CHRIST’S VICTORY IS FOR THE CHURCH!

 

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY APRIL 28, 2024.

SUBJECT : CHRIST’S VICTORY IS FOR THE CHURCH!

Memory verse: "I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body', which is the church. (Colossians 1 vs 24.)

READ: Colossians 2 vs 9 - 10; 14 - 15: 

2:9: For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

2:10: and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

2:14: Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

2:15: Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

INTIMATION: 

After Jesus’ victory over Satan, accomplished in His death and resurrection, all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28 vs 18). All that authority belongs to, and is for the benefit of His body—the church. If He conquered all the forces of darkness and left them paralyzed and broken before He arose from the dead, it is as though the church (and we are the church) had accomplished the mighty work. It is reckoned for us as our credit, because He accomplished all that in His body, of which the church consists.

The question is, ‘When will our hearts take it in, and our minds become fruitful with this mighty unveiling of what we are in Christ?’ God put all things under the feet of Jesus, and had appointed Him the universal and supreme Head of the church—His body, and that in His body lives the full measure of Him Who fills all in all. 

We are His body—the church, therefore, all these malignant, wicked influences are beneath our feet. We have been made masters of them all. He did not defeat them for Himself, but for us. He did not fight that battle for His glory, but for our good. Hence He gave us authority over them; “Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10 vs 19).

Adam had sold us out in his sin of high treason. Jesus redeemed us, defeated our enemy and put him beneath our feet. That knowledge should become as common to us, and as usable as the multiplication table. And when this is done believers will spend less or no time glorying the devil. Instead, they should use that time to glorify Jesus Christ for His triumph over Satan and his cohorts. I hardly give the devil any room to minister his usual lies to me because, by God's grace, I have embraced the truth of what I am in Christ.

We are the fullness of God; "Of His fullness have we all received" (John 1 vs 16). In Jesus Christ is the whole fullness of Godhead, that is, complete expression of the divine nature. And we are in Him, made full, and having come to fullness of life, we too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the full spiritual stature. He is not only our fullness, but we are His fullness also. The word, "fullness" comes from a Greek word that is almost untranslatable: "pleroma," which means "completeness," "perfectness," or any other synonym that suggests fullness. 

God in Christ Jesus gave us the triumph over Satan; "But thanks be to God, who always lead us in triumph in Christ." (Second Corinthians 2 vs 14.) That is the Hallelujah chorus of the new creation, and it never becomes real until we begin to confess it, begin to tell to the world what we are in Christ. This redemption wrought for us in Jesus Christ is eternal (Hebrews 9 vs 12). Not just a redemption for the hour in which it was done, but that Satan is as much defeated now as he was when Christ arose from the dead; that he is as much a subject today to the Name of Jesus as he was when Jesus conquered him.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You most gracious Lord for Your triumph over Satan in Your death, burial, and resurrection for our hope, and for given us Your fullness in Him. You have given us all that pertains to life and godliness. May Your Name forever be praised, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!