From the Archives: The Church and the Defeat of Satan

"The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."
-Romans 16:20

From the May 13, 2024 Word From the Pastor:

Beloved Kinney,

I want to point your attention to an important phrase in the sermon passage for this coming Sunday. Romans 16:20 says (to the church in Rome, and by implication, to all local churches, including Kinney), “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”

If you know your Bible well, you know that Paul is alluding to Genesis 3:15 where God said to Satan (who was in the form of a serpent, who had just tempted Adam and Even to sin): “I will put enmity between you [the serpent, Satan] and the woman [Eve], and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise [crush] your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

The first thing to notice is that the offspring of the woman is a man—one man—namely, Jesus Christ. This is the first prediction of the gospel: Jesus would one day come and crush the head of Satan. We know he did that through his death and resurrection.

BUT the connection that Paul makes in Romans 16 to Christ’s work of defeating the devil is FASCINATING and incredibly HOPE-GIVING! Paul says, the church will crush the head of Satan. How? Because of our union with Jesus, we will (with him) crush Satan’s head. We will defeat Satan. This defeat will happen when Jesus comes back. And we will partake in it. 

And Paul says, “This will happen SOON.” What hope!! 

Don’t you long to see the personification of utter evil entirely destroyed? Don’t you hate Satan and his works so much that you just cannot wait until all of his scheming ways and deceitful tactics and joy-stealing strategies and life-taking methods are fully and finally and completely put to an end??? 

That day is coming, and God is going to let you and me partake in that, as we watch (and help!) Jesus bring the final death-blow to the head of the enemy. 

It’s coming. It’s coming soon. Hold onto that hope.

Love,
Pastor Josh