Bible Study from June 22, 2020 - Colossians 2:15 (Part 2)

This study begins with a reminder of the eternal blessings coming to us through what Jesus has done personally for us, as described in Colossians 2:13-14 and summarized in Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We then reviewed what we had heard last week, with Old Testament promises of the coming Messiah, our Lord Jesus, and the way He described His coming victory over sin and Satan and death, including a “binding”of Satan. That victory was won at the cross and in Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, and in what is described in Colossians 2:15 as a “disarming” of the Satanic “rulers and authorities.” Jesus put them to open shame, as in an ancient Roman triumph. This is also described in 1 Peter 3:18-19 and 2 Corinthians 2:14-16.

Then we looked at the certainty of this victory and the ultimate destruction of Satan and his forces. The decisive battle has already been won by Jesus (Hebrews 2:14-15). Satan is bound and limited, and even with the real temptations we still face and possibly even more trouble whenever the end times come, the victory is ours as we stay confident in Christ, who is already the “King of kings and Lord of lords.“ See the words in Revelations where the apostle John sees many picture images of the hope we have in Jesus, the victorious Lamb and Word of God. Satan will finally be put away entirely, and there will be perfect peace in eternal life (Revelation 1:4-5, 17:14, 19:11,13,15-16; 20:1-2,7,9-10, and 22:3-5).

This victory of Christ for us is beautifully described in Romans 8:34-39 - nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ. We see it also in 1 Corinthians 15:57-58: the victory of Christ is also ours and we can carry on with our own work in the Lord with confidence in the Lord’s blessings for us. The example that Larry Christiansen uses, of being “under new management“ in the Lord, can be helpful. We don’t owe anything to Satan and do not need to listen to his lies and accusations and temptations when he comes around to bother us.

The victory of Christ over Satanic supernatural powers also gives us strength to deal with superstitions and fears we may have had from childhood and false religious ideas that may trouble us. Read Deuteronomy 18:9-14, for Old Testament warnings about many ways that people can get away from the Lord and into false, misleading ways to try to get help and direction, not from God, but from other sources, where Satanic forces could be at work. Ideas about spirits of the dead and ancestors who can trouble us and ghosts and black cats and evil numbers and on and on can create fear and unrest. Christ has won victory for us. We can take our fears and superstitious ideas to the Lord for His help to overcome them and to avoid places where fears increase.

There is always hope in Christ and His strength for us. Do pray for people, too, who come from cultures or religions or families, where there are high expectations that one must do certain things to keep everyone happy, including dead relatives and spirits, etc. These are real challenges for some, who love and respect family, but have trouble meeting these expectations, when they seem to contradict what the Bible says. The perfect love we have from Christ helps cast out these sorts of fears (1 John 4:16-19) and gives us peace in our perfect Savior (John 14:25-27).

Note: The thoughts about Buddhist ritual come from an article from Pierce Salguero, from Penn State University.