Focus: Satan Stripped

Text: Col.2:15

"And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

At the cross Christ stripped and spoiled Satan. The cross is more than a divine event and a principle of life; it is a divine instrument of war against all the forces and hierarchy of evil. The cross is also the symbol of total and permanent victory over Satan and all agents of darkness.

Paul is making a sweeping statement that Satan has been stripped and spoiled. Every believer needs to know this and come to terms with it. This means that Satan is no longer as powerful as he claimed to be. After all, he's been stripped and spoiled. 

All he ever had was taken from him by Christ. He has been judged and sentenced to eternal destruction.

Paul tells us that when Christ ascended up on high, he "led captivity captive" (Eph.4:8). By the death of Christ on the cross, Satan was stripped of his pomp and pageantry, and he was also spoiled or disarmed. As far as the believer in Christ is concerned, Satan is defenseless and powerless. By the ascension of Christ, Satan the captor has been captured and paraded in chains. He is forever a loser.

Right now, all Satan does is go about lying and deceiving people. He turns truth into a lie and makes lies look believable and accepted as truth. He prowls like a lion that he is not, looking for human souls to eat as food. He is the predator who preys on souls and devours unsuspecting and indiscernible humans. But the truth remains that he has been reduced to a loser. He fights never to win.

Christ has paraded him as the defeated foe that he is indeed. His eternal defeat has been publicized. His defeat is now a public information. It is no longer a secret that Satan has lost the battle of the ages to Christ on the cross.

If you truly believe in Christ and follow his way, Satan has no power over you. He lacks whatever it takes to win finally and ultimately. Christ has given the right to shut him up and keep him not only down, but also out of your life. He should neither have his way in your life nor hold sway over you in anything that concerns you. In Christ you are more than a victor. You are set free by the truth you know. I join Paul in declaring publicly that Satan has been stripped and spoiled. Amen!!!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter