Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Romans 16: 19, 20, NIV.
Dear Heavenly Father and God of our salvation, please help us to know that truth and righteousness will triumph at last. When it does, may we also triumph with it. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today we will conclude our study on this topic. In our first two devotionals we concentrated on the dangers of treading on forbidden ground, and the similitude that exists between our Scripture, and the story of the Fall of humankind.
We will continue to observe the similitude, with the difference, that in this devotional, we will be looking at elements of victory in an otherwise tragic story. When our first parents were created, there was no trace of evil in them; not even in thought! After they sinned, God said,” ‘ “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever” ‘ ” (Genesis 3: 22,NIV). Emphasis provided. I have said on other occasions, regarding this text, that it was never God’s will that human beings should know or experience, evil. We cannot handle evil, it handles us.
The Word of God informs us that at the end of creation week, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (1: 31a, NIV). That is what God had in store for us – only good. This is still His desire for us in the twenty-first century, as expressed in our Scripture for today, “I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. In other words, learn and assimilate all of the good that you can, and shun evil, for as long as you can. Because of this, when evil became a part of our nature, God allowed evil to auto-destruct – death also became a part of our existence to put an end to evil (3: 19).
But thank God, this is not the end of the story. Love found the way to put an end to both evil and death. We read in Genesis 3: 15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This was the first time the Good News of our salvation was preached – by God Himself! A Savior would come and receive the wages of sin on our behalf, and give us instead, the Gift of eternal life in the Person of Jesus Christ!
According to our Scripture for today, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” The victory that was won for us more than two thousand years ago, when Jesus cried out, “It is Finished” and crushed the serpent’s head, will soon be enjoyed by all of God’s children. Let us stay off of forbidden ground, and get ready to meet the Lord!