Part 7

What further reason does Scripture give us for Jesus’ offering of Himself for mankind? We’ve just learned of the glorious new pedigree He’s secured, but what other fruit has our Lord’s cross grown for creation? Our answer can be seen in one word: victory. Jesus embraced His humble descent into flesh so that true and total victory over Satan would be won. Most ironically, what the devil thought would be the dire destruction of our Lord was, in fact, the greatest of all triumphs over evil, even triumph on a corporate scale!

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham” (Heb. 2:14-16).

Jesus became a man so that He could die as one: He embraced humanity to die in humanity’s stead, and to defeat Satan as humanity’s representative. And why was this detail so needful? Because it was a man which gave up mankind’s dominion, and so it must likewise be a man who wins it back (). The first Adam, as a man, surrendered his domain when he rebelled against God and was evicted from Eden (Lk. 4:6). Satan gained the influence over humanity that Adam forfeited. The devil was thereby declared “father” (Jn. 8:44). He became the “prince of this world” (Jn. 12:31; Eph. 2:2), and mankind was made servant to sin:

“They [Jews] answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham…Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me… Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (Jn. 8:39, 41-44).

Most thankfully, the Lord Jesus changed the whole story! He came to alter the awful pit man was speeding toward (Ps. 30:3)! He came to “destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14)! The Greek word used here for “destroy” in Hebrews 2 is “katargeo“, which means, “To bring to naught, to nullify, to make of no effect, to render entirely useless.” John tells us that this was our Lord’s prominent purpose:

“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn. 3:8).

Because our defeat by the devil came by the offense of one federal man (Adam), so must the victory to later be won. Jesus took upon Him the form of a human servant. This was not a weakness, as so many Jews did suppose! Rather, it was the necessary vehicle of our triumph over Satan!

“For since by man came death, by man also came resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:21).

Because the sin problem was instituted by a human offense, there was therefore need for equal human participation in our redemption. The Lord Jesus, by making an atonement while clothed in human nature, has made provision for the restoration that Adam’s same nature gave up. No mere sinful human man could have ever paid such a price, nor would he have ever wanted to. So God Himself became flesh, in order to perform that which was so necessary, but could not be accomplished by anyone else. And what was the result? The complete eradication of Satan’s power!

“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction…” (Hos. 13:14).

“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:9).

To be continued…