The Triumphs of Christ: Christ's Conquest of Satan by His Death

How it was Christ’s great concern and interest to destroy life power of Satan. The conquest which he had over him by his death, and his open and gloriojs triumph after the victory, expressed in CoL ii. 15.

THE second part of this discourse, is of Christ’s part in destroying all the power of the devil. And therein we are to regard,

First, the ground of the quarrel betwixt Christ and him, and how Christ came to be engaged in it. The ground of this quarrel was either,//;^, personal; or, secondly, on our behalf.

1. Personal, as he was God’s Son and natural heir. What was Satan’s sin? It was the setting up a kingdom against God, and Christ his son. He Icjt his habitation for it, Jude 6. It is mentioned not as his punishment only, but as his sin. He and his angels shook off God’s dominion, and betook them selves to seek their fortunes, and set up for them selves in this airy and visible world. Thus, in Matt, xii. 26, the bottom reason Christ gives why one devil opposeth not another, is, for how then shall HIS tand? You may observe, there is a kingdom of his mentioned, consisting in one common general interest, wherein they all agree. Now if there were no other reason but that it is the quarrel of the Godhead, in Father, Son and Spirit, against sin, Christ is sufficiently in person interested in it, on his own, yea, on his Father’s behalf. For if any rebel against a prince, who is so fit to suppress and subdue them as the son in his father’s behalf, (when himself also is the heir) wko so fit as he to fight his father battles, and to put him into the throne again. But

2. It’s more than whispered, ’tis talked out, by some great and good divines, that the spirit and edge of their first sin was pointed out against the Son of God* as he was to be God-man; and so in our nature declared to be an head to angels and men; and if so the quarrel was personal indeed, for it more particularly touched Christ’s property and prerogative. Whether these things were so or no, or that they be sufficiently proved by these intimations in the scriptures, I leave every reader to his own judgment; only if I had not inclined thereto, I had not proposed this. — I add

3. That it personally concerned Jesus Christ to come and destroy the devil. In that Satan’s kingdom (which upon his turning head against God he was in actual possession of) was that which letted, or stood in the way, to that of Christ’s kingdom, and took up much of the room of it. This kingdom Christ, as God-man, was appointed unto, Heb. i. 2. (and it was only as God-man that he was appointed to it, for as mere Son of God, or second person, he hath it by nature and not decrea) the appointment also was, that he must win it ere he wears it, as Psa. ii. and ex. and 1 Cor. xv. shew. He must destroy, therefore, this his opposite to make way for the possession of this his own kingdom, and therefore Mat. xii. 28, Christ gives this as a manifest undeniable evidence, that the Kingdom of God, which the prophets had foretold the Messiah, the Christ, should (as come from God, and for God) possess and administer, was beginning to be set up upon his coming into the world, and that himself was the appointed heir therefore, yea, apparent heir, by this probation, that he did by the Spirit of Cod cast devils out; — But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God is come unto you. The evidence lies in this, that whilst he did it, he did profess himself to be tUc very Mes siah, to whom that kingdom did belong, and that the rising of his kingdom was the downfall of Satan’s. And so that first promise and prophecy, Gen. iii. began to be fulfilled in and by his own very person, viz. He shall break the Serpents head. Which, saith Christ, you see manifestly with your eyes; for with the same breath, at the same instant, he commands the devils forth, and so proclaims himself to be that king to whom Satan must give way.

But the second ground of the quarrel was on our behalf, and this for sureness in the text. The verse afore 13th doth bring in Christ speaking himself as a Father of many children committed to his trust and charge by God; Behold I and the children which God hath gkcn me. Christ is and was an everlasting Fa ther, Isaiah ix. G. and these Children were given to him in and at God’s first election both of Christ him-

; as Mediator,, and them as members, both at the same time, and election of one was involved in the election of the other, as relatives mutually to each other. Eph. i. 4, They were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, thus long before the fall of man, or Satan’s sinning or kingdom; so as Christ was plainly thus long before entrusted to be their guardian; and such and so great an estate of glory was long before bequeathed to them. Therefore these children being by that curse and righteous law (they sinning) became now vassals and slaves to Satan; for as much, then, as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, Christ also himself took part of the same, that, through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death; that is the Devil., It is the very account given in the text, and imports in the coherence of these words with the former, immediately foregoing, that these his pupils and children having been long before given him, and now fallen into the devil’s power: that moved therewith, he came to rescue and deliver them, as the next words carry it on, verse 15. Thus zealous was Christ for these his children, and to discharge his trust; and thus Eph. v. 23, Christ being originally and primitively constituted an head to them, this drew him to be a saviour. The words there are, even as Christ is the head of the Church, (an head first) and he is the saviour of the body.

These things as thus relating to Satan, to have been much in Christ’s heart, his speeches up and down the Gospel of John, and elsewhere, shew. In which you may observe him discoursing, as great princes use to do of their grand opposite?, so he of Satan, and the confusion he was sent to put him into; by by all which what his heart was intimately set upon in man’s salvation doth eminently appear, as you may read, John xii. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, wherein he mentions this confusion of Satan with somewhat an equal affection he had to that of the salvation of men, and both as those two eminent grand matters in which both God and Christ aimed most to be glorified. You find him at the 27th verse, struck with the thoughts of his approaching sufferings, now is my soul troubled; and what! shall I say, Father, save me from this hour! And yet then checks himself, but for this cause came I to this hour; as if he had said, this was the business I came into the world for, and I must disannul all if I now withdraw. But then, further, he cheers himself up with the great and general end which his death and coming into the world, and all served to, verse 28. Father, glorijy tin, name. Unto which God from heaven gave answer, / have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. Then he specifies two things wherein God was thus to be greatly glorified, by the foresight and prospect of which he further recovers his spirit, namely

1. Satan’s overthrow: — now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out, verse 31.

2. Man’s salvation: verse 32. Ami I, if I le lifted npjrom the earth, will draw all men unto me; and both these at once accomplished by the cross, verse 33, this he said signifying what death he should die. Which foils in with what the text saith that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. And with all which also, that of Jehu i. 14, doth correspond, — the Word was madcjiesh, and. (eakcnase)

He pitched a tent amongst us, as a soldier, foritisamili- 7ord. For his end of dwelling in flesh was to destroy the devil in open and plain field by conquest; and, suitably, in this Hcb. ii. 10, you have him called the Captain of our Salvation, then when his destroying of Satan is spoken of. Thus much for the grounds of the quarrel.

I pursue next the several proceedings and passages of the victory, (whereof the most eminent and fundamental to all the rest is that of his death, as all the places already handled do shew.

I reduced them at first unto two general heads, have ing divers particulars under them.

I. Christ’s overcoming Satan in himself, that is, in his own person.

II. His overcoming him in us and by us. Or thus, there is Christ’s overcoming Satan for us; and there is Christ’s overcoming him in us and by us. The account of this distinction you will easily perceive by comparing two texts together: the first, Col. ii. 15, where he is said to have spoiled Satan and triumphed over -him (cum aspiratione) in himself, and so the margin varies it. The second is 1 John iv. 4, Stronger is he that is in you than he that is in the world. He that /.v in the world, is the devil, who tempts us with the world; and in overcoming the world, we overcome him, that wicked one, (as expressly it is twice said, 1. John ii. 13, 14) and this is Christ’s overcoming; the devil in us, as these words, — stronger is he that is in you, — do evidently shew.

What he did for us in his own person are two. 1. The great and total rout Christ gave Satan at hi* death. And,

II. His triumph over him thereupon. Which you have thus distinguished Col. ii. 15, how Jirst Christ having spoiled principalities and powers, he then made a shew of them openly, (or made them an open example) triumphing over them in himself. The first was done at his death or upon the cross. For his cross, is that which the Apostle had mentioned just before; as that public open place to which he had affixed the law as cancelled. And then in coherence with it next follows this, that he did at the same time to the executioners of the law, the devils in those words having spoiled or disarmed principalities and powers, (namely, on the cross) he overcame the devil: first, in the plain and open field, which field was the cross, and the place where it stood; so that the battle was fought there on the cross whereon Christ died. And the text says through death he destroyed him, which comes to one to say on the cross he destroyed him, or wrought his de struction. The word in Col. ii. 15, translated, having spoiled him, is apekdusamcnos, which is properly to disarm; to put on armour, (endusasthai) is oppositely used, Rom. xiii. 12. And is a manifest allusion to what conquerors use when they have gotten the victory, they strip the conquered of their weapons, and there fore it is here put to express the victory itself by. Though the victory itself is supposed antecedent to this disarming; and the manner of such victors was, to erect pillars on which to hang those weapons as trophies, and this sometimes on the very place, either on trees that grew nigh, or upon pillars fixed on the ground. And so he had begun this allusion in the former words in saying, that he nailed the law as cancelled to the tree of the cross; arid then pursues it ia, saying, that through and upon his death, he hung up all the dtviTs armour thereon also; which Luke xi. 22, are called Panopliu, his whole armour, as ’tis translated. And this he did as spoils, (as our translators have here rendered it). You have this signally expressed, Isa. liii. 12. Piscator reads the words thus: -Therefore, for his part or portion, I will give him the great ones, and he shall divide the strong as spoils. That is (saith he) he shall have a victory over those evil spirits, principalities and posvers, so as to be in his power as a spoil, to carry captive, and use as he pleaseth; and this because (as it follows) he poured forth his soul unto death. And that other reading of our translators comes all to one, he shall divide the spoil with the strong, or in the strong; that noting out the persons that were the object of that his dividing them; and is all one as to say he shall take their power from them. So then in and by his death meritoriously — because he poured forth his soul unto death — he destroyed him wholly, and Satan and all his power was given up as lawful spoil. Thus cur Lord, whilst himself was stripped naked, and they cast lots for his garments, then it was he stripped and spoiled Satan, and made him wholly naked without all weapons. And here comes now to ba enquired into the just ground upon which it came to pass that through or by Christ’s death, Satan should be bereft of that power which he had (upon the terms formerly mentioned) given unto him. And to be sure he lost it, upon Christ’s death, on a far more fair and legal right than at first, or than ever it was given to him. Isaiah xlix. 24, 25, it is thus written:

Khali the pra, be taken from the mighty, cr tlw 10 a Lcaptive delivered? But thus saith the Lord, even the captives of the wighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for Twill contend icitk him that contendeth with thee, £e. Be it literally spo ken of Babylon’s captivity and redemption, pr what ever else, yet this is certain, that that and others were shadows of this of our’s by Christ, and there fore applicable in the general thereunto. Now how for we were lawful captives, unto Satan you heard, and God, though Satan be his enemy, will overcome him fairly; Ron vi sed justitia; not by force only, but in justice. The lawful captives (as it is in Isaiah) shall be delivered and that lawfully. It is also a rule fetched from, the law of arms, and concertations in games and the like,^ That if a man strive for masteries he is not crowned (and so is not reckoned to overcome) unless he strive lawfully, 2 Tim. ii. 5.

1. The truth is, first, Satan ran into a premunire or a, forfeiture of all his power, by his assailing Christ, and if there were no other ground, this was sufficient for the loss of all. He in assailing of Christ, and plotting and contriving his death, went beyond his commission, and God on purpose permitted him to do it, to catch him in his snare; Satan’s power over sinful man, was not a’ natural but an accidental judicial power, and so perfectly limited by commission, which if he exceeded, — especially if so transcendently as it fell out in this, — he instantly made a forfeiture of it. Know” this then, that Satan’s power was over sinful man only; he was not so much as to touch or come near the man Jesus, who was holy, harmless, and separate / rom miners. Now he coming into the world in the likeness of sinful Jlcshy

Rom. viii. this lion that seeks whom he may devour, boldly ventures on him, and persecutes him to death; for it was Satan that contrived Christ’s death. This in the hoar (saith Christ) and the power of darkness, Luke xxii. 52: — Your hour, speaking to the Pharisees. Now you are in the height of your power, having me under; but know, says he, you are but the devil’s instruments herein, who hath a greater and deeper hand in it than you. This is the power of darkness, which is a further addition to shew that the rulers of the darkness of .this world, (Eph. vi. 12) were also and chiefly in it; yea, the utmost of his power concentred in it to effect what was in Pilate’s, the people, and the rulers’ hearts. The prince of darkness, and the ruler of this world, acted as the princes of this world, when they crucified the Lord of glory. But more expressly, John xii. 40, 41, Yoic seek to kill me: you do the deeds of your father therein, who was a murderer from the beginning, verse 44. And Christ seems to me to give a hint of this very reason, John xiv. 13, The prince of this world conies, and hath nothing in me, as matter for him by virtue of which he should have authority to have any thing to do with me. The devil thus foolishly and sillily lost all, and God took the wise in his own craftiness, and Christ suffered him to go on and to have his whole will upon him, but then took him thereby captive at his will. So God in his righteous judgment ordered that Satan should lose the power that he had, bocause he exercised that upon Christ which he had not.

2. Consider that it was man’s sin, which was the 6ole? and only ground of God’s giving Satan that power at first; it was done by way of punishment arid curse. Now if Christ pays by his death, (as it was transacted between God and him) a price and ransom for sin, and undergoes all the punishment due to it, then doth Satan’s power fall instantly, for it was wholly judicial, and but part of the punishment upon man.

There was this concatenation or derivation of power; the power of Satan lies in sin; the power that sin hath over us, lay in the law; — the strength of sin is the law, saith the Apostle. — Now he by paying a price or sufficient ransom unto God for sin, the power of the law and the devil all fell at once flat, and perished together.

And the chain of these you have in that Col. ii. where, first, in the 13th verse, And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of yourjlesh, hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses .- — there is sin gone, both in the power and demerit of it. Secondly, (verse 14) follows, a blotting cut the hand writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way,. nailing it to his cross: — there is the law, cancelled and made void. Thirdly, (verse 15) and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. The devil falls with these, as his power stood by these.

3. Add to these, that this Christ as a Common person, stood in the room of the Church, and there fore Satan justly lost his power over us all, in that he that represented us all did overcome him.

And here ere we go any further, let us stay awhile and stand astonished, at the glory of God’s design herein. There was never any romance ever feigned so strange a victory, joined with such a confusion to the person that was conquered, as this represents, and it is to be taken notice of here in our transition to that other part, viz. his triumph, as a preparation to the glory of it, that Christ, a Lamb, the Lamb of God, should lie still and pcrdcu, having all our persons and sins under that Lamb’s skin, and form of a servant, led as a sheep by Satan, unto the slaughter, until Satan should have done his worst, and then as a lion couchant, a lion asleep, (as Gen. xlix. and Rev. v. 5, 6, a lamb and a lion both) he should rouse up himself from his sleep, and take that very cross that Satan had brought him unto, and hung him upon, and (as one expressed! it) Baculo Croc’iSy with the staff, the beam of the cross, break all the devil’s bones in pieces, when he had not with all his malice broke one bone of his: what more glorious? To overcome then, when himself is overcome!

Thus much for Christ’s spoiling, yea, destroying him virtually and meritoriously at his death. His triumph over him next follows. For into those two parts the particulars in this Col.ii. 15, are reduced; even as conquerors first stript the captives, then led them as examples tied to their chariot wheels, or else they were driven before them. In the first, the devil’s nakedness appears; in this other, his shame and ignominy publicly.

Christ’s triumph is thus set forth. He made them an example and skew of them openly, triumphing over them; both these expressions falling in to signify the same thing. The allusion is manifestly unto that

Roman custom mentioned, after victories obtained, when the chief leader rode in triumph, leading the chieftains of the conquered enemy as an open spectacle. There hath been a question among commentators and other divines, whether or no Christ’s affixing the law to the cross, and his overcoming and and disarming Satan thereon, was an invisible transaction, not seen or observed by any but God and himself, (the reality thereof consisting only in virtue and efficacy); that so in like manner this his triumph over the devils, should have been but virtual and in visible, and so this his triumph, as those other, all of them transacted on the cross alike. Or, whether there was not after that victory mentioned on the cross, a public and open shew mack, in way of triumph before a world of spectators, applauding it. — For -the decision of this: —

1. Therein this difference may be considered between the abolishing sin and the law, at his cross, and this other of triumph over the devil. That this first must needs be only virtually and spiritually understood, for sin and the law are not intelligent persons, but only things to be destroyed, and so were capable only of a virtual abolition, see Heb. i. 3.

But the devils themselves who were the founders of sin, and heads of this rebellion, they were rational and intelligent creatures, and so were capable of being made a real, visible, and open shame, which was a punishment suited to such. And the manner of the triumphs was to lead the persons and the chieftains, as heads, in open view, to give demonstration of the perfection and compleatness of the victory over any prince or nation; no’.v such were the devil:?.

2. Although neither this over those damned spirits, as neither that over sin, was risible to the men of this world we live in, yet there is another world, (in visible indeed to us) unto whom the shame and ignominy done to these devils might be, as it was, made visible; namely, God and angels, and the spirits of just men, which is the greatest stage. Christ’s birth and nativity was known and seen by the angels, when but to one or two in our world, as also his ascension. Now every word here leads unto this sense as also the thing considered in itself, and the comparing this with the other.

1. The nature of a triumph, (to which the allusion manifestly is) wns to be a public sight, or shew, and to have the greater pomp, there was a company of spectators to behold it, or it lost what it pretended to be, and was not that which it is said to be. So Tully speaks of the Roman triumphs; that ambassadors were present on horses, the soldiers crying out, Victory, whilst the conquered were led before or after the chariot of the conqueror, and this for the glory of the conqueror, and the confusion of the conquered. If there were none there that at present took notice thereof, it were not a triumph, but merely a concealed and stolen victory.

2. It is said he made them a public example, and so the word Edeigmatittn here, which is all one with Paradeinutfkein, is used by the Septuagint, Numbers xxv. 4, when Moses hung up those kings before the sun; and so by the New Testament, Matt. i. 19, and Heb. vi. G; it signifies also to make one publicly infamous, yea to draw and drag him through n company of beholders and spectators.

All which if no more were added, argues that some public ignominy was done unto the devils, before this solemn assembly.

3. The Apostle, to fix his meaning, adds, openly, en parrcsia, which word, the Jews have taken into their language to signify a thing done openly, in opposition to what is secretly or hiddenly; and so it is used, John xi. 34, and vii. 4, and 13, and Mark viii. 32. Now this is that which I urge, that lor (1) a thing to be done by way of triumph: (2) On purpose to make infamous, dragging the person made such through a company of spectators: and (.S) openly: yet to say, it was some invisible transaction, to be viewed by faith only, these things are a contradiction.

Thirdly, compare this transaction specified here with other scriptures, and it will resolve when and how this public ignominy was inflicted on Satan and his angels. And this, added to the former, satisfieth me most of all.

We read Eph. iv. 8, and that epistle is parallel in most things, to this of the Colossians, as many have observed, that Christ when he ascended, led the Devil in triumph; When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive. This David had prophesied of, Psa, lxviii. 17, 18, and in these scriptures compared, there are two things more particularly expressed.

1. That it is an allusion to the triumphs used among the Gentiles, especially among the Romans, with whom they were in their greatest glory; for in their triumphs, they led at their chariot wheels, their captives, so it is said here in both places, he led captivity captive. And

2. The GSth Psalm speaks of the thousand chariots. Who also were the spectators afore-mentioned, ver. 17. The chariots of God, which God commanded to wait upon him at his Ascension, (verse IS) are twenty thousand; The chariot* of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, the Lord is among them, ax in Sinai, the holy place.

You see then how expressly he speaks of the angels who were his chariots, which he rode up in, and accompanied him, and he in the midst of them.

When he came down to Mount Sinai to give the law, then thousands of angels did accompany him, for it was the law given by the angels. And so those were the spectators of this triumph, and what now is wanting to make it a visible triumph, not to faith only, but the angels.

And further to carry on the allusion to a triumph, as they had their mlmlla scattered among the people, so of Christ it is said, when he thus triumphed, that he gave gilts unto wen.

O O */

Thus David being a prophet, and foreseeing things as they fell out concerning Christ, (as Acts i 30) spoke before (verse 31) both of the crucifixion of Christ, (which was a death common to the Romans, or at least to be brought in among the Jews with the Human conquerors, and not known before unto the Jews); and also of the triumph of his ascension under the similitude of a complete Roman triumph, as their stories have transmitted the manner of them down to us.

Now the difference of these two victories, the one at his Death on the cross, the other at his Ascension,

is, that in the first Christ, dealt as a Redeemer with i« * F

God as a Judge; cum Deo tanquam cum Judice Redemptor. In the other he dealt, lit Edlator adversus Satanam, as a warrior against Satan. The first conquest was over Satan’s works, weapons, and power, doing that for which God gave them up to him as spoils. The other was over his person, as an evidence God had given all his weapons, and power into his hands.

Well, but when Christ had given him this terrible strappado, haling him up after his chariot wheels, and then letting him fall again, a fall as bad as the first; Christ goes to heaven, and leaves the devil still in the possession of power, still for all he had thus chastised him and had used him as the vilest varlet that ever was, Christ lets him go like a wretch, (though we may not call him so ourselves, yet in relation to Christ, and his usage of him, we may) with possession of all his power as God of this world, ruling in men’s hearts, both elect and others, be cause he is to have another bout with him, and he suffers him to hold his possession still in the world, reserving him for a further victory.

OVER SATAN, SIN, DEATH AND HELL. ‘2 ‘-j