We Conquer Through Christ

You will not doubt the existence of the devil then. Moreover, if you put on Christ (Romans 13:14), and take “the shield of faith…. and the sword of the Spirit,”* (Ephesians 6:16-17) you will thrive in the fight (1 Timothy 6:12). “Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”* (2 Timothy 2:3)

The Lord of life and victory can make you able for this; and just as you can bear it, He will lead you on and be with you and in you in the battle. If that were not so, you might well despair, but “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”* (1 John 4:4) He can, with your unbroken consent, display His supremacy and demonstrate the triumph of His life. Ask Him to teach you, count on Him to be with you, and dare to believe that all your foes must give way before the almighty weapons of His cross, His blood, and His Word (Revelation 12:11). God in you, triumphing. What a gospel!

Satan was conquered by Christ at Calvary. That is the ground of all our activity. But there is something more—Satan can be conquered by Christ in you. You resist him and prove it! If you are born of God, you were born to conquer (1 John 5:4).

“How shall I resist him?” someone asks. The standard example is that of the Lord Jesus Himself in His representative temptation as the Head of a new race. He used the Sword. The Sword is the Word. It is not merely two-edged, but it is all edge. Christ quoted the Word. He did not cry to the Father only, but He turned on the devil with the authoritative words of Holy Writ. There was nothing complicated about it, He just drew the Sword and used it. Then the devil left Him, first for a season, then fully, till the final scene on Calvary, when all the forces of hell massed to the scene and were beaten (Colossians 2:15).