The Rescue

Persuading our earliest ancestors to turn their backs on God and try to go it on their own was, in Satan’s own mind, a stunning victory. His celebration was short-lived, however, as God, while pronouncing His curse on Satan, made it clear that in the future a MAN would bring utter defeat to him (see Gen. 3:15).

How could this be? Satan, although confident that no mere man could defeat him, was not reckless enough to disregard God’s words. So the Enemy watched anxiously for the appearance of this Deliverer. Satan influenced Pharaoh to kill all male Hebrew babies when there was rumour of a deliverer among the Hebrews in Egypt, but he couldn’t stop Moses from entering history. Yet Moses, although a great deliverer, was not the Deliverer. And when in Judea in about 4 BC all the prophecies of the birth of the Deliverer came together, Satan was again present, desperately trying to foil this Advent by influencing Herod to kill all male babies born in the area of Bethlehem. But he failed to kill the Deliverer, Jesus Christ.

But what could this Deliverer actually accomplish, being a mere man? His upbringing was obscure, but when He began His earthly ministry at age 30, it became clear what God was unleashing. The demons knew it first. When Jesus entered the synagogue in Capernaum to proclaim the good news of God’s deliverance of the human race, the demons hanging around there were surprised and terrified. “What’s HE doing here? This is no mere man! This is God the Son!!” (see Mark 1:21-28). To Satan’s dismay, the second Person of the Trinity had taken on humanity, and had come to free the human race from its oppression in the Dominion of Darkness. According to Jesus’ own declarations, this rescue would be accomplished in a way that would be inconceivable to the selfish and rebellious mind of the Enemy. Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself, would selflessly pay the death penalty for our sin by suffering and dying in our place (see Mark 8:31, Isaiah 53). And just as the sin of one man, Adam, sent humanity into a downward spiral away from God, this righteous act of one Man, Jesus Christ, would open the way for all who believe to come back into fellowship with God (see Rom. 5:12-19).

So Jesus Christ knowingly and willingly embraced the Father’s will for His life – that He would be crucified by men and raised by God on the third day. And so it was. In enduring the cross on our behalf and rising on the third day, the just penalty for our sin was paid by God Himself, freeing us from Satan’s oppression and inviting us back into a relationship with God as adopted sons and daughters of the King of the Kingdom of Light.

I say, “inviting” because Jesus’ death and resurrection do not automatically transport everyone from the Dominion of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light. Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf only makes it possible to be saved, just like someone on a sinking ship is only saved if they get into the lifeboat. The door to the Kingdom of Light is now open (see Hebrews 10:19-22), but that door is Jesus Christ alone. In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” There is only one door, one lifeboat, one Saviour, one way to the Father, and that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

So, in the wake of humankind’s fall into the Dominion of Darkness, God devised a rescue plan to spring people from their slavery in Satan’s kingdom by paying their debt, and to bring them into full sonship and daughterhood in the Kingdom of Light. And that plan is a person – Jesus Christ. God’s invitation to ask forgiveness of our sins, receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, and enter into eternal life in His Kingdom is given to all who would accept it (see John 3:16). My prayer is that you have already settled this issue in your heart and received God’s invitation into the Kingdom of Light. If not, why not pray and ask Jesus to come into your life? Time is running out.