Surrendering In Secret

Satan was defeated in Gethsemane. 

Many Christians understand Satan’s defeat as happening when Jesus died on the cross. But the truth is, that Satan was already defeated before a nail ever pierced my Lord’s blessed hand. Oswald Chambers says, “Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world.” The cross was the physical carrying-out of what had already taken place between Christ and the Father the night before in Gethsemane. 

That night, Jesus didn’t wrestle the dragon of Satan. He wrestled the dragon of “self.” He faced the full-force of temptation to acquiesce to His own will. I don’t know the full extent of what Christ experienced that night, but I do know that it was the sinful desire of human autonomy that He overcame. Chambers says, “I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul…Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won.”

The night of Gethsemane, Jesus asked the Father three times to consider His own will: “Let this cup pass from Me.”  Each time He asked, He also acknowledged that the Father’s will looked different from His own: “Yet not as I will, but as You will.” There is a great struggle here that often goes overlooked. A struggle Jesus warns His own disciples about: “Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” That night, Jesus Himself experienced a willing spirit struggling under the weight of fleshly weakness. But the next day, His victory was shown on the cross in full view of the world. 

O Lord, may we allow Your Spirit within us to overcome all temptations of the flesh, especially the temptation to do as we will, rather than what You will. 

(Gal 5:24,25) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit.

(Rom 6:6) We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

(Col 2:13-15 NLT) You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.