And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
— Luke 23:39-43
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
— John 12:32
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
— John 19:30
Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
— Acts 2:23-24
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
— Acts 2:32-36
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
— Colossians 2:13-15
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
— 1 Corinthians 1:26-30
God’s Wisdom in Satan’s Overthrow, by Jonathan Edwards.
The wisdom of God greatly and remarkably appears in so exceedingly baffling and confounding all the subtlety of the old serpent. Power never appears so conspicuous as when opposed and conquering opposition. The same may be said of wisdom; it never appears so brightly and with such advantage as when opposed by the subtlety of some very crafty enemy and in baffling and confounding that subtlety.
The devil is exceeding subtle. The subtlety of the serpent is emblematic of his (Gen 3:1). He was once one of the brightest intelligences of heaven and one of the brightest, if not the very brightest, of all. And all the devils were once morning stars of a glorious brightness of understanding. They still have the same faculties, though they ceased to be influenced and guided by the Holy Spirit of God; and so, their heavenly wisdom is turned into hellish craft and subtlety. In the work of redemption, God hath wondrously baffled the utmost craft of the devils, and though they are all combined to frustrate God’s designs of glory to Himself and goodness to men, the wisdom of God appears very glorious herein. For,
1. Consider the weak and seemingly despicable means and weapons that God employs to overthrow Satan. Christ poured the greater contempt upon Satan in the victory that He obtained over him by reason of the means of His preparing Himself for it and the weapons He hath used. Christ chooses to encounter Satan in human nature, in a poor, frail, afflicted state. He did as David did. David, when going against the Philistine, refused Saul’s armor: a helmet of brass, a coat of mail, and his sword. No, he puts them all off. Goliath comes mightily armed against David with a helmet of brass upon his head, a coat of mail weighing five thousand shekels of brass, greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders; a spear, whose staff was like a weaver’s beam, and the spear’s head weighing six hundred shekels of iron. And besides all this, he had one bearing a shield before him. But David takes nothing but a staff in his hand, a shepherd’s bag, and a sling; and he goes against the Philistine. So, the weapons that Christ made use of were His poverty, afflictions and reproaches, sufferings and death. His principal weapon was His cross: the instrument of His own reproachful death. These were seemingly weak and despicable instruments to wield against such a giant as Satan. And doubtless the devil disdained them as much as Goliath did David’s staves and sling. But with such weapons as these has Christ in a human, weak, mortal nature overthrown and baffled all the craft of hell.
Such disgrace and contempt has Christ poured upon Satan. David had a more glorious victory over Goliath for his conquering him with such mean instruments; and Samson over the Philistines, for killing so many of them with such a despicable weapon as the jawbone of an ass. It is spoken of in Scripture as a glorious triumph of Christ over the devil—that He should overcome him by such a despicable weapon as His cross. “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Col 2:14-15). God shows His great and infinite wisdom in taking this method to confound the wisdom and subtlety of His enemies. He hereby shows how easily He can do it, and that He is infinitely wiser than they. “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are” (1Co 1:27-28).
2. God has thereby confounded Satan with his own weapons. It is so contrived in the work of redemption that our grand enemy should be made a means of his own confusion. By those very things whereby he endeavors to rob God of His glory and to destroy mankind, he is made an instrument of frustrating his own designs. His most subtle and powerful endeavors for accomplishing his designs are made a means of confounding them and of promoting the contrary. Of this, I will mention but two instances.
First, his procuring man’s fall is made an occasion of the contrary to what he designed. Indeed, he has hereby procured the ruin of multitudes of mankind, which he aimed at. But in this, he does not frustrate God’s design from all eternity to glorify Himself; and the misery of multitudes of mankind will prove no contentment to him but will enhance his own misery.
What Satan did in tempting man to fall is made an occasion of the contrary to what he intended, in that it gave occasion for God to glorify Himself the more and giveth occasion for the elect being brought to higher happiness.
Satan envied the happy state of man. That man who was of earthly original should be advanced to such honors, when he who was originally of a so much more noble nature should be cast down to such disgrace, his pride could not bear. How then would Satan triumph, when he had brought (man) down!
The devil tempted our first parents with this: if they would eat of the forbidden fruit, they should be as gods (Gen 3:5). It was a lie in Satan’s mouth; for he aimed at nothing else but to fool man out of his happiness and make him his own slave and vassal with a blinded expectation of being like a god. But little did Satan think that God would turn it to make man’s fall an occasion of God becoming man—and so an occasion of our nature being advanced to a state of closer union to God.
By this means, it comes to pass that one in man’s nature now sits at the right hand of God, invested with divine power and glory, and reigns over heaven and earth with a God-like power and dominion. Thus is Satan disappointed in his subtlety. As he intended that saying, “Ye shall be as gods” (Gen 3:5), it was a lie to decoy and befool man. Little did he think that it would be in such manner verified by the incarnation of the Son of God. And this is the occasion also of all the elect being united to this divine person, so that they become one with Christ. Believers are as members and parts of Christ…Little did Satan think that his telling that lie to our first parents, “Ye shall be as gods,” would be the occasion of their being members of Christ, the Son of God.
Again, Satan is made a means of his own confusion in this: It was Satan’s design in tempting man to sin to make man his captive and slave forever—to have plagued and triumphed over him. And this very thing is a means to bring it about: that man, instead of being his vassal, should be his judge. The elect, instead of being his captives to be forever tormented and triumphed over by him, shall sit as judges to sentence him to everlasting torment! It has been the means that one in man’s nature should be his supreme Judge. It was man’s nature that Satan so envied and sought to make a prey of. But Jesus Christ at the Last Day shall come in man’s nature, and the devils shall all be brought to stand trembling at His bar. He shall judge (them), condemn them, and execute the wrath of God upon them. And not only shall Christ in the human nature judge the devils, but all the saints shall judge them with Christ as assessors with Him in judgment. “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” (1Co 6:3).
Secondly, in another instance, Satan is made a means of his own confusion, that is, in his procuring the death of Christ. Satan set himself to oppose Christ as soon as He appeared. He sought, by all means, to procure His ruin. He set the Jews against Him. He filled the minds of the scribes and Pharisees with the most bitter, persecuting malice against Christ. He sought by all means to procure His death, and that He might be put to the most ignominious death. We read “that Satan entered…into Judas” and tempted him to betray Him (Luk 22:3). And Christ speaks of His sufferings as being the effects of the power of darkness: “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luk 22:53). But Satan hereby overthrows his own kingdom. Christ came into the world to destroy the works of the devil. And this was the very thing that did it, viz., the blood and death of Christ. The cross was the devil’s own weapon, and with this weapon, he was overthrown, as David cut off Goliath’s head with his own sword.
Christ thus making Satan a means of his own confusion was typified of old by Samson’s getting honey out of the carcass of the lion. There is more implied in Samson’s riddle, “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness” (Jdg 14:14), than ever the Philistines explained. Christ verified it in a far more glorious manner. God’s enemies and ours are taken in the pit that they themselves have digged; and their own soul is taken in the net that they have laid. Thus, we have shown, in some measure, the wisdom of this way of salvation by Jesus Christ.
A hunter has many devices and cunning stratagems to ensnare the game he pursues: so the devil hath many snares and cunning wiles to catch and destroy the souls of men. Hence, he is compared to a serpent: “We are not ignorant,” saith Paul, “of his devices” (2Co 2:11); and in another place, he exhorts the saints to “put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph 6:11). The Greek word signifies such snares as are set to catch a man: “He will deliver thee,” saith the psalmist, “from the snare of the (hunter)” (Psa 91:3), meaning…the devil. Satan hath many devices and snares to draw men into sin.—Benjamin Keach
https://takeupcross.com
takeupcross
Take Up the Cross 