And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he [Jesus] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
-Colossians 2:13-15 (NIV)
If you look around it’s hard to believe that Satan is truly a defeated foe. Children are being sold into slavery, people are being shot in schools, and the news is full of all sorts of corruption and malice in our society.
Yet, the Bible tells us that the powers and authorities of this world (Satan and his followers) were not only disarmed, but they were made a mockery of on the cross. How can this be? If we’re honest with ourselves, is this a “truth” that is easy to reconcile with the world we see?
To me, the answer is an emphatic no. First of all, how can dying on a cross disarm anything? Getting flogged and dying in the most painful way available at the time (the word excruciating comes from the same root word as crucifixion in Greek) doesn’t look like making a mockery of powers of authorities either. Clearly, dying on the cross was an “upside down” act of grace, but I believe something else took place that day that explains the words of Paul in Colossians. But, to explain them, we need to go back to the beginning and look carefully at the question of why God allowed Satan to keep on existing after he rebelled against God.
Honestly, this question is a hard one – in fact, I believe it’s a reason why many atheists become atheists in the first place. They don’t understand how a so-called “loving” God could let the horrible things that happen in the world actually happen. Therefore, since evil is allowed to run rampant in the world, God must not exist. Or, if He does, He surely doesn’t care about the world and people He created.
There are several problems with this, not the least of which is that it takes the blame off of the entity committing the act of evil in the first place. It’s like blaming two loving parents when their child commits a crime. No reasonable system of justice would punish the parents for the act of their child – more than likely, the parents are as horrified as anyone else at what happened. The child is the one responsible for their own actions.
We call this “free will” – the notion that we are able to choose our own path and make our own choices about who we love, hate, serve, etc. And, I would argue that “free will” is necessary in order to have love. Love is an act that by its very nature must be freely chosen – you can’t force love on someone and still have it still fit the definition of love. In fact, we have other words to describe what happens when “love” is forced on someone, and none of them are positive (lust, brainwashing, etc.).
However, in order to have something like love exist, you have to allow for the possibility that an entity may not choose to love. Love cannot be forced – it must be chosen. In order for it to be chosen, you have to have more than one way to choose. One of those choices is always going to be evil in the case of love.
So, what does this have to do with the question of why God didn’t destroy Satan when he rebelled? I believe a conversation took place at the beginning that went something like this:
Satan (to the other angels): God says that we are free to choose whether we follow him or not, but I doubt that’s actually true. The moment one of us steps out of line, I guarantee you He will just turn us to dust. After all, it’s what I would do if I had His power. He doesn’t care about so-called “love”…he just wants to control us.
God: I heard that. If you really understood love, Satan, you would not say the things you are saying about Me.
Satan: There you go again, always eavesdropping and telling me that I don’t understand – it’s not my fault I wasn’t created to be omniscient.
God: You are only saying what you are saying because you don’t trust Me or believe the things I have told you about who I am.
Satan: Yes, yes, you’ve told me this already, but I don’t buy it for a second. Moreover, I’ve decided that not only do I not believe it, but I’m going to prove that you are not who you say you are. If I’m truly “free” to choose to love you, then you really can’t stop me from choosing to NOT love you. So, here’s your first test, God – I DON’T choose to love you and trust in your goodness. Just try and stop me!
God: As I said before, you are always free to choose. I won’t force you to love Me if you truly don’t want to.
Satan: You’re not who you say you are anyway, and are therefore a liar. I’m going to make a mess of your creation, and some day, you’re going to get mad because I didn’t choose to follow you and destroy me right in front of everyone because I didn’t do things your way. They will see you for who you really are – not interested at all in “love”, just control.
God: I knew when I created beings with free will that this was a possibility. Everyone has a right to choose for themselves; that’s the system I created. There will come a day where I call all those who love Me to Myself, but first, all must be given time to choose.
Satan: You’re going to regret this, God. Every kind of suffering imaginable is on the table – you just wait to see what I will do. Who’s with me?
Obviously, this dialog is fictional, but I think it’s a pretty fair representation of what probably occurred. The first act of rebellion was a disbelief in the character of God, a belief that God really wasn’t interested in love, just control. That God would turn to dust immediately any “deserters” because they didn’t agree with Him.
Scripture tells us that Satan was not the only entity who believed this about God. When he rebelled, he took a number of other fallen angels with him. So, once the rebellion occurred, there were two major forces in opposition to one another. One good, interested in love and in growing love. The other force believed that God is truly only interested in control, and will literally do anything to prove that everything God says about Himself is all a big lie.
So, for thousands of years, the spiritual battle raged on. Satan kept his promise to make a mess of creation, and God kept his promise that not only would He continue to let people choose, but He would continue to call people to Himself through the power of love. I don’t believe either side really had the “upper hand” in the battle (though the Earth was clearly under the authority of Satan (John 12:31), though, until Jesus showed up with a plan to be the final sacrifice for the sins of the world as an act of amazing self-sacrificial love.
A plan that radical would never have occurred to Satan, who doesn’t understand the idea of love – it would be absolutely absurd to him. Think about it – the idea that a Being as powerful as God lowering himself to become “just a man”, just so he could die on the cross for all mankind would have been beyond his comprehension. You can almost hear the words – he can be tempted now? He doesn’t have all of the power He had while He was in Heaven? You mean, Jesus can feel pain and I can KILL GOD? There’s no way he is going to go through with letting me get away with this! What an IDIOT!! I’ve got him right where I want him!
So, Satan proceeded to do his worst…
…to tempt Jesus to follow him instead
…to try and trap Jesus into contradicting the Word of God
…to put him up on a Roman cross, where he would put him in unimaginable pain, practically forcing him to call the heavenly hosts down and put an end to his suffering
But…it didn’t work, and it didn’t work in front of everyone, whether they were a supernatural entity or a human being…
What everyone saw instead of Satan being proven right was an innocent man forced to die because of a lie. They saw a man that willingly gave himself up so that all of the damage Satan had done to the world could be undone, and that He did it through an act of unconditional love. They saw God suffer through all the temptation, accusations, and suffering even though He could have ended it at any time and destroy those who were doing this to Him.
That’s how God disarmed the powers and authorities – He proved once and for all that Satan was a liar, and that the path of Satan leads to the condemnation of the innocent. That God loved those He created so fiercely that He was willing to endure the worst form of torture the world has ever seen to prove it. Nothing disarms a lie like glorious truth.
And, the way that God revealed His truth was done in such a way that left no doubt as to where He stood. You can almost see the angels in heaven looking down with every crack of the whip going “OK, that one looked like it really stung. He’ll call us all down now and put an end to this.” One could also imagine Satan’s forces saying “OK, that one looked like it really stung. He’s going to call His angels down any minute and put an end to this because He is not dumb enough to keep putting up with this.” Jesus make a mockery of this thinking by doing everything “the hard way”, through love, even though He technically didn’t have to as God.
However, the scope of the sacrifice and suffering reveals just how wrong Satan was. Not only was he wrong, his argument couldn’t have been more wrong. And, the fact that he did this to himself out of his own arrogance, believing he would be vindicated in the end just shows how laughably ironic his actions were in the first place. Said another way, he fell into the trap he dug for someone else.
And THAT is how God defeated Satan on the cross.