Stand
402. We live in a battlefield of war!
Andrew Murray, in his book “The Power of the Blood of Jesus,”
makes a powerful statement regarding our warfare. His comments reveal the reality of the spiritual world, and
the reality of our victory. He
also shows the reality of Satan’s schemes to deceive Christians. [1]
The following is a quote from chapter 9 of his
book:
Victory through the
Blood
“They
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and
they loved not their lives unto death” (Revelation 12:11).
For
thousands of years there had been a mighty conflict for the possession of
mankind, between the old serpent, who led man astray, and ‘the seed of the
woman.’ Often it seemed as though the kingdom of God had come in power; then at
other times the might of evil obtained such supremacy that the strife appeared
to be hopeless.
It was thus also in the life
of our Lord Jesus. By His coming
and His wonderful words and works, the most glorious expectations of a speedy
redemption were awakened. How
terrible was the disappointment, which the death of Jesus brought to all who
had believed in Him! It seemed,
indeed, as if the powers of darkness had conquered and had established their
kingdom forever.
But,
behold! Jesus is risen from the dead, an apparent victory proved to be the
terrible downfall of the prince of darkness. By bringing about the death of the Lord of life, – Satan permitted
Him, who alone was able to break open the gates of death, to enter his kingdom.
Through death he has destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the
devil. In that holy moment when our Lord shed His blood in death, and it seemed
as if Satan were victorious, the adversary was robbed of the authority he had
hitherto possessed.
Our text
gives a very grand representation of these memorable events. The best commentators, notwithstanding
differences in details of exposition, are united in thinking that we have here
a vision of the casting out of Satan from heaven as a result of the ascension
of Christ.
We read
in Revelation 12:5-9: “And she brought forth a man child, who ... was caught up
unto heaven and to his throne ... And there was war in heaven; and Michael and
his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels,
and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the dragon was cast out, that old
serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which giveth the whole world – he was
cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
Then follows the song from which the text
is taken: now is come salvation,
and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ, for the
accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day
and night. ‘And they overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved
not their lives even unto death.
Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell therein” (Revelation
12:10-11).
The point which deserves our
special attention is that, while the conquest of Satan and his being cast out
of heaven, is first represented as the result of the ascension of Jesus arid
the war in heaven which followed, yet in the song of triumph which was heard in
heaven, victory is ascribed chiefly to the blood of the Lamb; this was the
power by which the victory was gained.
Through
the whole book of Revelation, we see the Lamb on the throne. It is as the slain Lamb that He has
gained that position: the victory over Satan and all his authority is by the
blood of the Lamb.
We have
spoken about the blood in its manifold effects; it is fitting that we should
seek to understand how it is that victory is always ascribed to the blood of
the Lamb. We shall consider:
First,
victory as gained once for all;
Second,
victory as being ever carried on; and
Third,
victory as one in which we have a share.
The
victory which was gained once for all: In
the exalted representation given in our text, we see what a high position was
once occupied by Satan, the great enemy of the human race. He had entrance into heaven and
appeared there as the accuser of the brethren and as the opponent of whatever
was done in the interests of God’s people.
We know how this is
taught in the Old Testament. In
the book of Job, we see Satan coming with the Sons of God to present himself
before the Lord and to obtain permission from Him to tempt His servant Job (Job
2). In the book of Zechariah, we
read that he saw ‘Joshua the High Priest standing before the angel of the
Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him for, be his adversary
(RV)’ (3:1-2). Then there is the
statement of our Lord, recorded in Luke 10:18, ‘I beheld Satan as lightning
fall from heaven.’ Later on, in His agony of soul, as He felt beforehand His
approaching sufferings, He said, ‘Now is the judgment of this world, now shall
the prince of this world be cast out’ (John 12:31).
It may,
at first thought, seem strange that the Scriptures should represent Satan as
being in heaven. But to understand
this aright, it is necessary to remember that heaven is not a small,
circumscribed dwelling place where God and Satan had relationship as
neighbors. No! Heaven is a
limitless sphere, with very many different divisions, filled with innumerable
hosts of angels who carry out God’s will in nature. Among them, Satan also still held a place. Then remember, he is not represented in
Scripture to be the black, grisly figure in outward appearance as he is
generally pictured, but as ‘an angel of light.’ He was a prince with ten
thousands of servants.
When he
had brought about the fall of man, and had also transferred the world to
himself and became its prince, he had real authority over all that was in
it. Man had been destined to be
king of this world, for God he said, ‘Have thou authority.’ When Satan had
conquered the king, he took his entire kingdom under his authority; and this
authority was recognized by God.
God, in His holy will, had ordained that if man listened to Satan, he
must suffer the consequences and become subject to his tyranny. God never in this matter used His power
or exercised force, but always took the way of law and right; and so Satan
retained his authority until it was taken from him in a lawful manner.
This is
the reason why he could appear before God in heaven, as accuser of the brethren
and in opposition to them for the 4,000 years of the Old Covenant. He had obtained authority over all
flesh, and only after he was conquered in flesh, as the sphere of his
authority, could he be cast out forever, as accuser, from the court of heaven.
So the
Son of God also had to come in the flesh, in order to fight and conquer Satan,
on his own ground.
For this
reason also at the commencement of His public life, our Lord, after His
anointing, being thus as openly recognized as the Son of God, was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Victory over Satan could
be gained only after He (Jesus) had personally endured and resisted his
temptations.
But even
this victory was not sufficient.
Christ came in order that ‘through death he might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is the devil.’
The devil had that power of death because of the law of God. That law had installed him as jailer of
its prisoners. Scripture says,
‘The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.’ Victory over and
the casting out of Satan could not take place till the righteous demands of the
law were perfectly fulfilled. The
sinner must be delivered from the power of the law, before he could be delivered
from the authority of Satan.
It was
through His death and the shedding of His blood that the Lord Jesus fulfilled
the law’s demands. Ceaselessly,
the law had been declaring that ‘the wages of sin is death, and the soul that
sinneth it shall die.’ By the typical
ministry of the temple, by the sacrifices with the shedding of blood and
sprinkling of blood the law had foretold that reconciliation and redemption
could take place only by the shedding of blood. As our surety, the Son of God was born under the law. He obeyed it perfectly. He resisted the temptations of Satan to
withdraw Himself from under its authority. He willingly gave Himself up to bear the punishment of
sin. He gave no ear to the temptation
of Satan to refuse the cup of suffering.
When He shed His blood, He had devoted His whole life, to its very end,
to the fulfilling of the law. When
the law had been thus perfectly fulfilled, the authority of sin and Satan was
brought to an end. Therefore death
could not hold Him. Through the
blood of the everlasting covenants God brought Him again from the dead. So also
He ‘entered heaven by his own blood’ to make His reconciliation effective for
us.
The text
gives us a striking description of the glorious result of the appearing of our
Lord in heaven. We read concerning
the mystic woman:
“She
brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and
her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne ... There was war in
heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon
fought, and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any
more in heaven. And the great
dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world: and he was cast out into the earth, and his angels
were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:5, 7-9)
Then
follows the song of victory in which the words of our text occur: “They
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.”
In the book of Daniel we
read of a previous conflict between this Michael, who stood on the side of
God’s people Israel, and the opposing world powers. But only now can Satan be cast out, because of the blood of
the Lamb. Reconciliation for sin
and the fulfillment of the law have taken from him all his authority and
right. The blood, as we have
already seen, that had done such wonderful things in heaven with God in
blotting out sin and bringing it to naught, had a similar power over
Satan. He has now no longer any
right to accuse. “Now is come
salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down ... And they overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb.”
Victory As Being
Ever Carried On: There is a
progressive victory which follows on this first victory. Satan having been cast down to earth,
the heavenly victory must now be carried out here. This is indicated in the words of the song of victory, ‘They
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.’
This was primarily spoken concerning ‘the brethren’ mentioned, but it
refers also to the victory of the angels.
The victory in heaven and on earth progresses simultaneously, resting on
the same ground. We know from the
portion in Daniel already mentioned (Daniel 10:12-13) what fellowship there
exists between heaven and earth in carrying on the work of God. As soon as Daniel prayed, the angel
became active, and the three weeks strife in the heavenlies were three weeks of
prayer and fasting on earth. The
conflict here on earth is the result of a conflict in the invisible region of
the heavenlies. Michael and his
angels, as well as the brethren on earth, gained the victory ‘by the blood of
the Lamb.’
In the
twelfth chapter of Revelation we are clearly taught how the conflict was
removed from heaven to earth. ‘Woe
to the inhabitants of the earth,’ – exclaimed the voice in heaven, ‘for the
devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he
hath but a short time. And when
the dragon saw that he was cast down unto the earth, he persecuted the woman
which brought forth the man-child.’
The woman signifies nothing else than the church of God, out of which
Jesus was born: when the devil could not harm Him any more, he persecutes His
church. The disciples of our Lord
and the church in the first three centuries had experience of this. In the bloody persecutions in which
hundreds of thousands of Christians perished as martyrs, Satan did his utmost
to lead the church into apostasy or to root it out altogether; but in its full
sense, the statement that “they overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the
word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives even unto death”
applies to the martyrs.
After
the centuries of persecution, there came to the church centuries of rest and
worldly prosperity. Satan had
tried force in vain. By the favor
of the world, he might have better success. In the church conformed to the world, everything became
darker and darker, till in the Middle Ages the Romish apostasy reached its
climax. Nevertheless during all these
ages there were not a few who in the midst of surrounding misery fought the
fight of faith, and by the piety of their lives and witness for the Lord, the
statement was often established: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives even unto
death.”
This was no less the
secret power by which, through the blessed Reformation, the mighty authority,
which Satan had gained in the church was broken down. “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” It was the discovery, and experience,
and preaching of the glorious truth that we are ‘justified freely by his grace,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood’ that gave to the Reformers such
wonderful power and such a glorious victory.
Since
the days of the Reformation, it is still apparent that in proportion as the
blood of the Lamb is gloried in, the church is constantly inspired by a new
life to obtain the victory over deadness or error. Yes, even in the midst of the wildest heathen, where the
throne of Satan has been undisturbed for thousands of years, this is still the
weapon by which its power must be destroyed. The preaching of ‘the blood of the cross’ as the reconciliation
for the sin of the world and the ground of God’s free, forgiving love is the
power by which the most darkened heart is opened and softened, and, from being
a dwelling place of Satan, is changed into a temple of the Most High.
What avails for the church is available
also for each Christian. In ‘the
blood of the Lamb’, he always has victory. It is when the soul is convinced of the power which that
blood has with God in heaven to effect a perfect reconciliation by the blotting
out of sin; to rob the devil of his authority over us completely and for ever,
to work out in our hearts a full assurance of the favor of God; and to destroy
the power of sin it is, I say, when the soul lives in the power of the blood
that the temptations of Satan cease to ensnare.
Where the holy blood of the Lamb is
sprinkled, there God dwells, and Satan is put to flight. In heaven, on earth, and in our hearts,
that word as the announcement of a progressive victory is valid: they overcame
progress him by the blood of the Lamb.
Our
Share in This Victory: We also have
a share in this victory if we are reckoned among those who have been cleansed
‘by the blood of the Lamb.’ To have the full enjoyment of this, we must pay
attention to the following facts.
No Victory without
Conflict: We must recognize that we
dwell in an enemy’s territory.
What was revealed to the apostle in his heavenly vision must hold good
in our daily lives. Satan has been
cast down into the earth; he has great wrath because he has but a short
time. He cannot now reach the
glorified Jesus, but seeks to reach Him by attacking His people. We must live always under the holy
consciousness that we are watched, every moment, by an enemy of unimaginable
cunning and power who is unwearied in his endeavor to bring us entirely, or
even partially, – however little it may be under his authority. He is literally ‘the prince of this
world.’ All that is in the world
is ready to serve him, and he knows how to make use of it in his attempts to
lead the church to be unfaithful to her Lord, and to inspire her with his
spirit, the spirit of the world.
He
makes use not only of temptations to what is commonly esteemed to be sin, but
he knows how to gain an entrance into our earthly engagements and businesses,
in the seeking for our daily bread and necessary money, in our politics, in our
commercial combinations, in our literature and science, in our knowledge, and
all things – so to make all that is lawful in itself into a tool to forward his
devilish deceptions.
The believer who desires to share in the
victory over Satan ‘through the blood of the Lamb’ must be a fighter. He must take pains to understand the
character of his enemy. He must
allow himself to be taught by the Spirit through the Word what the secret
cunning of Satan is, which is called in Scripture ‘the depths of Satan,’ by
which he so often blinds and deceives men. He must know that this strife is ‘not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places’ (Ephesians
6:12). He must devote himself, in
every way, and at all costs, to carry on the strife till death. Then only will he be able to join in
the song of victory, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the
word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives even unto death.”
Victory through Faith: “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5).
“Be of good cheer,’ said our Lord Jesus, ‘I have overcome the world.” Satan is
an already conquered enemy. He has
nothing, absolutely nothing by right, to say to one who belongs to the Lord
Jesus. By unbelief, by ignorance
of, or by letting go my hold of the fact that I have a participation in the
victory of Jesus, I may give Satan again an authority over me, which otherwise
he does not possess. But when I
know, by a living faith, that I am one with the Lord Jesus, that the Lord
Himself lives in me, and that He maintains and carries on in me that victory
which He gained, then Satan has no power over me. Victory through the ‘blood of
the Lamb’ is the power of my life – only this faith can inspire courage and joy
in the strife. By thinking of the
terrible power of the enemy, of his never-sleeping watchfulness, of the way in
which he has taken possession of everything on earth by which to tempt us, it
might well be said, as some Christians think, that the strife is too severe,
that it is not possible to live always under such tension that life would be
impossible. This is perfectly
true, if we in our weakness had to meet the enemy or gain the victory by our
own might but that is not what we are called upon to do.
Jesus is the victor; so we need only to
have our souls filled with the heavenly vision of Satan being cast out of
heaven by Jesus, filled with faith in the blood by which Jesus Himself
conquered, and filled with faith that He Himself is with us to maintain the
Power and victory of His blood.
Then we also ‘are more than conquerors through him that loved us.’
Victory in Fellowship with the Blood of
the Lamb: Faith is not merely a
thought of which I lay hold, a conviction that possesses me it is a life. Faith brings the soul into direct
contact with God and the unseen things of heaven, but above all, with the blood
of Jesus. It is not possible to believe in victory over Satan by the blood
without being myself brought entirely under its power.
Belief in the power of the blood awakens in
me a desire for an experience of its power in myself; each experience of its
Power makes belief in victory more glorious.
Seek to enter more deeply into the perfect
reconciliation with God, which is yours.
Live, constantly exercising faith in the assurance that ‘the blood
cleanseth from all sin,’ yield yourself to be sanctified and brought nigh to
God through the blood; let it be your life-giving nourishment and power. You will thus have an unbroken
experience of victory over Satan and his temptations. He who, as a consecrated priest, walks with God, will rule
as a conquering king of Satan.
Believers, our Lord Jesus by His blood has
made us not only priests but kings unto God, that we may draw near to God not
only in priestly purity and ministry, but that also in kingly power we may rule
for God. A kingly spirit must
inspire us, a kingly courage to rule over our enemies. The blood of the Lamb must increasingly
be a token and seal, not only of reconciliation for all guilt, but of victory
over all the power of sin.
The resurrection and ascension of Jesus and
the casting out of Satan were the results of the shedding of His blood. In you also, the sprinkling of the
blood will open the way for the full enjoyment of resurrection with Jesus, and
of being seated with Him in the heavenly places.
I once more, therefore, beseech you to open
your entire being to the incoming of the power of the blood of Jesus. Your life will become a continual
observance of the resurrection and ascension of our Lord and a continual
victory over all the powers of hell.
Your heart, too, will constantly unite with the song of heaven, “Now is
come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ for the accuser of the brethren is cast down. They overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:10-11).