Crushing Satan's Head

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

And there will be war between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed: by him will your head be crushed and by you his foot will be wounded. (Genesis 3:15 BBE)

In my Bible the translators arrange the text in such a way as to indicate a new paragraph starting with the words The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. But the more I think about this in the context the more I believe that it directly relates to the first part of the verse.

The imagery that God uses many times in relating to us how sin will be eliminated is often very violent. As a consequence we too often fall into assumptions that paint God as one who uses force and coercion to get His way. But I have been learning over the past few years that God has the wonderful luxury of not needing to resort to the ways and means of His enemy to accomplish His purposes. He is so infinitely wise and resourceful and His goodness is so effective that He has no need to lower Himself to such activities.

However, in order to communicate with fallen humans in ways that we can relate to and comprehend to some extent, he uses our language and imagery that is subject to misinterpretation if we are not careful to know His heart and be in tune with His Spirit. For I believe that until it is all said and done, the final results may look very much like God causes much of the violence in this great battle, but in fact it is sin itself that brings on and produces all the damage, pain and death that is seen.

In today's verses I see the seeds of this truth once again. Does God crush the head of Satan by overwhelming force and coercion? Does God stoop to fight His battles using the tools of His worst enemy and employing means that in fact would betray a weakness in His original arrangement before sin entered? Does God ever get desperate because He is committed to being consistent in His dealings with His created beings while His enemy gets to constantly shift positions and use deceptions and intrigue to maneuver to get his goals? How does God really go about crushing the head of His enemy without resorting to force and violating other's free will?

I believe that answer is clearly spelled out in the last half of this verse. It is the grace of God as revealed in the life, death and example of Jesus that is the greatest weapon that God uses to overcome evil. Not only will grace and love ultimately come out on top after all of Satan's schemes have been exposed as the frauds that they are, but grace and truth will be the effective inoculation that will prevent sin from ever occurring again throughout eternity.

While I was thinking about this, a verse came to my mind that suddenly takes on new life. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. (Titus 2:11) Salvation is God's answer to the challenge of sin in this universe. But when I took a look at the context of this verse which is verses 9-14, I am amazed at just how it is that grace overcomes sin and crushes the head of the serpent. For this text is right in the middle of a passage of instructions to slaves who have become Christians and how they should act.

Jesus came to earth to show us how to live as a humble servant, not how to make ourselves more powerful or better than others. Jesus came to reveal grace and truth and what that looks like when lived out in a humble human life. And the fact of the matter is that the more this grace is revealed in the lives of all who accept His Spirit and allow His principles to be worked out in their own lives, the more the kingdom of Satan is undermined and draws closer to complete collapse.

The head of the serpent is where all of the ideas and schemes of sin originated and continue to be produced to this day. But God does not counter force with force in trying to neutralize sin in His universe, He reveals grace, forgiveness, compassion and all the attributes of perfection that He has been accused of lacking by Satan. It is the revelation of the glory of God – His character – that crushes all the lies and deceptions that emanate from the head of Satan. And as our hearts become more filled with this same grace and our lives exhibit the perfect beauty and love of our Master, the whole facade that Satan has dreamed up will come crashing down on his own head and all that he was worked for millennia to accomplish will melt into emptiness.

Jesus, I ask for Your grace to be with me today and for all the rest of my life. Cause me to demonstrate Your grace through my words, my spirit, all of my communications and my relationships. Teach me to trust in the power of Your grace to overcome all sin instead of resorting to trying to use force or fear to overcome. Teach me Your ways. I thank You for answering my prayer, for showing me more of Your grace and truth, for providing such a perfect salvation to restore me to wholeness and oneness with You.

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