Jesus the Destroyer
As possibly the clumsiest person alive, I have destroyed many things in my (arguably) short time upon this earth; my Mum’s favourite glass horse from Venice’s finest glass blowers; The interior of my family’s Citroen 2CV Dolly with the help of a stomach bug, numerous Kraft cheese slices and a carton of apple juice; The lab results of all of my fellow students at university during one particular practical early in the year. All these casualties and more lie in the wake of my clumsy, accident-prone life.
Often we hear the word ‘destroy’ as a negative term; a word that conjures up images of brokenness, desolation and devastation. We see the word used this way in the Bible. Jesus speaks of the Devil who comes to kill and destroy as opposed to the Son, who brings life (John 10:10).
However, Jesus also brought destruction. Last Sunday, in the third of our Christmas series entitled ‘Christ Came’, we read from 1 John 3:7-10, particularly focussing on verse 8:
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the Devil.”
Jesus brought destruction for the works of the Devil, but what are the works that John speaks of here? John tells us that the Devil has been sinning from the beginning (1 John 3:8). Since the point of his first rebellion against God, his desire has been to foster sin in the human race. Satan is present in the Garden of Eden in the third chapter of Genesis, inviting Adam and Eve to step into rebellion with Him, and ever since he has worked to keep us wrapped up in sin and separate from God.
He does so in a number of ways:
1. Satan perverts the image of God
In the Garden of Eden, Satan asks of Eve “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1).
God did not.
In fact, God had said that Adam and Eve could eat from every tree in the Garden except one (Genesis 2:16-17).
Satan took the truthful image of a loving and providing Creator, and perverted it into the image of a cruel, selfish and power-mad liar.
The perverted image of God surrounds us these days: God is cruel, or distant, or vindictive, or uncaring, or absent, or unfazed by sin, forgiving all regardless of repentance or faith. All of these take some aspect of the Father and twist it into a representation of something entirely other than God.
It was almost enough to convince Adam and Eve to eat. Satan used another method to ensure that they would:
2. Satan lies
God told Adam that if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die.
Satan told them ‘You surely won’t’ (Genesis 3:4).
We are told that there is no God, that there is no consequence for the lives we live. Similarly, we are told that there is no higher purpose and now is all we have so we should live to please ourselves.
Adam and Eve were buried long ago. Satan lies.
3. Satan blinds
I am amazed, and humbled, when I read accounts in the Gospels of Jesus healing many in front of eyewitnesses who ultimately reject Him and even move to murder Him. How can this be? How can people today see the power of God at work in the lives of many and yet remain unconvinced, even hostile? In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul speaks of the Devil blinding the minds of unbelievers. If they cannot see it, they cannot respond to it.
4. Satan Accuses
In Revelation 12:10 we get a picture of the Devil as our accuser. Not only does he work to bring sin into our lives, but he then stands before the Father and points to it, demanding judgement from a Holy God. It is one area in which Satan has no need to use lies. We all have sinned and fallen short… (Romans 3:23), and, therefore, we all deserve judgement.
Christ came to destroy these works.
1. Where Satan perverts the image of God, Jesus IS the image of God
Jesus, God in the flesh, is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). He is the exact representation of God’s being (Hebrews 1:3). In his incarnation (his taking on flesh), Jesus allowed us to see and understand God in terms that we could begin to comprehend. When we are unsure of what God is like, who He is, what his attributes are, we need look no further than Jesus to see Him clearly.
2. Where Satan lies, Jesus says ‘I am the truth’
Jesus declared in John 14:6 “I am the truth” and continues to declare in John 17:7 whilst praying to His Father, “Your word is truth”. Thank God that we have the Bible. In it, we can read in the Gospels not only the words of Jesus spoken whilst on earth, but also know that every page bears the very word of God. If your desire is to know truth, God has given you Jesus and the scriptures which testify of Him that you might know.
3. Where Satan blinds, Jesus opens eyes
At Paul’s conversion, Jesus explains his plan for Paul. He will go to the Jews and Gentiles and Jesus will open their eyes to the salvation He offers, transferring them from darkness into the light. All those of us who are Christians were once blind. All those who are blind can have their eyes opened by Jesus.
4. Where Satan accuses, Jesus is our advocate
In possibly two of the greatest passages in scripture, we read:
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1 John 2:1
and
“For our sake he made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
When Satan points to Christians to accuse us of sin, he points at righteous people. Not only are we forgiven for the things we have done wrong, but all those things are transferred onto Jesus and we receive his righteousness. Jesus defends our corner, declaring us to be holy in the face of Satan’s accusations. Jesus has the scars to prove it.
It is at this point that we see the fuller picture of Jesus ‘destroying’ the work of the devil. The word John uses for ‘destroy’ (lyō ) can also be translated ‘undo’.
Not only did Jesus destroy the devil’s work in using sin to separate us from God, but he undoes the damage that has been wrought. John talks about us being children of God who cannot continue sinning. Paul writes:
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” Titus 2:11-14
Jesus transforms our desires and actions from those of a people focussed on sin, to those of a people who desire righteousness. John points to these as evidence of (not earning) our salvation, inviting us to question whether these are evident in our lives. If not, the invitation from Jesus is to repent, to make Him Lord, and to receive all that He offers.
Thank God that Christ came to destroy and undo the works of the Devil.