“And they overcame him (the devil) because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” Revelation 12:11
The message of the blood of Christ speaks of the totality of Christ’s triumph over Satan and sin through His crucifixion and resurrection. It also speaks of our victory over Satan and sin through our union with Christ’s death and resurrection when we were born again. For when Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead, He conquered sin, disease, death, and the devil. Jesus said, “The ruler of this world has already been judged and condemned (John 16:11).’’ By His blood shed on the cross, Christ completely conquered Satan and stripped him of his authority and power (Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8). After He had risen from the dead, Jesus declared, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).” The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was not just an historical event that took place two thousand years ago on a bluff outside the gates of old Jerusalem. Christ’s death was a holy and divine sacrifice that took place in God’s eternal, heavenly tabernacle (Hebrews 9:11-24). Therefore, Christ’s death on the cross transcended all physical time and space and was a heavenly act with spiritual power that reverberates throughout eternity. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was like a spiritual “atomic bomb” detonated in the heavenly realm, and His blood is the eternal basis for Satan’s total defeat. For by His blood, Jesus Christ not only freed us from the penalty of sin, by forgiving our sins (Ephesians 1:7; 1 John 1:7-9); He also freed us from the power of sin, by completely removing our sinful nature (Romans 6:6-7; Colossians 2:11).
Although this twofold divine provision of the cross of Christ is God’s “atomic bomb” that He gave us to overcome Satan and sin, most Christians only apply the first provision of the blood of Christ: forgiveness for their sins. They do not know that, through Christ’s death on the cross, God removed our sinful nature when we were saved, so that His risen Son could sovereignly live in us. The result is that most Christians are severely hard pressed and handicapped to resist Satan’s temptations and attacks. They believe their sins are forgiven, but they do not know how to stop practicing sin and live by faith in Christ who indwells them by His Spirit. What sort of salvation would we have if God only saved us from the penalty of our sins, and then left us on our own to deal with the demonic power and oppression of sin? How could God have destroyed Satan’s foothold in us if He left a hostile and evil sinful nature living within us? How could we spiritually overcome our enemy, the devil, if we still had an enemy allied to him waging guerilla warfare within us? This would be a pitiful and incomplete redemption that would not fulfill God’s eternal purpose to have a glorious and victorious church who overcomes the devil and sin by the blood of the Lamb. Yet most Christians are defeated by Satan and sin because they think this is as far as God went when, in actuality, this is as far as their knowledge of the truth of the gospel has gone. Consequently, many Christians do not understand why they are entangled in compromising sinful habits; or plagued with bouts of fear, anger and depression; or trapped in food, alcohol, drug, and sexual addictions. As God has said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6).”
Although most Bible translations confusingly use the term “flesh” for both the sinful nature and the unconverted soul-life (the unrenewed mind), there is a crucial difference. Our unrenewed mind is not like the sinful nature, which was a powerful entity – a “sin factory” within us that continuously produced sinful attitudes and actions and, therefore, had to be destroyed by Christ’s death on the cross. Now that we no longer have an indwelling and controlling sinful nature, the spiritual battleground has shifted to our mind (2 Corinthians 11:3). However, our unrenewed mind can be transformed and submitted to Christ’s sovereignty if we believe and act on His finished work on the cross. As a result, we are now able by faith to put to death (and rid ourselves of) the carnal mindset of our unconverted soul-life, and put on the mind of Christ and His way of thinking and acting (Romans 8:13; 1 Corinthians 2:26).
Paul said, “The weapons of our warfare are not natural, but divinely powerful to demolish strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4).” By applying God’s spiritual atomic bomb, we can demolish the strongholds of sin in our lives that have habitually defeated us in the past. Paul further said, “We cast down vain imaginations and every barrier of pride that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).” As we renew and fortify our mind with the truth of God’s Word that we are dead to sin but alive in Christ, we are able to resist the devil and forcefully reject all sinful attitudes and soulish fantasies that would try to undermine our faith and ensnare us in sin. As Paul said, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so you may prove what the will of God is (Romans 12:2).”
The bride of Christ who crushes Satan under her feet wears the full armor of God over her wedding dress. This is the bride who deploys God’s atomic bomb, the blood of Christ, in spiritual warfare. The unstoppable shock waves of God’s power and light that radiate out into the heavenly and earthly realm from the divinely powerful, eternal explosion of the cross of Christ will inevitably demolish all the walls of the dominion of darkness into the dustbin of history! As each successive generation of God’s warrior-saints lays hold of and deploys the divine power that emanates from the cross of Christ to advance the kingdom of God, they will totally demolish Satan’s strongholds of sin – first in their own lives, and then by helping others find God’s deliverance from sin.
“Now have come the salvation and power and kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before God day and night, has been thrown down… the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ and He will reign forever.” Rev 12:10; 11:15
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