ARMOUR OF GOD
In his letter to the church at Ephesus Paul points to her high responsibility, her special place in the plan of God. She has been called to victorious life in her risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, victorious life in the spiritual warfare against invisible and perilous powers of Satan, continuously opposing her on her way to perfection.
In his letter to the church at Ephesus Paul points to her high
responsibility, her special place in the plan of God. She has been
called to victorious life in her risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
victorious life in the spiritual warfare against invisible and perilous
powers of Satan, continuously opposing her on her way to perfection.
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point to them and consecrate them. The devil still remembers the<br />
great drama of Golgotha very well, and observing the Holy Communion<br />
points out to him again that the serpent-treader Jesus<br />
crushed the head of the snake. There, Blood flowed at the crude<br />
wooden cross, and that was the price that the Son of God, who<br />
became the Son of Man, paid for the sin of the world; the guilt, the<br />
disease, the fear and the death. That is where the sting was plucked<br />
from the bee. That is where a COMPLETE REDEMPTION for a<br />
lost mankind was brought about, that is where prisons were opened<br />
so that those bound by the devil might be released. The suffering and<br />
dying of Jesus Christ is far-reaching in the history of mankind, but<br />
also and especially in the existence of Satan. He knows this! What<br />
we have to do is hold up to him that deed, the benefaction of God!<br />
The coming of Jesus, His revelation in the flesh, had two<br />
purposes, two main points - firstly, the forgiveness of sins, and,<br />
secondly: the destruction of the devil. 'And ye know that He was<br />
manifested to take away our sins . .. ' (1 John 3: 5). Three verses<br />
further, we read of the second purpose of Jesus' coming: 'For this<br />
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the<br />
works o/the devil' (1 John 3: 8b). Jesus came to solve the problem<br />
of sin, the problem of disease, the problem of fear, and that of death,<br />
but also the problem of the supremacy of the devil. When He had<br />
taken up all these things in His body, and was about to die, He cried:<br />
It is accomplished! My mission is accomplished! That, for which I<br />
was sent by the Father, has now been accomplished by this deed! He<br />
did not say: 'I have accomplished it!' He said: It is accomplished!<br />
That for which I was sent' So shall My word be that goeth forth out<br />
of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish<br />
('it is finished') that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing<br />
whereto I send it' (Isaiah 55 : 11).<br />
What appeared to be a fiasco outwardly, a cross for a crown,<br />
appears to be the greatest triumph after all; the enemy was defeated<br />
there. Holding this up before him during the Holy Communion,<br />
renders Satan powerless. Of all the means of defeating him, the Holy<br />
Communion is the most powerful. Hallelujah!<br />
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