Advent Devotional - December 15, 2014

"This day is born a Savior
 / Of a pure Virgin bright,
 / To free all those who trust in Him /
 From Satan's power and might /
 O tidings of comfort and joy"

-God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Our greatest enemy, the devil himself, has two strong weapons: sin and death. In a Genesis 3 world, we are deeply wounded by these weapons. They are wielded against us on a daily basis. Sin is everywhere, at work in everyone. And death is sin’s inevitable consequence, its unavoidable outcome. These things (sin and death) are what we speak of when we speak of Satan’s power and might.

But in the birth of Christ, we celebrate the disarming of our great enemy. The incarnation is the beginning of Christ’s work of disabling the powers of sin and death. Hebrews 2:14-15 tells of this. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, [Christ] Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” We are told here that in Christ’s taking on flesh and blood, and then in His obedience to death, even death on a cross, Jesus destroys the one who has the power of death. The result is our freedom from Satan, from the power of sin, and from the sting of death.

Similarly, 1 John 3:8 tells us that, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” The reason that Christ came to this earth was to destroy the works of sin and death. So as we celebrate the birth of Christ, we also celebrate the finished work of Christ on the cross, in which our enemies swords are beaten into plowshares (Isaiah 2:4). Indeed, this is great news of comfort and joy to all who trust in Jesus Christ.