“Victory over sin and Satan was one of the great purposes for which Christ came: “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
Christ suffered and died as the Priest to offer himself as a sacrifice for sins. At the same time, Christ was also conquering and winning victory as the King. How is it that “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered”? The answer appears in “a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Rev. 5:5–6 ESV).
By picturing salvation as penal substitution, the Passover lamb was a type of Christ’s sacrificial work as our only High Priest. The same type also foreshadowed his victory as King. The Lord said, “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD” (Ex. 12:12). By the Passover plague, God broke the enslaving power of false gods over his people. By Christ, the Passover lamb, God broke the power of sin and Satan over his people.
Peter says, “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet. 1:18–19 ESV). The blood of Christ was the price of victory (Rev. 5:5, 9; 12:11). Christians are no longer to live in sin because they were “bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). Our deliverance “from the power of darkness” is inseparable from our “redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13–14; cf. Eph. 1:7).
Why was Christ’s satisfaction to justice needed to rescue his elect from the Devil? Satan has no right to lead people in rebellion against God. But God justly gave sinners over to the power of sin when they rejected him (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28). The penalty of Adam’s sin and our sins is death (5:12; 6:23). Spiritual death includes hostility against God, so that people are unwilling and unable to submit to his law (8:6–8).
Christ saved his people from the power of evil by paying their debt to God’s justice. Paul says that God has “forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:13–15). Thus, Christ’s victory as King comes from his sacrifice as Priest.
John Eadie said, “Redemption is a work at once of price and power, of expiation and conquest. On the cross was the purchase made; on the cross was the victory gained. The blood that wipes out the sentence was there shed, and the death which was the death-blow of Satan’s kingdom was there endured.”
Christ overcame the Devil by obedience to God. In the fires of suffering, Christ forged a new humanity that obeys the will of God. He pressed his human nature into the deepest submission to God. At Gethsemane, he prayed, “Abba, Father … not what I will, but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36). Christ reigned as King on the cross (John 19:19–21). True kingship begins with ruling oneself (Prov. 16:32). Paul says, “For in that he died, he died unto sin once” (Rom. 6:10). John Murray said, “It is because Christ triumphed over the power of sin in his death that those united to him in his death die to the power of sin (vv. 2, 11).” Christ now imparts by his Spirit the human holiness he perfected in his own human nature. By the Spirit, “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), the mindset of self-denial (Phil. 2:5, 8).
Christ won a perfect victory by his obedience. By his perseverance unto death on the cross, he became “the author and finisher of our faith” and attained glory at God’s right hand (Heb. 12:2). In other words, Christ won the victory by perfecting his own human faith and obedience through trials.
The incarnate Son “learned obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb. 5:8). He experienced obedience by patiently submitting himself to God’s will, though it was extremely hard. By this experience, Christ was “made perfect” (v. 9) as the cause of eternal salvation to his people. That does not mean any sin needed to be removed from him (there was none). Rather, he was “made perfect” by the building of godly maturity and proven character.
God found it fitting, “in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10). The Greek word translated as “captain” means founder or leader of a people. Christ leads a new family (“many sons”) into the “glory” of “the world to come.” He did so by suffering, dying, and being “crowned with glory and honour” to take up dominion over creation (vv. 5–10).
In Christ, we are truly free because he won the victory over all that would oppress us. This victory is the basis of Christian courage. We need not fear. No power of earth or hell can conquer us since Christ died for our sins. The Lamb has overcome!””
–Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Essentials of Reformed Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2025), 440-442.
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