Did God really say? ...

We go back to Genesis 3:1, back to "the serpent", and on, from there, to Revelation 12:9 - "that ancient serpent, called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray." Satan begins by questioning God's Word: "Did God really say?" - but he does not stop there. He goes on from questioning God's Word to correcting God's Word - "You've got it wrong. That's not what God really said." Before long, he's leading us beyond questioning and correcting God's Word - on to denying that God has said anything to us at all: "It's all in your mind. You're imagining things." Again and again, Satan comes to us. He tries this approach, that approach and the next approach. It's all designed to lead us away from the Lord. What are we to do? Often, it may seem to us that Satan has the upper hand - but this is not what the Word of God tells us! Genesis 3:15 tells us that there will be conflict between Satan and Christ ("the seed of the woman") - Satan will bruise Christ's heel. We see this in the crucifixion of Christ. Beyond the conflict, there is victory - Christ will bruise Satan's head.  Who has the upper hand? Is it Satan? No! It's Christ, our Saviour. From the beginning of the Lord's life, Satan was trying to destroy Him - Herod's plan to kill the babies in Bethlehem was aimed at getting rid of Jesus (Matthew 2:13-18). Satan failed! At the beginning of Christ's public ministry, Satan was at it again (Matthew 4:1-11) Again, Satan failed! On to the end of Jesus' earthly life (Matthew 26-27). Again, Satan is there. Jesus' enemies, aided by Judas Iscariot, seem to have the upper hand. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see the pain of Jesus. Satan is attacking Jesus - but he does not win the victory over Him. Jesus is tempted, but He does not give in to the temptation (Matthew 26:42). Again, Satan has failed! When we follow Jesus on to the Cross, we see that Satan hasn't given up: all hell is let loose! - "darkness came over all the land ... Jesus cried out in a loud voice  ... "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:45-46). In Jesus' pain, we see love, as He took our sin upon Himself so that we might receive salvation from Him, but there is more than this - there's Satan, making a last-ditch attempt to stop Jesus dying on the Cross for our eternal salvation. Again, Satan fails - and Jesus triumphs over him! In John 19:30, we read Jesus' words, "It is finished." Does this sound like a cry of despair? It's not! It's the shout of victory! Jesus had completed what He had been sent to do. The door to salvation had been opened for us. All that remained, now, was the mighty resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Again, Satan had failed! Satan may continue to do as much harm as he can - but he will never change the final outcome: "  And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever" (Revelation 20:10). Satan is a determined enemy. He will keep on coming to us, again and again. He won't give up. Each time, he comes to us, let's remind him that he's a defeated enemy. He's won't be defeated by us. He has been defeated by Jesus - and He has given His victory to us! When Satan, our "accuser" (Revelation 12:10) attacks us, let us take our stand against him - in the triumphant Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Let us remind him that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" - and let us press on to live in the power of the Spirit (Romans 8:1-4).