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).