The above statement makes us think. How could this be? Clearly it relates to the work of our Lord. It reminds us of the Edenic Promise: ‘I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it [he] shall bruise thy head [the serpent’s], and thou shalt bruise his heel’ (Gen 3:15). Those who crucified the Lord Jesus appeared to triumph: they mocked him upon the cross and celebrated their victory. But was it a victory? What they did not realise was that he was the real conqueror. In yielding to his Father’s will, he was perfecting obedience and destroying the flesh, the power which in them was being given complete licence, and which was in fact controlling them, the lust of the flesh and pride, the diabolos (Heb 2:14).
Commenting on Jesus’ victory over Sin, or its defeat, the apostle Paul says that he ‘spoiled principalities and powers, [making] a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in himself (AV mrg Col 2:15). Jesus brought every thought, word and deed before the bar of his Father’s judgment. He only allowed that to hold sway in his life which was consonant with his Father’s will. All else was The Atonement, the Divine Balance rejected. He was destined to be the Saviour of the world. He must only do those things that were pleasing in His sight (John 8:29). In this he was victorious, Sin was destroyed, and this was attested by his Father when He raised him from the dead on the third day.
So Sin’s ‘victory’ was illusory! In reality it was its defeat. Jesus had conquered it.
The wonder of this victory is that we can share in it. We do so when we are buried with him in baptism and rise to walk in newness of life, in his footsteps during our discipleship and probation.
When the ‘Prince of life’ returns we will experience the joy: “this mortal shall… put on immortality [and] then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
‘Death is swallowed up in victory, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’’’ (1 Cor15:54–57).