout every age, will one day become like a worthless branch and a trampled corpse, as he is destroyed and reduced to ashes. This is the future of the serpent. He will enchant no more, fascinate no more, deceive no more, destroy no more, and oppose the goodness of God no more. This is the ultimate humiliation awaiting the great enemy of God and His people. This is the future of evil.

The second part of the God’s curse on the devil is: “dust shalt thou eat all the days of your life.” E.W. Bullinger, in The Companion Bible, states:

“Dust shalt thou eat”. This is not true to the letter,
or to fact but it is all the more true to truth. It
tells of constant continuous disappointment,
failure and mortification: as when deceitful ways
are spoken feeding on deceitful food, which is
“sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth shall be
filled with gravel” (Prov. 20:17). This does not
mean literal “gravel” but something far more
disagreeable. It means disappointment so great
that it would gladly be exchanged for the literal
gravel.

Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon on The Serpent’s Sentence, says:

THE PERPETUAL DEGRADATION put upon
the serpent- “And dust shalt thou eat all the days
of your life.” Satan is now to live a defeated life,
for such is the force of expression. It signifies that
they are utterly defeated. So Satan, all his life,
exists as a conquered and chained enemy-his power
is broken and he knows it. He is defeated as to the
whole of his great scheme and he is to be defeated
in the details of it all the days of his life…Forever,
dust shall be the serpent’s meat, for what he gains
always disappoints him. He thought he had obtained
great advantage when he won the woman to –
disobedience-but he made a rod for his own back
since her Seed has become his Eternal Antagonist…
If Satan ever knows pleasure at all, it is of the foulest
and most unsatisfactory kind-dust is his meat. There
is nothing satisfying in the pleasures of rebellion. He
remains a disappointed, restless being. His whole cause,
for which he has labored these thousands of years with
horrible perseverance-his whole cause, I say-will
dissolve into dust and will be blown away as smoke!…
Everything that sin can bring you is just so much dust…
This is the misery of that great spirit who is called the
Prince of Darkness, that he must eat dust all his days.

Satan and his kingdom suffer bitter disappointment, frustration, and disillusionment on a daily basis. There is no joy or contentment in Satan’s kingdom. At every turn, at every corner, and at every path, the devil is constantly frustrated by God and His goodness. Evil always brings disappointment, as only the goodness of God can truly satisfy the heart and soul of a person. The best the devil has to offer is dust in your mouth, dust in your purposes, dust in your accomplishments, and dust in your life without God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan is constantly disturbed and aggravated because he cannot usurp God’s throne, cannot defeat God, cannot outsmart God, cannot overcome God, cannot overpower God, and cannot get away from the curse of God that permeates everything he does. The Evil One has a cloud of defeat and doom that hangs over all of
his schemes and deceptions.

The next verse contains the greatest promise of the goodness of God in the Bible. When it seemed that all was lost and the devil had succeeded in ruining Adam and Eve, God promised a coming Savior, who will redeem mankind from the penalty of sin and ultimately crush the devil into oblivion. This was a promise of hope, goodness, and salvation, as God would not leave the world helpless, but would give them His only begotten Son. What a God of love and goodness to promise this to His children who had just committed high treason against Him. God threw the glorious light of His Word right back at the serpent, as the coming redeemer would not only restore everything Adam and Eve lost in the garden, but utterly destroy the devil and all his works. This was the final death blow of the curse of God on the devil that was boldly pronounced in the garden. God heralded forth this good promise so every fallen angel, including the devil himself, would hear about His magnificent goodness and shudder about their ultimate defeat.

Genesis 3:15 (Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible):

And enmity shall I put between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,-
He shall crush thy head, but thou shall crush
his heel.

This is a declaration of war! This verse sets forth the fulcrum point of all history and defines the ceaseless battle that has raged since Adam’s fall in the Garden of Eden. This verse is the central theme of all scriptures, as the red thread of the coming Redeemer is interwoven into every book of the Old Testament. Its message is even written in the heavens, as each night the stars proclaim the sufferings and glorious triumph of Christ.

Who is the seed of the woman? In conception the seed comes from the male, but God’s Word clearly refers to the woman’s seed here. Seed implies birth, and this verse indicates a virgin birth of a man who would crush the arch-enemy of God. This man is the Savior, the Redeemer, the Liberator, the Messiah, the Second Adam, and the Conqueror over sin and death. This man is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Adam as a fallen man could not conquer death or sin, but was a slave to them. Adam or Eve could not of their own power crush and destroy the devil. Adam and Eve could not redeem themselves and pay the penalty of sin that hangs over the human race. They were in desperate need of the seed of the woman, the Redeemer, to free them from the curse of their disobedience. There was great hope in this promise of goodness.

God proclaims that the destiny of this seed of the women is to destroy the devil and all his works. God promises the destiny of the serpent is utter destruction at the hands of this man. The Second Adam will “crush the head of the serpent.” The word “crush” in the Hebrew means: to break or smite in pieces and to greatly injure or wound. E. W.
Bullinger, in The Companion Bible, states:

When it is said (v.15), “He shall crush thy head,”
it means something more than a skull of bone, and
brain and hair. It means all Satan’s plans and plots,
policy and purposes, will one day be finally crushed
and ended, never more to mar or to hinder the
purposes of God.

Charles Spurgeon continues in his sermon on The Serpent’s Sentence:

We now observe his FINAL DOOM…Here is the
end of the great conflict. Satan who heads the
powers of evil in the world, is to fight it out with
all his cunning and strength… but in the end the
Seed of the woman is to bruise his head…Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, He has cast the Prince of Darkness from
his high places…What can he do with a broken
head? This bruise upon the head of the Evil One is
a mortal stroke. If he had been bruised upon the tail
or upon the neck he might have survived. But the
Lord shall utterly slay the kingdom of evil and crush
its power.

In this great battle, the serpent will inflict some temporary damage as he will “crush the heel” of the seed of the woman. E.W. Bullinger, in The Companion Bible, explains:

It cannot mean his literal heel of flesh and blood,
but suffering, more temporary in nature…The
bruising of Christ’s heel is the most eloquent and
impressive way of foretelling the most solemn
events; and to point out that the effort made by
Satan to evade his doom, then threatened, would
become the very means of insuring its
accomplishment; for it was through the death of
Christ that he who had the power of death would
be destroyed; and all Satan’s power and policy
brought to an end, and all his works destroyed…
What literal words could portray these literal
facts so wonderfully as these expressive figures
of speech.

Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon The Serpent’s Sentence, expounds on this truth:

We see in the text THE LIMITED ACHIEVEMENT
of the old serpent. What will be accomplished by all
his schemes? “You shall bruise his heel.” That is
all…That bruised heel is painful enough…He was
betrayed, bound, accused, buffeted, scourged, spit
upon. He was nailed to the Cross. He hung there
in thirst and fever and darkness and desertion.
They pierced His hands and feet…Satan by death
death bruised the heel of the woman’s seed…but
when our Lord thought of the Resurrection, the
salvation of His chosen and the conquest of the
world, it seemed to him to be a light thing-”He
endured the Cross, despising the shame.”…Make
the best of it Satan, it does not come to much. All
that you are at your greatest is but a heel-nibbler
and nothing more.

This is the essence of the battle of good and evil throughout all history. The seed of the woman represents all of God’s goodness, and the serpent and his seed represent everything that is evil. The most intense war the world has ever known is about to begin. It is more fierce, more violent, more brutal, more ferocious, and more severe than all of the wars of human history combined. At the very root of this warfare is deep-seated enmity between good and evil, between God and His people and the serpent and his people, and between the Word of God and the word of Satan. This is a spiritual battle, an invisible war for the heart and soul of all peoples on Earth.

God states that there will be great enmity between the serpent and the second Adam, Christ. The word “enmity” in the Hebrew means: hatred and hostility with a desire to injure. There is no truce in this battle. There is no peace agreement. As long as Satan’s kingdom operates upon the earth, it will be opposed vigorously by Christ. Jesus Christ is the absolute pinnacle of God’s goodness, and he represents everything that is good in the heart and purposes of God. Christ represents God’s goodness, mercy, grace, love, righteousness, justice, holiness, faithfulness, truth, life, and peace. Satan has great hostility to the goodness of God and everything that Christ represents, as he tries to
suppress the knowledge and understanding of God’s goodness in the hearts and minds of people. Satan wants to keep people in the dark about how good God is and the great salvation and deliverance available through Jesus Christ. He fervently desires to injure, hurt, destroy, harm, wound, impair, mar, impede, obstruct, hinder, frustrate, and discourage God’s people, God’s Word and God’s purposes. He does everything he can to turn people away from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Satan has raging hostility toward the second Adam, for he knows that his head will be crushed by him. This is a fatal blow from which there is no recovery. Once a serpent’s head is crushed, he cannot inject his poison into the world anymore or operate his schemes and deceptions on all mankind. The devil knew that there was a genealogical Christ line that would pass through Eve, as the seed of the woman would have to be born. Later, the Word of God was more specific that this Christ line would pass through

Abraham and King David. The entire Old Testament is a record of the fierce attempts of
the devil to wipe out the Christ line, and prevent Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman, from ever being born. It is a record of God’s magnificent works and actions that repeatedly delivered the Christ line from extinction. Sometimes the survival of the Christ line rested on the faith of one individual like Noah, Joseph, Abraham, and Esther. Read the Old Testament with this truth in mind, and the Word of God will come alive in new and wonderful ways.

There is not enough space in this book to go into detail of the countless schemes and plots of the devil to destroy this Christ line, and God’s miraculous protection of it. The salvation and redemption of the human race depended on the preservation of the Christ line. The devil started with the murder of Abel and was absolutely relentless to try to destroy the Seed of the woman who would utterly crush and defeat him. He was not going to go out without a vicious and violent battle where he marshaled all his evil forces to bring about the destruction of the Christ line. The devil even tried to genetically corrupt the entire human race with nephilim, or giants of wickedness, (see Genesis 6) so that the Christ line could never come. This was a serious all out attack on the human race to prevent the coming of the Redeemer. The devil also tried floods, famines, warfare, idolatry, politics, religion, people, philosophies, and countless schemes throughout the Old Testament to destroy the true knowledge of God, and obliterate the genealogical line from which Christ would be born. But Satan was foiled again and again. He even tried to devour the infant Jesus through Herod’s decree of death, but God was always one step ahead of the devil in the preservation of His promise of the Seed of the woman.

The book of Romans sets forth the importance of this one man, the second Adam, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race for all who believe.

Romans 5:15,17,18 (Amplified Bible):

But God’s free gift is not all to be compared
to the trespass [His grace is out of all
proportion to the fall of man]. For if many
died through one man’s falling away (his
lapse, his offense), much more profusely
did God’s grace and the free gift that comes
through the undeserved favor of the one
Man Jesus Christ abound and overflow to
and for the benefit of many.

For if because of one man’s trespass (lapse,
offense) death reigned through that one,
much more surely will those who receive
God’s overflowing grace (unmerited favor)
and the free gift of righteousness [putting
them into right standing with Himself] reign
as kings in life through the one Man Jesus
Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One.)

Well then, as one man’s trespass [one man’s
false step and falling away led] to condemnation
for all men, so one Man’s act of righteousness
leads to acquittal and right standing with God
and life for all men.

God revealed His ultimate plan of grace with the Seed of the woman, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who by His death and resurrection made available the free gift of righteousness leading to acquittal from the penalty of sin and right standing again with God. The court of God legally pronounces the declaration of acquittal when a man or woman confesses Jesus Christ as their Lord and believes God raised Jesus from the dead. Sin and death reign in this world because of Adam’s one act of disobedience, but now through the obedience of one man, Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice, we can reign as kings in this life and the one to come.

Ray Pritchard in his Commentary on Romans explains:

Death reigned. That’s our heritage from Adam.
Death reigns on the earth because of Adam’s
sin…Ah, but that’s only part of the story. There
is a way out. There is a way to reverse what
Adam did…It comes, Paul says to those who
receive God’s abundant provision of grace and
the gift of righteousness…But notice the result
of receiving the gift of righteousness. Those
who receive this free gift now reign in life.
On one hand, death reigns; on the other hand,
those who know Jesus Christ as Savior reign
as kings right now, in this life and in the life
to come. We live in dying world, but in this
realm of death, we may through Jesus Christ
reign as kings. And in the life to come, we
shall reign forever, rising from the dead,
clothed with immortality. Only God could
take a slave and transform him into a king.
But that is what God has done through Jesus
Christ. So what Jesus did is far greater than
what Adam did. Greater in its nature. Greater
in its power. Greater in its effect.

The goodness of God has its ultimate triumph in the Lord Jesus Christ. Evil has its sentence of doom and ultimate destruction in the Lord Jesus Christ. What Jesus Christ accomplished at Calvary is so magnificent, so awesome and so astounding, that it
permanently crippled Satan’s kingdom and one day will obliterate every remnant of it from off the face of the earth. The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the most important event in all of human history, because he broke the curse of sin and death that hangs over the world like a dark cloud. He regained everything that Adam and Eve had lost on that tragic day in the Garden of Eden and so much more. He paid the price for the complete redemption and salvation of the soul of every person who comes to Him. Through Jesus Christ, righteousness is restored to a person so that they can stand in the presence of God without any sense of fear, shortcoming, guilt, or unworthiness. The ability to have deep fellowship and communion with the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ has been recovered and given as a gift to all those who confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

The Court of God has wiped our slate clean; we are as white as snow, as our redeemer has paid the ransom and penalty for our sin. We no longer have to live in bondage to sin, fear, worry, sickness, disease, poverty, misery, hatred, selfishness, and ignorance, for we reign as kings in life through the Lord Jesus Christ. We can walk in great power, wreaking havoc in Satan’s kingdom on the earth as we touch people with the great healing love and wholeness available in Jesus Christ. You are a super-conqueror; you are a new creation; you are a glorious son or daughter of God with all the dignity that comes with God’s calling through Jesus Christ.

Colossians further elaborates on this head crushing of the serpent by the Seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 2:14,15 (Message):

When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life,
you were incapable of responding to God. God
brought you alive-right along with Christ! Think
of it! All sins forgive, the slate wiped clean, that
old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s
cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants of the
universe of their sham authority at the Cross and
marched them naked through the streets.

Verse 15 (Phillips):

And having drawn the sting of all powers ranged
against us, he exposed them, shattered, empty
and defeated, in his final glorious triumphant act.

Lightfoot:

Taking on him our human nature, he stripped off
and cast aside all the powers of evil which clung
to it like a poisonous garment. As a mighty conqueror
he displayed these his fallen enemies to an astonished
world, leading them in triumph on his cross.

Weymouth:

And the hostile princes and rulers He shook off from
Himself, and boldly displayed them as His conquests,
when by the cross he triumphed over them.

Moffatt Translation:

When he cut away the angelic Rulers and Powers
from us, exposing them to all the world and triumphing
over them in the cross.

At Calvary, Jesus Christ stripped and disarmed the power and authority of the devil’s kingdom for every born again believer. No devil spirit in the devil’s kingdom, no matter what its rank, can defeat you when you stand in the strength of the Lord’s redemptive work for you at the cross. The picture Paul is painting is of a triumphant general who has routed the enemy and leads the captive foes and spoils of his victory behind his chariot in a grand public procession through the city.

In the Roman world, this was the highest honor that could be bestowed upon a victorious Roman general. It was called “the triumph.” There must have been at least 5,000 enemy soldiers killed, and there must have been a gain of Roman territory in the conquest. It was an awesome display of the power, strength, and might of the Roman Empire. It was a spectacle that few would forget its images, as the triumph declared to the world that the enemy had been overwhelmed and crushed, now to be publicly humiliated through the streets of the city.

How much greater is the triumph of Christ as the captain of our salvation? What a triumph on the cross! What a victory against the forces of darkness! What a crushing
blow to Satan’s kingdom! What a public display of victory to all those who have eyes to see and ears to hear! You become identified and in vital union with this triumph on the cross and all its far-reaching glorious effects when you become a new creation in Christ at the new birth. You are marching right beside Jesus Christ in this magnificent victory march with every wretched captive in chains under your feet. With great freedom, the power of the old sin nature has been stripped off and crippled, and the power of Christ in you flows and energizes every cell of your human body. You are a super conqueror who always triumphs in Christ. Jesus Christ cut away Satan’s firm grip on us and smashed the kingdom of darkness’s authority, control, and rule over our lives. No longer must we be a slave to sin or the bondage of this world. Jesus Christ victoriously led captivity captive for every Christian, according to the book of Ephesians, as he crushed and defeated every form of mental, physical, or spiritual bondage. What a triumph on the cross! What a
victory in Christ!

He rescued us from the power of darkness and gave us full legal rights as a son or daughter of God. The word “power” in Colossians means: the exercised power to do something; liberty of action to do as one pleases; the delegated authority and power to act, and the right to exercise power. The devil and his kingdom no longer have the liberty or power to do what they please in your life when you stand upon the triumph of the cross. The devil no longer has the right to act freely with authority and power over you. We have been set free. He must flee when we stand against him. God has given us the full armor of God to stand firm against the onslaughts of the Evil One.

Hebrew 2:14,15 (Wuest):

Therefore since the children share in common
with one another blood and flesh, He himself
also partook with them in the same, in order
that through the aforementioned death He might
render inoperative the one having the dominion
of death, that is the devil, and effect the release
of those, as many as who by reason of fear of
death through the entire course of their lives
were held in bondage.

Verse 14(b)(Moffatt):

So that by dying he might crush him who
wields the power of death (that is to say, the devil)

English Standard Version:

That through death he might destroy the one who
has the power of death, that is the devil.

Since the fall of Adam in the garden, the devil has wielded the power of death. Part of his dominion over the human race was in the form of death. Death has been an incredible weapon of destruction for Satan on the human race. Death is an enemy to every human being on the earth, and with its companion sin, the devil has held the human race in his firm grasp. The human race needed a Savior to be released from the bondage of sin and death. God in His goodness sent the Seed of the woman, His only begotten Son, to destroy death and its ruler, the devil.

The words “render inoperative” in verse 14 in the Greek mean: to render powerless; to make the force or power of something ineffective, crushing its power, and to nullify or void. It denotes a nonphysical destruction by a superior force coming in to
replace the force previously in effect. The word “dominion” in the Greek means:
strength, might, force, manifested power, and power in the sense of dominion. This brutal and horrible dominion of death, utilized so effectively by the devil, was broken at Calvary. The strength and might of death that the devil has used relentlessly as a weapon in every age of history was declared null and void. The major kingpin of his dominion and authority over the earth has been trampled under the feet of the Lord Jesus. God also promises in I Corinthians 15, and in the book of Revelation, that there is a day coming when this last enemy, death, will be completely destroyed off the face of the earth, and its sorrow, bondage, and destruction will be no more. There will absolutely be no death in the new heavens and earth promised in Revelation 21 and I Peter 3. This was all made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who crushed the serpent’s head.

I Timothy 1:10 (Amplified):

It is that purpose and grace which He has
now made known and has fully disclosed
and made real to us through the appearing
of our Savior Christ Jesus, Who annulled
death and made it of no effect and brought
life and immortality (immunity from eternal
death) to light through the Gospel.

New Living Translation:

And now he has made all of this plain to us
by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior.
He broke the power of death and illuminated
the way to life and immortality through the
Good News.

The born again believer who has put his faith in Christ as his Savior cannot be defeated by spiritual or physical death. We have been reconciled to God in the new birth and made alive spiritually in Christ. We have been given the sure promise of everlasting life and spiritual death has been obliterated by Jesus Christ. Even if we die physically,
the Lord has promised that at the Rapture, he will raise us from the dead and give us a new glorious immortal body that is not subject to the jaws of death. The devil’s main tool in the battle between good and evil, the power of death, has been absolutely mortally wounded and crushed at the cross.

This dominion of death is completely inoperable, ineffective, and powerless against the Christian believer. We have been completely set free from the bondage of death. This does not mean that if the Lord tarries, that a Christian believer will not die, but that a Christian believer cannot be held captive or conquered by death. Physical death cannot hold your body in the grave, for there is a day coming when the Lord of glory is coming back; he will break the power of the grave and raise the physical body as incorruptible. Then we will be forever with the Lord throughout all eternity. Death will
never again raise its ugly head, as it is forever destroyed at the end of the great White Throne Judgment described in Revelation 20. In the new heavens and earth of Revelation 21, there will be no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain. All of these things are gone forever. What a gospel! How good is the truth about the Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ! Death, the hated enemy, the feared enemy, the loathsome enemy, the painful enemy, the sorrowful enemy, and the wicked enemy has been broken and defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ. He swallowed up death in victory.

Romans 5:21 (Phillips):

The whole outlook changes-sin use to be the
master of men and in the end handed them
over to death: now grace is the ruling factor,
with righteousness as its purpose and
at its end the bringing of men to the eternal
life of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I Corinthians 15:20-28; 51-57 (Message):

But the truth is Christ has been raised up,
the first in a long legacy of those who are
going to leave the cemeteries.

There is a nice symmetry to this: Death
initially came by a man, and resurrection
from death came by a man.

Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes
alive in Christ.

But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first,
then those with him at his Coming, the grand
consummation when, after crushing the
opposition, he hands over his kingdom to
God the Father.

He won’t let up until the last enemy is down-
and the very last enemy is death.

As the psalmist said “He laid them low,
one and all; he walked all over them.”

When Scripture says that “he walked all
over them,” its obvious that he couldn’t at the same time be walked on.

When everything and everyone is finally
under God’s rule, the Son will step down,
taking his place with everyone else, showing
that God’s rule is absolutely comprehensive-
a perfect ending.

But let me tell you something wonderful…
On signal from that trumpet from heaven,
the dead will be up and out of the graves,
beyond the reach of death, never to die again.

At that same moment and in the same way,
we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme
of things, this has to happen: everything perishable
take off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable,
this mortal replaced by the immortal.

Then the saying will come true: Death swallowed by
triumphant Life! Who got the last word, oh Death?
Oh Death, whose afraid of you now?

It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code
guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power.
But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three-
Sin, guilt, death are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus
Christ. Thank God!

Death is the personal enemy of every human upon the face of the earth, and there is no deliverance from the power and strength of the grave without the Lord Jesus Christ. Death cannot be conquered by science; death cannot be overcome by a political decree; death cannot be eradicated by a vaccine, and death cannot be defeated by any earthly power. There will never be a fountain of youth or some magical spell or potion to obtain
eternal life. Death is the cruelest, most vicious, most sorrowful, most brutal, and most lethal curse on the human race. This curse of death pulsates through every cell of the human body like a corrupt virus, as no one can escape its power through their own strength, philosophy, or wisdom. Death does not bring you into some higher state of consciousness or being, but throws you into the decay and corruption of the grave. It is a life destroyer, happiness destroyer, family destroyer, society destroyer, and it has ripped the human heart to shreds with fear, sorrow, and pain since Adam’s high treason and the entrance of sin into the world. Death does not allow you to float around as a ghost and have free movement while you haunt or help people. Death does not bring you into a reincarnated new life form. This is a most certain truth-death does not bring life in any way, shape, or form. Without the Savior Jesus Christ, death is the end of all humanity.

Death cannot produce, generate, or refine life. Death is the end of life.

Do you see why death is such a curse and lethal enemy according to Scripture? Once you understand the brutal and permanent nature of death, you can really appreciate the total victory that Jesus Christ accomplished with his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ is the master over death and the conqueror of the grave. Immortality only comes with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Death was not the only work of the devil that Jesus Christ destroyed. The purpose of the Son of God as the Seed of the Woman, and the second Adam was to crush the works, policies, purposes, schemes, plots, and designs of the devil.

I John 3:8 (b) (New King James):

For this purpose was the Son of God manifested,
that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Amplified:

The reason the Son of God was made manifest
(visible) was to undo (destroy, loosen, and
dissolve) the works the devil has done.

Phillips:

Now the Son of God came to earth with the express
purpose of undoing the devil’s work.

Wuest:

For this purpose there was manifested the Son of
God, in order that He might bring to naught the
works of the devil.

This is why the devil has such hatred and hostility toward Jesus for he came for the express purpose of destroying, undoing, dissolving, and bringing to naught the works of the devil. God sent His Son to a dying world for the glorious mission of obliterating the curse of sin, death, and bondage that corrupted the human race in the Garden of Eden. He was sent to restore God’s magnificent purpose and destiny for men, women, and children. God wanted to bring children into His family again who would be fully righteous, justified, sanctified, and redeemed and have complete, vital, and intimate communion and fellowship with Him. God wanted mankind to once again enjoy all the full blessings of the goodness of God. Jesus Christ was the ambassador of the goodness of God and paid the price for whomever wills to come and enjoy all the benefits of His goodness.

The word “destroy” is the Greek word luo, which means: to loose something tied
or bound, to break up that which is compacted together, to dissolve, to sever, to break in pieces, to set free, to melt and to demolish. The word means “a destruction by undoing or dissolving that which forms the bond of cohesion.” Jesus Christ came to loosen people from the works of the devil and set them free. We all had a bond of cohesion to Satan’s kingdom through sin and death, but Jesus Christ dissolved the bond, and we broke free. The word luo is used in the gospels when John the Baptist said that he was not worthy to unloose (luo) the thong or strap of Jesus’ sandals. This gives a great mind picture of Jesus unloosening the works of the devil in people’s lives, like un-strapping a sandal, so that the works can be thrown off of the body, heart, and soul of a person and one can enjoy true freedom.

The Greek word luo is used again in Acts 27:41 when the ship taking the Apostle Paul to Rome was “broken (luo) on the violence of the waves.” This was a huge boat with enough room for 276 people, yet the fierce strength of the waves shattered the hinder part of the boat into pieces. Many of the soldiers were saved by grabbing onto a broken piece of the ship and floating to shore. This should paint a vivid picture for you. Jesus Christ shattered the devil’s works into a million pieces by the awesome power of God. Like a ship helplessly run into the ground and continuously beat with the relentless pounding of the waves, Jesus Christ continually pounded the schemes, deceptions, and purposes of the devil with the great force of the Word of God. He was relentless in his destruction of the devil’s works, as the boat of Satan’s kingdom could not escape the light and truth of His purpose upon the earth. Jesus Christ shook and shattered the devil’s kingdom into broken pieces.

The Greek word luo is also used in II Peter 3:10,12 when the present heaven, earth and elements melt (luo) with fervent heat and dissolve (luo) by fire at the time of the last judgments described in the Book of Revelation. What a mind picture! For something to melt, you have to apply intense heat to it. It requires energy to melt anything. When increasing temperature is applied to an element and it melts, the energy being applied to it is greater than the energy holding it together. The heat overcomes the internal forces of attraction within the solid to transform it into a liquid. Thus it begins to change form and melt.

Jesus Christ put intense heat on the purposes, works, and schemes of the devil and melted and dissolved them. Jesus Christ operated spiritual power, and when this spiritual energy of God was applied to the works of the devil, it was greater than any force holding his works together. The power of God disintegrates any plot, scheme, or purpose of Satan and no matter how attractively it is held together by evil, it cannot overcome the energy and dynamic power that rest in God. Jesus Christ put the intense heat of the truth of the Word of God right upon the kingdom of darkness, and it shined as a brilliant light, exposing the wicked works of the Evil One. This white hot heat of God’s Word melted the hardened and callous hearts of many and melted the devil’s evil foothold of bondage that robs people of joy, peace, love, and wholeness.

Interestingly, this same Greek word, luo, is also used in John 10:35, when it declares, “the scripture cannot be broken (luo).” The devil can never break, dissolve, melt, or demolish the Word of God. I Peter 1:23 says that “the word of God lives and abides forever.” The Word of God is life. The Word of God is good, pure, powerful, and faithful. It cannot be dissolved away into nothing. No matter how much heat or pressure the devil applies to the Word, it does not melt under the burning heat. Satan does not have enough energy or power to break the Word of God. Jesus Christ is the living Word. The devil does not have enough energy or power to break or shatter the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Word of God is so powerful and so energetic that it dissolves and melts every evil work of Satan. Jesus Christ believed, obeyed, trusted, spoke, lived, studied, and knew the Word of God intimately and deeply. Jesus Christ’s main weapon in the destruction of the devil’s works is the Word of God. The Word was his sword of the Spirit. The devil cannot overcome the “It is written” mentality that Jesus Christ demonstrated during his temptations in the wilderness and throughout his ministry. Jesus Christ’s confrontation with the seed of the serpent was clearly defined in their first head to head battle in the wilderness, as Jesus Christ used the Word of God to back the devil down and defeat his temptations.

One of the devil’s main tools in his battle with the Seed of the woman is ignorance. Satan wants to keep people in the dark about the great truths of the Bible. Satan wants to keep people in the dark about the goodness and wonderful character of God. Satan wants to keep people in the dark about the devil’s wicked kingdom on earth and his exercise of authority as the god of this age. Satan wants to keep people in the dark about the great victory of redemption, wholeness, healing, peace, and everlasting life available in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The devil loves to counterfeit the truth and goodness of God. The devil loves to deceive, to camouflage, to mislead, to masquerade, to impersonate, to lie, and to distract people away from the truth of God’s Word and the goodness of God. The devil counterfeits God’s Word with false religion, creeds, and philosophies to divert a person’s
attention away from a true knowledge of God. He masquerades evil as good and good as evil. He paints a picture of the true God as a cruel, vicious, uncaring, and evil God, responsible for all the calamity of the world. He makes people turn their back on God in disgust. He makes God seem distant, heartless, cold, and indifferent. He makes people
think the devil is an illusion of religious thought, a fictitious bogeyman, a myth for religious control, and simply non-existent.

Jesus Christ declared in the Gospel of John that “there is no truth in him (devil)” and he is “the father of lies.” Jesus Christ calls him “a murderer” and “a thief,” as all his works are set up to steal, kill, and destroy a person from receiving the life and goodness of God and the truth of His mighty Word. Jesus Christ exposed the snare of the devil and made known all his wicked works. Jesus Christ also made known God and His goodness in such a dynamic way, opening the eyes of those who had ears to hear and eyes to see. Jesus Christ came so that all His followers could know the truth of the Word of God and that this truth would set them free.

Acts 10:38 (English Standard Version):

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power. He went
about doing good and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil, for God
was with him.

Every action, every word and every work of Jesus Christ upon the earth was good. Jesus Christ destroyed, broke, melted, and unloosed the works of the devil by the goodness of God. Jesus Christ loved, had compassion, touched, healed, and enlightened; he taught, understood, cared, and reached out like no human being ever had on the face of the earth. Jesus Christ’s character, his habitual action, his personality, and manner of life was to do good. He was the Christ, the Anointed One, who lived, moved, and acted in all the authority and power of the Spirit of God. He made God’s goodness known by his words and actions. He revealed the truth of God’s goodness, grace, mercy, and love to a degree that had not been known since the Garden of Eden. He also shined a spotlight on the devil and his kingdom, exposing its methods, operation, and existence, which had never been previously known in the history of the world. God was with Jesus Christ every step of the way as he showed the people just how good God was, is, and always will be.

During his earthly ministry, Jesus did good by healing all those who were oppressed of the devil. The word “oppressed” in the Greek means: to exercise harsh control over someone, to exploit, to exercise control or power over someone, to be overpowered, to oppress harshly, to tyrannize, and to dominate someone. The word “heal” in the Greek means “to cure, to make whole, to cause to live and to revive or recover from illness. It refers to both physical and spiritual healing. Jesus Christ melted and destroyed the works of the devil by healing, reviving, and making whole all those who had been dominated, overpowered, oppressed harshly, and exploited by the devil. This was all part of his crushing of the head of the serpent. Jesus Christ is the great healer and restorer. No matter how harshly a person is oppressed by the devil, no matter how much a person is tyrannized by the devil, and no matter how much a person is dominated by the devil, none of the devil’s works can overpower the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
brought the goodness of God into manifestation by healing all those oppressed by the devil.

The goodness of God heals, restores, revitalizes, recovers, makes whole, cures, sets free, delivers, and revives. Jesus Christ did the ultimate act of goodness by giving his life for you and me on the cross. When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross, he was doing good. When Jesus Christ was being savagely beaten, whipped, and crushed, he was doing good, because he was bruised for our iniquities, wounded for our transgressions,
and by his stripes we were healed. In our redemption through the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ, lies the ultimate deliverance and healing from every single oppression, exploitation, domination, depression, tyranny, and work of the devil.

The fatal wound to the head of the serpent was delivered at Calvary and the empty tomb. The death sentence to both the devil and all his works was shouted out to the human race with three words at Calvary and three words at the empty tomb. Jesus Christ cried out, “It is finished” at Calvary, and the angel proclaimed, “He is risen” at the empty tomb. What a Savior who brought us back to the goodness of God!

Luke 4:18 (Weymouth):

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
He has anointed me to proclaim Good News
to the poor; He sent me to announce release
to the prisoners of war and recovery of sight
to the blind; to send away free those whose
tyranny has crushed.

We no longer have to be prisoners of war in the spiritual battle that rages with the devil. Jesus Christ opened the prison door of every tyranny of mind, body, heart, and soul and set us free. He crushed every tyrannical work of the devil that had previously broke our heart and spirit. He delivers all those who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity.

The main goal of all of the devil’s works is to separate and keep us from the heart of God. The devil set up many roadblocks and obstructions, beginning with sin and its consequences, that corrupted people’s relationship with God. Jesus Christ unloosed all the obstructions and cleared the pathway to the heart of God. He melted the devil’s work of separation and deception, and widely opened the door of access to our loving Father. Jesus Christ made it available that we might know Him and have full communion and intimacy with Him to such a degree that it overwhelms the heart. The human race feels restless, empty, unfulfilled, useless, valueless, and incomplete without a deep, vibrant, and living relationship with their Creator God Almighty. To know his love, to know his goodness, to know his justice, to know his righteousness, to know his mercy, to know his truth, and to know his faithfulness is the ultimate rush and thrill in life. How exciting to have God as your closest friend, your trusted advisor, your loving parent, and your strong protector. The devil does everything in his power to prevent this. He steals, kills and destroys to keep people from getting to know God on an intimate basis and understand the greatness of his good character. He spiritually blinds people to the heart of God and goodness of God.

John 1:17,18 (Amplified):

For while the Law was given through Moses,
grace (unearned, undeserved favor and
spiritual blessing) and truth came through
Jesus Christ.

No man has ever seen God at any time,
the only unique Son, or the only begotten
of God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate
presence of] the Father, He has declared
Him [He has revealed Him and brought
Him out where He can been seen; He has
interpreted Him and He has made Him
known].

The word “declared” in the Greek means: to make known, to unfold, to lead the way, and to make known by expounding.” Jesus Christ unfolded the heart of God to mankind that had never been known before in all of history. He revealed and made known the heart of God as a Father and showed the world His goodness in a way that had not been previously known. Jesus Christ led the way to knowing the God of all goodness, all light, all love, all truth, and all grace in such a deep and wonderful way that his words astonished all of Israel and eventually all of the world. Jesus Christ brought the truth about God’s goodness and His character to a sick, dying, and lost world. He opened the eyes spiritually of all those who believe to the true heart of God as good. He exposed the devil and his kingdom as the true origin of evil and all its consequences in the world.

How exciting is the adventure of life with God when you really know Him and His character? How thrilling and awesome is living when you begin to understand the depth of His goodness? Jesus Christ made it available that we might be alive to God, in God and for God. Jesus Christ made it available that we can live our lives in a vibrant, living union with God on the most intimate level that you can ever imagine. We, as a Christian church, must wake up to our calling to know His character, His goodness, and His Word, and to reach out to the world with the great message of His goodness and love. His goodness is unfathomable; it is endless; it is eternal, and it is indestructible. Jesus Christ melted the path to this heart of God.

There is no place on Earth like being in the heart of God. It is in the heart of God that you will find your freedom, your purpose, your healing, your deliverance, and your destiny. God wants to wrap His arms around you and hold you tightly in His bosom. He wants you to have a freedom encounter in His presence, where all the cares, burdens, pressures, and hassles of this life will melt away from your heart, as fear is replaced with faith, sadness with joy, depression with hope, and weakness with strength. The works of the devil in any shape, in any form, and in any manner cannot hold you any longer in their grip. The more you know and understand the heart of God and His goodness, the stronger and more joyful you will become. There is rest, peace, and true freedom when you live in the heart of God. The heart of God is always good. Evil cannot dwell or exist in the heart of God. The heart of God is love. God’s goodness and love are intertwined
and forever bound together as indestructible partners. Every action, every word, and
every work from the heart of God is good and rooted in His love. Jesus Christ made known as no other that the heart of God is goodness and love always without exception. No one had seen God or known God in the depth and to the degree that Jesus Christ
unfolded Him to the human race

In the great victory of the Seed of the woman, once last truth that we must deal with is the new creation. The word “seed” implies that there will be progeny, children, a newly birthed people out of the finished work of Jesus Christ. What absolutely crushed the devil’s purposes and schemes for the human race and completely blindsided him was the new creation that a man or woman becomes in Christ. This truth is an enormous aspect of the goodness Jesus Christ accomplished in His death and resurrection.

II Corinthians 5:17 (NIV):

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation; the old is gone; the new
has come.

What a breathtaking truth that in Christ we are a new creation; we have a new divine nature; we are new people created in the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are His seed. The word “creation” in the Greek means: to bring something into existence
that has not existed before; the act of founding, establishing, and building through creation, and refers to God’s creative action. The word “new” in the Greek means: that which is new in kind or quality, and is something unprecedented, novel, uncommon, and unheard of. It relates to something not previously present. This word “new” does not mean that something is simply renovated, but something that it is entirely new in species and character.

By the divine act and will of God, He founded, established, and built a new spiritual nature in all born again believers. This new creation is of perfect quality and character, because it originates from the creative heart of God. It is absolutely unprecedented in the nature of a person because it is a divine seed planted by God. We become partakers of the divine nature, and in Christ we have a dynamically powerful new spiritual nature. This is a spiritual birth and the seed of God within us is permanent, incorruptible, and indestructible. Once you are born of your earthly parents, you are
always their child because you have their seed within you. The same holds true for the spiritual new birth in Christ, as this incorruptible seed of God is created within you, and you forever become God’s new spiritual son or daughter of God.

Bullinger, in his article “A New Creation” expounds on this new creation:

What is it to create? Not to change, not to
renovate, not to reform, not to improve,
not the old nature adorned and beautified,
not the flesh with its corruptions and lust
trimmed and trained; but it is the new and
Divine nature imparted, with all its spiritual
blessings and holy privileges. It is not the
old Adam made clean or religious, clothed
and adorned. No! It is something altogether
NEW. Therefore in Christ Jesus, I am a partaker
of the Divine nature; I am a partaker of His
Resurrection-life, according to the Father’s
promise…A new Divine nature is not a mere
influence, is not a mere passing religious
feeling induced by ravishing music or pathetic
story, but a real existence in living union with
a crucified, risen, exalted, glorified, coming
Lord. What a glorious union!

E. W. Kenyon, in The Bible in the Light of our Redemption, further elaborates on this new creation:

Down through the ages of human history, every step,
every dealing of God with man has been toward one
goal-a New Creation, a spiritual creation of man that
would free man completely from spiritual death and
satanic dominion…What a floodtide of human suffering
and misery has the reign of Satan brought to the human
heart…All human suffering is the result of Satan’s
lordship over humanity. Human suffering may be
caused by the cruelty and selfishness of others, by
our own sins, by sickness, by circumstance, but it may
all be traced to the reign of Satan. Therefore, man’s
difficulty centers in the need for a new Lord. Satan
is a hard taskmaster…The Lordship of Christ means
a New Nature, a New Family, a New Father. Christ
died and rose again that He might meet the need of
man for a new Lord…What a message of joy, what
glad tidings we have to bring to an unsaved world,
the message of this new Lord for man…By a man’s
calling unto this new Lord, the power and authority
of Satan will be broken over his life…Just as every
spiritual want of man centered in the lordship of
Satan over his life, every spiritual blessing centers
in the personal Lordship of Christ over a man’s
life. The man who has taken Jesus as Lord is blessed
with every spiritual blessing…The Lordship of Christ
means freedom from the reign of sin…Christ has
undone the works of Satan in the human heart. This
means that sin has absolutely lost its power over the
New Creation. . .

The sin nature has no power, no authority, and no mastery over the New Creation. Every spiritual blessing we have in Christ is wrapped up and inherent in this New Creation. No work of the devil can defeat or diminish or conquer this New Creation.

Satan had been the master of the human race from the Fall to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in the resurrected and ascended Christ, a new day dawned for the world. The power of the great enemy, the crafty serpent, and deceitful slanderer has been permanently broken, crushed, and defeated in our wonderful Lord Jesus. We are a new people, a called out mighty seed, a glorious new creation clothed in righteousness, and holiness. We have a new Lord, who has ushered us into a new age of spiritual, mental, and physical freedom and the crushing of every yoke of bondage that has held us in its grasp. We have a new destiny, as sin and death are no longer our emperors and rulers to whom we must bow and serve.

David Needham, in Birthright, Christian, Do You Know Who You Are?, states:

I hope it will be clear that the answer to the problem
of sin and the despair of meaninglessness is found in
discovering the vast scope of the miracle God performed
when he saved you-a miracle that actually changed you…
By physical conception my parents gave me “flesh” birth.
It involved much more than me “getting something.” I
became a real, full-fledged, “flesh” person…Similarly
by the new birth, I became a brand-new kind of person…
The divine activity re-makes a man. He is born all over
again by the very Spirit of God…Perhaps this “new
personhood” idea seems far away from the daily activity
of your life. That still doesn’t change the basic fact. If
you have received the Savior, you simply are not the same
person you were before. When you were “in the flesh”
(Romans 8:9), life and meaning for you had to be found
right there-and there alone. Your brain, your emotions,
your senses, your creativity, your glands, your world
environment, your relationships-this was life. It could be
found nowhere else. But if you have been born again,
this is not so anymore, whether you know it or not.
You may weigh the same, look the same, feel the same
but you are not the same…God has not only justified
you and reconciled you, he has also birthed you…children
of God….Could this really be? “Children,” not by adoption,
but by birth. Yes, emphatically it is true…Even after it
was known the Savior had risen, seven weeks passed
before anyone grasped the pivotal importance of his death
and resurrection. Finally on the Day of Pentecost, the fire
fell; the Spirit came. From deep within “rivers of living
water” flowed…The risen Christ was dispensing LIFE.
By the new birth, realized in its fullness on the Day of
Pentecost, life was theirs as they never experienced it…
Life was now “resurrection life” The persons they use to
be, persons who only knew life in the flesh, had been
crucified with Christ. They were “risen with Christ,
“alive to God,” as they had never been alive…What does
all this mean? It means that by the new birth, you and I
are now participants in the ultimate new age of God’s
eternal purposes. We are living within the fulfillment of
the prophets’ aching dreams and God’s promised miracle.
We are now actually, the internally transformed citizens
in God’s kingdom of righteousness-where Jesus reigns,
within the kingdom of our hearts…Christ… is now
reproducing himself progressively in the lives of the
saints. .Now the last Adam [Christ]…is reproducing
his very life-his image-in us!…The image concept is
now more glorious than Adam, even in his innocence.
This is the new age. The consummation of all the ages
has begun. We are now by birth, by the Spirit, “the
children of God,” pulsating with the risen life of Jesus.
Some day, perhaps soon, it will reach its apex when
at last our “physical …bodies” will be transformed
into “spiritual bodies”-at the “redemption of our
bodies.”…The new aeon [age] which has dawned
with Christ, brings a new creation, the creation of
a new man…the union with Christ which brings
justification also brings new life…The believer
enters not just into a private relationship with Jesus,
but a new humanity in which he becomes a new
kind of man…Jesus Christ is no less than the
inaugurator of a new humanity. New age, new
humanity, new creation. We are both corporately
and individually-part of something which is the
capstone of everything God has or ever will do.

We are the blessed progeny, the new humanity, the new species, the seed of Christ, and children of the living God. We have the gift of holy spirit born within and the resurrection life of Jesus Christ pulsating and energizing every ounce of our being. We are infused with spiritual power from on high and the very divine nature of God. This is
what the human heart has been craving for since the fall of Adam: a new creation,
authored by God Almighty, that fundamentally changes who we are, and who we will be in the future. We have passed from death unto life, from sin unto righteousness, from condemnation to justification, from separation to reconciliation, and from enemies to
beloved children.

The first Adam’s disobedience produced a race of mortal people destined to die and to be ravaged by sin and its consequences. The Last Adam, Jesus Christ, through his obedience, death, and resurrection is producing a race of people who will live forever and
be victorious over the terrible twins of sin and death and all their consequences. The first Adam produced a race of people born dead in sin and enslaved to the rule of Satan as the god of this world. The Last Adam made it available to all those who believe to be born again to life and to break the power of the devil’s kingdom in their lives. The last Adam is in the process of producing an everlasting race of perfect people who will one day live and reign with him forever upon a perfect earth. As sure as the sun rises every morning, the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, is coming back to establish his kingdom upon the earth. Nothing can stop it.

God’s original plan was to have many sons and daughters living in Paradise forever. The first Adam was supposed to be the father of such a perfect race, but he failed and sentenced the human race to sin and death when he disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. God’s dream, God’s intense desire, God’s ultimate plan after the Fall was to restore His original purpose of having birthed children live with Him forever on a perfect, beautiful, and amazing earth. The entire Bible points to Jesus Christ as being the agent, the mediator, the Savior, and the sacrifice that would bring about this restoration. The Last Adam, Jesus Christ, had to face the fierce enemies of sin, death, and the devil and he overwhelmingly conquered them all. He became the Head and Firstborn of all the redeemed born again believers whom he can rightfully call his brothers and sisters. He is not ashamed to do so, because he knows that they are birthed new creations in Him and sons and daughters of His heavenly Father.

We are new creations in Christ, because he set the pattern of who we become when we are born again in both resurrection life and a new glorious body at the Rapture, along with the power and ability to do his works and to walk like him in thought, deed, heart, and action. We have the mind of Christ, the heart of Christ, the ability of Christ, and the power of Christ born within us at the new birth. We can now touch and reach out to the world with the goodness of God. Our good works are rooted and grounded in Christ, and our new birth transformation. We can deeply affect the lives of so many people, because Jesus Christ lives through us. The goodness of God, the love of God, the mercies of God, the compassion of God, the tenderness of God, and the forgiveness of God are energized in us through Jesus Christ, so that we can go into all the world and preach the good news to every person.

Do you see where the battle lines are now drawn? Do you now understand in
more detail this battle of good and evil? Can you begin to see now that God is not the
originator or source of all the evils in this world? Can you see the goodness of God in providing for this wonderful new creation in Christ and not leaving the human race without hope?

In these chapters, we have studied in great detail the characteristics of the devil
and his authority that he exercises upon the earth. His hatred for God still rages and burns white hot, and his goal is to prevent as many people as he can from becoming new creations in Christ and having the guarantee of everlasting life. He wants them to remain under the penalty of sin and death without a Redeemer, Savior, or Liberator. He wants the
human race to worship him and all his false idols, and die in sin without ever coming to Christ. He does not want people to know the God of goodness or His amazing Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Last Adam. This battle for the heart and soul of every human on Earth explodes in intensity in every town, city, country, and continent. The devil does not want anyone to be touched by the goodness of the wonderful heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. He wants to turn people’s hearts and minds away from the goodness of God and the heart of God. Don’t let him do it. Don’t let evil triumph. Christians, we are on the front lines of this battle of good and evil. We must love like Jesus loved; we must touch the hearts of people like Jesus did; we must stand on the authority and power of the Word of God like Jesus did; we must have compassion like Jesus did; we must walk in spiritual power like Jesus did and in him continue to melt and destroy the works of the devil in our communities.

God needs you. God is relying on you. Take his message of goodness to the world. Show people just how good God really is and how much He cares for them. Testify to the greatness of His character, His majesty, and His love. Isn’t it about time as Christians that we put aside our petty bickering, our back stabbing, our judging, our selfishness, our hard hearts, our theological debates, and our hatred and reach out to others with the love of Christ? You can do it. You are a new creation in Christ. You are not the same person you were before Christ. Grow in Him. Grow in His goodness and love. Grow in your intimate union and fellowship with Him. Become rooted and grounded in His love and let Jesus dwell in every nook and cranny of your heart. We would absolutely revolutionize our communities and the world if we let Jesus live through us and reach out to people with his amazing love. The time is short; the day is at hand, and his coming is approaching closer each day. Make your heavenly Father and your Lord Jesus proud, as you stand up and fight the good fight of faith, proclaiming His goodness to a lost and desperate world.

From Tim Rowe’s book “The Magnificent Goodness of God and How it WIll Transform Your Life”
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