Victory in Jesus--He turns the tables on evil

The greatest victory in the known universe took place on the cross of Christ. The resurrection three days later was God's exclamation point, but when Jesus ended His agony on the cross with "It is finished," the victory was won. Those who were near the cross at the end were deeply affected by what they saw. The Bible indicates that the centurion exclaimed, "Surely this was the Son of God," and the crowd went away beating their breasts. What was it that evoked this response? The centurion was impressed by the earthquake as well as how Jesus gave up the ghost. He had probably seen many people die in warfare or at other crucifixions, but he had never witnessed the triumph of Christ's victory over evil at his death. Jesus completed the job of nailing to the cross all the things that are against us and openly triumphed over all the forces of darkness.

The devil and all his minions thought they had it all wrapped up for their side with Jesus dying, but Jesus grabbed victory out of defeat. Just when there was no hope and everything was literally and spiritually black, Christ came through with a mighty triumph over his foes. I think Jesus' victory was foreshadowed in the story of Esther. Haman had laid his plans to completely destroy God's people but God turned the tables on him through Esther and her humble obedience to His divine will. What looked like hopelessness and defeat was completely overturned into a dramatic victory. It is no wonder the Jewish people still celebrate that change of events. Another example is Samson's removing of the city gates. His enemies were convinced they had him trapped in a walled city and could do him in. Instead Samson got up in the middle of the night and heaved up the gate of their city and planted in on a nearby hill. The very thing which had him trapped was rendered completely ineffective in this act of triumph.

Jesus has turned the table on the devil and all his schemes. Instead of His people being destroyed for eternity in hell, we now have the fullness of heaven and the enjoyment of His presence in the holy of holies for eternity. Instead of being bound by evil habits or disease we can be free because the power of those things was broken by the cross of calvary! The early apostles were accused of being people who turned the world upside down. They were simply doing what their Lord had done before them. We have also been engrafted into His victory so that His victory is our victory and God expects us to turn the world upside down right where He has put us. It may be some impossible situation that we are in or know about that others are facing. We can see it changed by our faith in His victory. Overcomers still take things the way they are and make them bend to the will of God! Or as the Coronet song puts it: "Fight says the Coronet, don't give up, don't give up... take the Kingdom where you are and drive the devil out!...faith in the Lamb of God, living faith, living faith, will assure the victory." John Piper in his book "The passion of Jesus Christ" entitles his last chapter, "Christ suffered and died to show that the worst evil is meant by God for good." By faith in God's power represented by the cross we can see Him turn evil into good.

I was freshly reminded how God took Ezekiel into the valley of dry bones and asked him if they could live. Ezekiel's non committal answer "Thou knowest" is not surprising in the face of these bones that were very dry. He knew intellectually that God could do anything, but these dry bones were something else. Then he was told to prophesy over these bones and God began His miraculous work. It went on in a couple stages but the end result was a great army raised up to do God's work. What are your dry bones? Let them hear the word of the Lord through your prophetic words and the results will be amazing!