A Public Disgrace

You may or may not have experienced (or at least witnessed) this in your life:

The scene is a public forum, whether one in which people are physically present or an online forum or a written publication.  Some person makes a series of accusations against another, or against a group of people.  In response to this, another or a group of others responds by revealing the accusations as false and the accuser(s) as the villains which in their heart-of-hearts they are.  OR, the accusations are dealt with.  And then, peace and prosperity - - -LIFE - - - are restored.

When you see or experience this type of thing today, it is a microcosm of what went on eons ago in Heaven, when we see Satan in the throne room of God the Father, accusing Job (Job 1:6-12), a man "upright in all his ways".  Satan has no new methods; he simply recycles his old ones.  Satan has always been the accuser of mankind and particularly of the "upright in heart".  It is his way of crowing about the fact that mankind "fell" in the Garden of Eden (as if he caused that to happen and is proud of his accomplishment).  He is not called the Accuser and the Destroyer, without reason.

Job is a "type" of the Christian, the true born-again Believer in Jesus Christ.

Today's text is Colossians 2:9-15.  Paul is describing Jesus Christ and emphasizing to believers in Jesus Christ how He not only triumphed over Satan for ever, but how he publicly disgraced him and his legions of demons.  Take a look.

9For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11In him you also were circumcised – not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ. 12Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. 13And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. 14He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Paul begins by affirming the different-ness of Jesus Christ (vs. 9-10).  Although Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of God, he is not merely one of the "sons of God" mentioned in Job 1.  He is THE Son of God, "the only begotten" Son of the Father (John 3:16).  In Him ALL the fullness of the Godhead dwells in human form.
In this capacity, He is the Head over all spiritual entities including, and especially Satan.  Jesus affirms this in Matthew 28:18, where He declares that ALL authority is given to Him.

Now, jump to verses 19-20 of Colossians 2.  Satan had brought against all humankind a "certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us", a debt we as sin-enslaved humans could not pay.
Mankind was not falsely accused by Satan.  We were guilty!

It has been said (anonymously): "He came to pay a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay."  Through His substitutionary work of death, burial and resurrection, our debt is now marked "Paid in Full"!  And, in so doing, he "disarmed" all the spiritual forces arrayed against God the Father and against us.  Not only did he yank their weapons away from them, as far as we, His children, are concerned (they no longer have power over us).  He made of our spiritual enemies a public disgrace!

Do you know what I love most about this passage?  The finality of it, the indisputable, irrefutable certainty that Jesus Christ has triumphed and that our salvation as Believers in Jesus Christ as Savior is secure!
1.  Our spirits have been permanently marked "circumcised". (The thought of trying to reattach a circumcised foreskin is totally abhorrent.  It might could be accomplished, but the result would be Frankensteinian....)
2.  Our sins have been buried, drowned, to use the water metaphor that exists in the baptismal rite.
ALL of our transgressions are forgiven.  ALL.
3.  We are ALREADY raised with Christ. Remember, there is no time with God.  He sees it all, past, present, future - - - accomplished.

What a cause for celebration!  No matter your spiritual battle today, Believer, you know for whom you fight. You know that He is the Victor.  You know that your enemy is already defeated (and he knows it as well).  "What's done is DONE!"  Hallelujah to the Name Above Every Name!

Oh Thou, to whose all-searching sight...
Oh Thou in whom my soul takes delight...
Thank you for the finality of my rescue, the totality of my redemption, the certainty of my cancelled debt.  The Accuser (that old serpent!) is defeated forever.  Jesus has overcome!  In His name I pray, amen.