February 23

Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, — Heb 2:14 BSB

Through His sufferings, bloodshed, and death, our gracious Lord did more than just make complete atonement for sin, fulfill the demands of the law, and wash His people from all their iniquities in His precious blood. He also brought in an everlasting righteousness for their justification, and by His death, He destroyed the one who had the power of death—the devil. It was through the cross that our Lord “disarmed the powers and authorities, making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

It is often overlooked, but of great importance, that Jesus had to personally grapple with and overcome the devil. He had to dethrone Satan, destroy his works, and overthrow his kingdom. But He did not do this through an act of omnipotent power, for “He was crucified in weakness.”

We might think that God could have overthrown Satan by a mere act of power, but that wasn’t His way. In His infinite wisdom, God chose to dethrone Satan through an act of the deepest humility, submission, and suffering by His own beloved Son, who stood in the place of those whom Satan and death had enslaved through sin. The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil, to undo all that Satan had done by repairing the damage caused by sin through His holy obedience and, ultimately, to destroy Satan himself.

Through Christ’s weakness on the cross, He defeated the power of darkness, untied the knots of sin that Satan had bound, and established victory over the enemy.