Human beings are made to reside on earth, which is a branch of God’s kingdom. Man is to rule over the activities of the earth while looking onto God in heaven. God is the King of Heaven and earth. After the creation of man, God empowered him to take charge of the management of the resources on earth. God instructed man to subdue it, be fruitful and replenish it. Man was in complete control and received daily empowerment and blessing from God, who descended daily to fellowship with him.
Man was absolutely obeying God until the devil came in, using the serpent as instrument, to deceive him to disobey God’s instruction. God had instructed that man should not eat the fruit of the tree amid the Garden of Eden.
God was not pleased that man ate the forbidden fruit; so, He pronounced punishment on both the devil and man in Genesis 3:14-19, which states: “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. 15: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.16:
Unto the woman he said, ‘I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.’ 17: And unto Adam he said, ‘because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.’ 18: Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. 19: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Having pronounced these punishments, God turned His back on man and the devil subsequently caged him through sin. Man was wallowing in sin and heading to total destruction because devil had usurped the power of rulership on earth from man.
However, God made a promise to deliver man, saying He will send the seed of man to bruise the head of the serpent. After thousands of years man fell, God sent His Son to earth to restore man to Him and reclaim the lost kingdom. John 3:16-17 says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17: For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
The deliverer God promised came in the person of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to earth and started His ministry in the street of Galilee, calling people to repent. Same way, He has extended his love to us, today, and wants us to understand that the Kingdom of God is near. Jesus Christ called on the people of the earth to come unto Him and He will give them freedom from the bondage of the devil and restful abode in God’s Kingdom. All we need to do is to believe He has come to deliver us from the bondage of sin and to grant us salvation.
In the lead scripture above, it is written that there is no condemnation for the people in Christ Jesus, who no longer walk in flesh, but in the spirit. Christ came and died on our behalf, He took the place of the sinful people of the world and died for all of us, hence whosoever believes in that death on the Cross of Calvary will no longer die as a sinner. Through that death and His resurrection, He defeated the power of sin and death and gave us victory over them.
That is why 1Corinthians 15:55-57 asks: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56: The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57: But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ has given us victory over death, sin, and the Devil because as long as we remain in the Lord, we are victorious. By the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Devil and his agents are defeated. What we need is to claim victory in Christ Jesus at any time we are confronted with danger, sickness and the difficult situations of life. Our Lord Jesus Christ was emphatic in John 10:10-11, when He declared: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 11: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
The Devil is represented here as the thief that came into the Garden of Eden to deceive Adam and Eve to disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit. Owing to this, they died spiritually, but our Lord Jesus Christ has come to revive us spiritually and has given us abundant life. We now walk in the spirit and are spiritually connected to God in heaven. We are now in Christ Jesus and spiritually connected to God in heaven through the Holy Spirit who rules the church. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have victory; we no longer bound to the Devil through sin. We are now alive spiritually in Jesus’ name. Therefore, join us in our victory with Christ by turning away from sin and its consequences.
