When the devil cannot devour

WHEN THE DEVIL CANNOT DEVOUR!

Believers, the Law tells us what is good from what is bad; by it we have the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil...and they died. They didn't just eat the bad part of the tree. They ate the good too. This tree is a picture of the Law, where the good things done by people who live by it can kill just as fast as the bad. "The letter kills." And the devil uses people’s obedience to the Law to steal, kill and destroy, even believers! But how?

Colossians 2:13-15 says "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it."

God's handwriting of requirements that was against us is the Law. The devil in and of himself has no power. He accuses people of breaking the Law and tries to get them to condemn themselves so judgment can follow. Christ disarmed (took away the power of) the devil and his agents by fulfilling the righteous demands of the Law for us when He died for all of our sins. He destroyed the arrest warrants that the devil had for us (through our inability to keep the whole Law, which is the prerequisite for escaping judgment) by fulfilling the law for us with His death. He died for us and as us. The Law cannot punish a dead person and in Christ, we are dead to the Law. In Him, there is no condemnation; we are alive as a New Creation, not under Law but under Grace.

But thanks to the preaching of a wrong doctrine by some preachers, many believers still think that there is a handwriting against them; that God will punish them for sins that have already been punished in the body of our Lord Jesus; that God still remembers their sins when He Himself says the opposite in Hebrews 8:12! So they go back to keeping the Ten Commandments in order to get right with God and receive from Him who gives us all things freely with Christ; putting themselves under the Law again and thus re-arming the devil and his agents that Christ has already disarmed for all believers!

BEAR IN MIND THAT IF YOU ARE TRYING TO KEEP THE LAW TO GET RIGHT WITH GOD, YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY LIABLE TO JUDGMENT (UNDER LAW), NO MATTER HOW WELL YOU KEEP THE LAW.  NO ONE CAN BE MADE RIGHTEOUS BY ITS DEEDS. THE BIBLE SAYS "ALL HAVE SINNED..." "THE BIBLE SAYS THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS..." 


People who are keeping the law in order to be righteous have no idea just how much God hates sin. Just one tiny sin is enough to undo a lifetime of law-keeping. If you stumble at one point, you are guilty of all. If you present yourself as being able to keep even a tiny part of the Law, God will be to you a Judge, and His righteousness demands that He punish sin TO THE UTTERMOST.

So how does this re-arming of the devil and his agents take place? How do they steal, kill and destroy, even believers? It is believers by going back to the works of the Law (keeping the Ten Commandments in order to be a “good Christian”) when Christ has already pronounced you righteous apart from works of the Law! 

You see, the battleground where we wrestle against “spiritual wickedness in high places” is not on some mountain top or in the work place or a coven. The battleground is the mind. This is seen in Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 10 - “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” 

Remember “….by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:19. The “weapons of our warfare” is our righteousness in Christ, a gift from God and not our fasts and trips to the mountain.

Thoughts and imaginations are of the mind, formed from what we hear and see. Satan is the Accuser, literally “the prosecutor” or “the accuser” (Ha Satan) in Hebrew. In Israel today, all prosecuting lawyers have the same title – Ha Satan. What a prosecutor does is present charges against the accused in court, with the aim of getting a guilty verdict so that judgment can follow. Now, the court of law (battleground) is the mind. What the devil and his agents do is remind and accuse people (including believers) of the bad things that they have done (which our heavenly Father does not remember anymore according to Hebrews 8:12) and also remind them of the coming judgment, a judgment that Christ has already suffered for all who believe!

These accusations are the ‘fiery darts of the wicked one’ that Paul spoke of in Ephesians 6. They try to make you think things like “your plane can crash because your heavenly Father will not keep you safe unless you get right with Him or do restitution for that sin” or “God will punish you because you failed in one particular area of the Ten Commandments.” But no one can ever get right with God by their own efforts at law-keeping according to Romans 3:20! No one has it all together. Plus if you break one law, you are guilty of all (James 2:10).

Bear in mind that Galatians 5:4 says- "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace." 

Calling on the name of the Lord Jesus while believing that it is your obedience to the Ten Commandments that makes you right with /receive from God is an effort in futility. You cannot use your own obedience to the Ten Commandments as your measure of righteousness and still expect Christ to answer when you call. This “neither hot nor cold” status is abominable to our Saviour.

In Christ, we are forever righteous in the sight of God the Judge, not because we sinned or didn’t sin but because of 2 Corinthians 5:21 "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

When a believer is accused of breaking the Law and his response is to start doing things to “be righteous again” or “get right with God,” he condemns himself by rejecting the price that Jesus paid for all of our sins. He rejects Jesus as his Advocate and becomes his own advocate with his works. He falls from grace (Galatians 5:4) and under the Law.

When a believer is sick and someone tells him that unless he does some particular thing, God will not heal him (when Romans 8:32 tells us that our heavenly Father gives us all things freely with Christ), that counsellor is doing the work of the devil, putting the sick believer under the Law.

This is how many believers re-arm principalities and powers that Christ disarmed for our sake: by shunning God’s gift of everlasting righteousness in Christ and depending on their own efforts at law-keeping to become righteous. When such sin, they have no choice but to accept condemnation for their sins because they have been cut off from Christ by trying to keep the law in order to get right with God according to Galatians 5:4. There is no Jesus to save here because Law and Grace don’t mix. What comes next is condemnation, a fearful expectation of judgment because of the sin…then stress, sickness, poverty, etc….death.!

The devil levels accusations (fiery darts of the wicked one) at all in a bid to condemn all for their inability to keep the Law 100% (which no one can.) And because all have sinned, these accusations stick to believers who think that they still have to keep the Ten Commandments in order to be really righteous or “maintain their salvation!”

But as the righteousness of God in Christ, knowing that it is by “one Man’s obedience” that we are made righteous (Romans 5:19) and not by our law-keeping prowess, the accusations can never stick! We stand boldy in the day of judgment (not Judgment Day when Books are opened but each time the devil does his job of accusing you of failing,)  because "as He is, so are we in this world." Righteous. 

Our warfare is won this way, by bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, aka our righteousness in Him!

This is why the devil goes about seeking whom to devour. He can't devour just anyone that catches his fancy. He can do some shakara by roaring (accuse you of what you just did by throwing fiery darts/condemning thoughts your way and reminding you of the coming judgment) but with the knowledge of Christ as your righteousness 24/7, he can do nothing to you.

But with those who believe that it is their ability to keep the Ten Commandments that makes them "good Christians," this is not so. These ones are auto-condemned because only the righteousness of faith in Christ cuts it with God the righteous Judge. And the Law must exact judgment – including all the curses of Deuteronomy 28! No wonder many believers are still experiencing symptoms of the curse!

Yet many pastors today are preaching "Yes, you are saved by grace through faith but you still need to keep the Ten Commandments in order to be holy/get right with God and be really saved!" Believers, holiness is a fruit of right believing! The Law cannot but minister condemnation because it is righteous, unbending and impartial - and "all have sinned."

Whether Law or Grace, God's word will not return to Him void. His word says those that all who rely on works of the Law are under a curse. His word says there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. No judgment! But those who fight to keep the Law get to suffer the curse!

Only the blood of Jesus can cut it with the Righteous Judge (God) and His gift of righteousness is free for all who believe in Christ! Only through the righteousness of faith, not works, can the devil’s fiery darts be quenched in our lives. Ephesians 6:16 says "above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one."

Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Even though you don’t have it all together right now and your life as you and other people see it is far from being righteous, believe with your heart that you are the righteousness of God in Christ. Confess your righteousness in Christ with your mouth and see it manifest, as it is written in Romans 10:10 - “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Salvation here encompasses deliverance from the molestation of enemies and redemption from all earthly ills. It is being saved from the penalty, power, presence and pleasure of sin! The word used in the original Greek translation of the New Testament is Swthria (pronounced soteria) and it encompasses all these meanings. That is our Jesus (Yeshua =Salvation)! When you speak out your righteousness in Christ, every single blessing that is for the righteous in the bible becomes yours! The fiery darts (evil thoughts and accusations from tongues of people of who tell you that you are not really saved because you sinned) which are the weapons of the enemy to get you to condemn yourself and face judgment will fail in your life because – Isaiah 54:17:

“No weapon formed against you shall prosper,

And every tongue which rises against you in judgment

You shall condemn.

This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,

And their righteousness is from Me,”

Says the LORD.

Notice that this blessing is not earned by fasting and prayer or any work. It is an inheritance (heritage) for those whose righteousness is from the Lord, not their efforts at keeping the law or pleasing Him. Believe. Confess it and see it!

Believers, by God’s grace, discard your own righteousnesses from law-keeping (filthy rags) and receive that which Christ gave His life for us to have – righteousness by faith. This is the way to reign in life – reign over the power, pleasure and penalty of sin and every worldly ill, as it is written in Romans 5:17 – “For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)”

You will live right yet not by the Law, but Christ in you! This is God’s undeserved, unmerited favour. This is Grace!

Pretty long, I know:)

Believe Right and you will Live Right!