- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE VICTORY OF THE SON.
By G Campbell Morgan.
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work”. (1 John 3 v8).
There can be no question as to the One to whom John referred when he said the Son of God. In all John’s writings it is evident that his eyes are fixed upon the man Jesus. The actual human person of Christ was present in the mind of John whenever he wrote of Him.
One of the most tender and beautiful things in all the story of the life of Jesus is the story of John’s pure human love for Him. The other disciples loved Him, but their love was of a different quality. When John laid his head upon the chest of the Man of Nazareth he heard the beating of the heart of God, the mystic might of Deity. John was supremely conscious of the mystic Word veiled in flesh and shining through it. He is conscious of the human and finds Deity, so that when John comes to write of this One he speaks of Him as the Son of God. He remembers the gentleness of His touch, the love-lit glory of His eyes, but He is the Son of God. In the Man of Nazareth there was the appearance of One who had existed long before.
The enemy is described here as the devil and we read that he is a murderer, a liar, a betrayer and the fountain head of sin, the lawless one. He is a murderer. This consists fundamentally in the destruction of life on its highest level, which is the spiritual. Alienation from God is the devil’s work. It is also death on the level of the mental. Vision which fails to include God is practical blindness. On the physical plane, all disease and pain are ultimately results of sin and are among the works of the devil. These things all lie within the realm of his work as murderer, the destroyer of human life. He is more. He is the liar, and to him is due the extinguishing of light, so that men blunder along the way. All ignorance, all despair, all wandering over the trackless deserts of life, are due to extinction of spiritual light in the mind of people. All ignorance is the result of the clouding of people’s vision of God.
“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (John 17 v3). The proportion in which we know God is the proportion in which we see clearly to the heart of things. The one who brings darkness and has spread his works over the face of all humanity, with all the ignorance and resultant despair, and all the aimless wandering in every realm of life, is the one whom Jesus called a liar from the beginning. The violation of love, as a work of the devil, is seen in the way he entered into the heart of Judas and made him the betrayer. All the avarice you find in the world to-day, and all the jealousy, and all the cruelty are the works of the devil. Finally, he is the supreme sinner. Sin is lawlessness, which does not mean the condition of being without law, but the condition of being against law, breaking law. So that all the wrong done to God in His world, all wrong done by people, all wrong done by people to themselves, are the works of the devil. Death, darkness, hatred, find them where you will, are works of the devil.
The Son of God appeared that He might destroy the works of the devil. The Incarnation was not merely the birth of a child in whom we were to learn the secret of childhood and in whom later we were to see the glories of manhood. All that is true, but it is more. God Himself was planning to destroy the works of the devil. To destroy means to dissolve, to loosen. It is the same word as is used about loosing us from our sins, or more graphically it is the word used in the Acts of the Apostles when we read that the ship was broken to pieces. Jesus appeared to do a work in human history the result of which would be that the works of the devil would lose their power. He came to loosen and dissolve and to destroy death by the gift of life. He appeared to destroy darkness by the gift of light, to destroy hatred by the gift of love. He appeared to destroy lawlessness by the gift of law, to bring the positive which remakes and uplifts. As we see this we see the vision which Christ has bestowed in His gift of life. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God”.
The gift of life was to destroy death. The gift of light always comes out of life. Light means knowledge and hope and guidance, so that there is no more aimless wandering. By bringing light into human life and into the world Jesus has destroyed the works of the devil. He destroyed hatred by His gift of love, and I am not using the word idly as we often do, I am using it in all its rich, spacious, gracious meaning. When writing to the Galatians Paul gives kindness as one of the qualities of love, the doing of small things out of pure love. All these things are things by which the works of the devil are being destroyed. Hatred, avarice, jealousy, selfishness, are destroyed by shedding abroad love which is the warmth of life. He destroys lawlessness by the gift of law, passion for the rights of God and of service to others. We find ourselves in the perfect freedom of becoming the bond-slaves of the infinite Lord of Love.
Twenty centuries ago the Son of God appeared, and during those centuries in the lives of hundreds and thousands He has destroyed the works of the devil, mastered death by the gift of life, cast darkness out by the incoming light, turned the selfishness of avarice and jealousy into love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness meekness and self-control. He has taken hold of lawless men and women and made them into the willing, glad bond-servants of God.
Do not forget the meaning of the Incarnation. Historically it was the invasion of human history by One who snatched the sceptre from the usurper. It was the intrusion of One into human history who dissolved the works of the devil and caused them to break and fail. “How long, O Lord, how long?” is the cry of our hearts to-day. Let us take heart as we look back and know that the victorious One has been active for twenty centuries and is moving towards His return. Still, the works of the devil are obvious, the works of the flesh are clear, but the fruit of the Spirit of life which came through the Advent of Christ is more powerful. All over the world to-day, on many a branch of the Vine of the Father’s planting, the rich clusters of fruit are to be found.
The Incarnation was the coming of One who is Stronger than the strong, armed to destroy the works of the devil in our lives. Are the works of the devil, death, darkness, hatred and rebellion, mastering you? Then I tell you of One who appeared to destroy all such works. I tell you not merely as a theory, but as having the testimony of history attesting to this truth. The forces of Christ have operated and are operating, and the things of evil are loosened and are falling to decay. He appeared to destroy the works of the devil. If you realise that there are things in your life which are wrong, then turn with full purpose of heart to the One who appeared long ago, who in all the power of His gracious victory, will destroy in you all the works of the devil and set you free.
From: ‘The Purposes of The Incarnation’.