Big, Brash Gospel Friday - April 8, 2011

I have a problem with every picture that I have ever seen of the Devil from the last 2000 years. In none that I know of does the enemy have a mutilated head.

We fight a beheaded adversary, who can do nothing without the leave of our Lord of Glory.

He is nothing more than a Saruman from The Lord of the Rings: utterly defeated, yet trashing every good thing he can find as he retreats through the lands of the King. He destroys because destruction is what he does, but he cannot do a thing that thwarts even the smallest of the Creator's good purposes.

Far too frequently we think and live as though our Lord and we are losing. Evil seems predominant and the mockery of all good things is continually thrown in our face. We hope that our Lord will make the "good" He promised out of every circumstance, but when the pain of illness, tragedy, false accusation, loss, or personal failure crush in on us we find it hard to see the one assaulting our souls as the damaged, defeated, desperate loser that he is. He is nothing more than a tool of the Master's breath-taking and unstoppable designs.

However grim daily life may sometimes look in these shadowlands, we should not be surprised to hear of the accomplished victory of our Lord and His people. It was the first recorded promise of redemption. To the dark, serpent-invader of Eden, the Lord declared:

"And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel." (Genesis 3:15)

The one who had gone to war with God and His world was guaranteed complete defeat. He was forewarned that a brief, apparent victory - damaging the Savior's heel - would become the very means of his own head-crushing destruction.

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ fully accomplished this promise. Satan's end has never been in question and it is now accomplished and nailed to the wall. In the words of the Apostle Paul:

"[Christ] has 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. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2:14-15)

When my Dad and Mom and all of us were spending life in Japan for many years preaching the grace of God to the people of those small, crowded islands, we raised chickens for food and to sell in the community around us.

After much experience, Dad had a masterful and merciful skill in killing, plucking, and cleaning a chicken in 45-60 seconds. During his early learning days, however, he learned the living reality of the familiar description, "running around like a chicken with it's head cut off."

A chicken in this state can make quite a mess - and so can our our enemy when allowed - but the outcome of such a scene is not in doubt. We live in the age of the desperate destruction of a defeated foe. He runs about with a pummeled head able to do nothing on his own authority or permission, and before long his utter end will come.

And though the mysterious, kind purposes of the Lord allows this wounded predator sometimes to stalk us, his impotence is revealed in the simple Biblical assurance, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you!"

Crushed by a mighty heel, the evil one is also helplessly under our trampling feet.

We who so often feel the heat of his dying gasps are glorious tools of his final end. The Apostle Paul writes his splendid letter to the Romans, unveiling the wonders of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, layer after layer. In a marvelous and telling insult to the enemy of the Savior and of our souls, Paul gives Satan only one brief, late mention:

"For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." (Romans 16:19-20)

In the timeless and fortifying lines of Martin Luther:

"And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo, his doom is sure;
One little word shall fell him."

Take heart, all lovers of Christ, we are raised with and we reign with the King!

Every grief or pain, heartbreak or loss, sin or failure in us, lie or attack against us, doubt or discouragement shot like a fiery dart at our souls - is a carrier of our precious Lord's gracious work in us. Even the trials that are terminal (here) and the slanders that are irreparable (on this side of the veil) are crafted by the Master-craftsman to bring redemption and rejoicing and reward into our heaven-born and invincible lives.

When haters of God plot and rage and war - "He who sits in heaven laughs!" (Psalm 2:4)

All that is His is ours. We are heirs of laughter.

Let's laugh!