#493: Why Jesus Came to Earth – Part 3

Another reason Jesus came to earth, was to defeat Satan. No, Satan’s not gone, he’s still here, but he knows he’s done for.

Satan, Lucifer in Heaven, for whatever reason became jealous of God and Jesus, wanted their throne; he wanted to be in charge, to sit in the big seat. And the only way he could do that was to overthrown the government, so to speak. So he began lying to the angels, telling them how bad God was, and how great Heaven would be if he ran the show. In fact, it’s pretty much like modern politics; disparage the opponent and promise them free stuff if they vote for him.

And Satan had to be a silver tongued devil, forgive the pun, because he was able to convinced a third of the angels to come to his side.

God and Jesus had the chance right then and there to kill Satan and stop sin from entering the earth. But they didn’t, because despite Lucifer’s sinful actions, he was still a creation of God and Jesus, and they loved him, just like He loves us despite our sins. And if He had killed Satan, He might very well have proved Satan’s theory that God was an angry tyrant. So just like us, God gave them free will to choose good and bad, and about a third of the angels defected.

We see Satan’s fingerprints all over the Old Testament. Eve eating the forbidden fruit, Cain killing Abel, Sodom and Gomorrah, the envy of Joseph’s brothers, and the list goes on and on. He has been working overtime to overthrow Heaven, from Eve and Job, to Haman and Jezebel. Sometimes he was frantic in his work, because as you read when Jesus was in the wilderness, Satan knows scripture. Satan knew what Isaiah said about the coming Messiah, and he was trying desperately to stop it.

We God finally sent Jesus to try to save us, Satan knew it was high noon, and he had to take immediate action to kill Jesus and finally win the war. But Jesus knew the game plan. He kept telling His disciples that this had to come, that He must die. And He was willing to die to defeat Satan.

As we know from scripture, Satan tempted Herod and he took the bait. Satan did the same with the Pharisees and they too, took the bait. Satan worked every angle possible, Judas, Pilate, and finally, the crowd of people that shouted for the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus.

Satan watched intently as Jesus was beaten, whipped, and forced to carry His own cross to Golgotha. Satan was joyful as he watched Jesus hang on the cross, ridiculed, humiliated, every minute bringing Him closer to death. And when Jesus drew His last breath and uttered the words, “It is finished”, there was loud rejoicing in Satan’s camp. Satan had won. He had killed Jesus.

But you know who else was rejoicing? Heaven. They were rejoicing too, because unlike Satan, they knew what was coming.

Satan and his fallen angels celebrated. They partied. They were elated. They may even have taken a few days off from tempting people. Satan had finally defeated Jesus!

But then came Sunday.

I don’t know this for a fact, but I like to think the screams of Mary as she ran to the other disciples to tell them about the empty tomb, woke Satan up from his slumber. Satan’s party ended. He thought he had killed the Son of God, but the resurrection of Jesus proved that Jesus can’t be killed. Perhaps the mortal body Jesus assumed when He came to earth could be killed, but Jesus Himself, God, the Spirit, they will live and reign forever.

The fight isn’t over though. Satan knows what’s coming, and he wants to hurt Jesus by hurting as many of Jesus’ children as he can. Every person that Satan is successful at turning away from God gives him joy because it saddens Jesus. Make no mistake, Satan doesn’t care whether you live or die, all he wants to do is hurt Jesus.

So another reason Jesus came to earth was to win the battle with Satan. While that battle is over in Heaven, it still rages on here on earth between us and Satan. We all have our bad days, but we can’t let Satan win. I’ve often told the Lord in prayer that I may not make it to Heaven, I may be too sinful in the end to be worthy of His Glory, but it won’t be because I gave up. No matter how bad things get, how far down I get, I will fight until my last breath. It’s a battle between me and Satan, just like it’s a battle between you and Satan.

But because of Jesus has created the winning team, and I’ve been drafted to play on it. All I have to do is accept that invitation. All of you are invited as well. But thank God Jesus came and won that battle for us. Because Satan now knows the score. He knows Jesus cannot be beaten, no matter what. Jesus paid the price. He did His part of the deal. Now it’s up to us to decide which team we want to be on.