Why the Incarnation? (6)

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3.8

Beginning and ending
Christmas, every believer knows, is the celebration of a new beginning, the beginning of our redemption. In Jesus Christ God became a Man in order that He might destroy death, take away our sins, open to us the path of righteousness, and bring us into the happiness which knowing God affords for all who believe in Jesus Christ.

Christmas marks the beginning of a Kingdom without end and everlasting life with God (Is. 9. 6, 7).

But Christmas also marks an ending – the end of the reign of Satan. When the devil tempted Adam and Eve, and humankind fell into sin, a great insult was done by man against the honor of God. Human beings handed the devil a victory which he indulged for thousands of years – but which could not last forever.

Anselm explained to Boso, “Man being made holy was placed in paradise, as it were in the place of God, between God and the devil, to conquer the devil by not yielding to his temptation, and so to vindicate the honor of God and put the devil to shame, because that man, though weaker and dwelling upon earth, should not sin though tempted by the devil, while the devil, though stronger and in heaven, sinned without any to tempt him. And when man could easily have effected this, he, without compulsion and of his own accord, allowed himself to be brought over to the will of the devil, contrary to the will and honor of God.”

A Man’s victory
This treachery could not be allowed to stand, Anselm insisted: “Decide for yourself if it be not contrary to the honor of God for man to be reconciled to Him, with this calumnious reproach still heaped upon God; unless man first shall have honored God by overcoming the devil, as he dishonored him in yielding to the devil.”

How could the redemptive work of Christ ever be secure and certain apart from the utter defeat of the one who had made that work necessary by his rebellion against God and treachery against the human race?

Further, this had to be a victory achieved by a man, since defeat had come at the hands of men in the first place. Anselm: “Now the victory ought to be of this kind, that, as in strength and immortal vigor, he freely yielded to the devil to sin, and on this account justly incurred the penalty of death; so, in his weakness and mortality, which he had brought upon himself, he should conquer the devil by the pain of death, while wholly avoiding sin.”

God Himself was in no need of coming down from heaven to conquer the devil. He had already done that, expelling the devil from heaven and consigning him to eternal separation from divine happiness and bliss. Rather, Anselm explained, “God demanded that man should conquer the devil, so that he who had offended by sin should atone by holiness. As God owed nothing to the devil but punishment, so man must only make amends by conquering the devil as man had already been conquered by him.”

Such a victory could not be achieved by just any man, Anselm explained; it had to be achieved by a God-Man, the Son of God come to earth in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Total victory!
This is what John meant when he wrote that Jesus Christ appeared at Christmas to destroy the works of the devil. Those works had been introduced by men; they could only be erased by a Man – but not just any man, only the God-Man. At His temptation in the wilderness Jesus bound the devil (Matt. 4.1-11; 12.22-29). On the cross He put the devil to public shame and sent him scurrying (Col. 2.15). Out of the tomb Jesus overcame the devil’s greatest weapon, the fear of death. Now He reigns in glory, and is putting the devil and all His enemies under His feet, until the time when He, the God-Man, shall return in power finally and completely to destroy the devil and His works.

Jesus’ victory over the devil means that we, in His power, may continue in that victory, resisting the devil, growing through temptation, and bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7.1). The devil still stalks about, and he can be dangerous for those who trust in their own power to defeat him. But as we rest in Jesus, and draw on His Word and Spirit, the victory He gained over the devil during His earthly sojourn can be ours, every day of our lives.

This Christmas rejoice in the new beginning we have in Jesus, but rejoice as well in the victory over the devil which Jesus in His Incarnation achieved for us.

Next steps: How would you counsel a new believer to beware of the devil’s attacks and to resist him when necessary? Talk with a Christian friend about this question.

T. M. Moore

We’re taking a 3-week intermission from our series on The Disciplined Life to review three archive series on the meaning of Christmas. This week’s study, Why the Incarnation?, is part 1 of a 3-part series on Christmas, As Advertised, and is available as a free download.

For a fuller explanation of the devil’s defeat, order the book, Satan Bound: A Theology of Evil, from our online store.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.