10. Jesus Breaks Satan's Chains
Chapter 10 Jesus Breaks Satan’s Chains “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” (1 John 3:8) Jesus Had To Break Satan’s Greatest Power Over Mankind As we’ve seen in the last two chapters, Jesus showed everyone that he had power to overcome two of Satan’s powerful weapons: temptations, and Satan’s army of demons. But he still needed to remove Satan’s greatest power over man—the power of sin and death. That power keeps mankind in slavery to Satan and allows him to rule and reign over mankind as king.
Word Picture: The Bondage Of Sin And Death
Let’s use a word picture here to explain this better: Satan is like a slave master or a prison warden—and the prison is called “death.” Sin is like a rope or chain that binds prisoners’ hands and feet and drags them all the way to prison (Romans 6:16). Satan doesn’t want to lose a single prisoner, so he works very hard to keep people constantly bound or enslaved to all kinds of sin and fear. He keeps people deceived and in fear of witchcraft, sorcery, his demons, and other enemies. But man’s greatest fear is death. Satan constantly uses the fear of death to keep people enslaved to him. And so, if Jesus wanted to defeat Satan and free mankind from slavery to sin and the fear of death, he had to become human and have a flesh and blood body like us in order to break that chain of sin and death that binds all humans. Let’s look at a verse that talks about this:
Hebrews 2:14-15 says: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that ...he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (also Romans 6:17-18; Romans 6:23) Satan Had Tried Many Ways To Defeat Jesus
Jesus and Satan were fierce enemies, so while Jesus was on the earth, Satan had tried many different ways to tempt and defeat him. But no matter what strategy or temptation Satan used, Jesus did not give in to any of the temptations. For 33 years, Jesus lived perfectly and Satan was unsuccessful in defeating him in any way (Hebrews 4:15). Satan could not find one area of weakness. But finally Satan found something that he felt might be a weak spot for Jesus. It was one of Jesus’ friends—someone who was with Jesus all the time. His name was Judas. Satan thought he might be able to use Judas to finally defeat Jesus.
Jesus Chose The Apostles, But Judas Was A Child Of Satan When Jesus chose the 12 apostles, Judas was one of them. When Satan saw this, he must have been very happy, because he knew that Judas wasn’t a true follower of God. Judas was still a follower of Satan and his ways. Satan might have thought that Jesus didn’t really know Judas very well. So he determined to find a way to use Judas some way to defeat Jesus. Judas was the keeper of the money bag for Jesus and the apostles, and sometimes he stole some of the money (John 12:6), so Satan knew that Judas loved money. When Judas gave in to temptations, he had opened the door for Satan to have access into his life. He was allowing Satan to control his thoughts, so Satan hoped that later he could control Judas and use him for his own big plans.
Judas Was Angry About Jesus’ Use Of Money, And He Went To The Chief Priests
Judas followed Jesus as a disciple for about three years. But after 3 years, he got very upset about the way Jesus was using money. After Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, his sister, Mary, came and wanted to thank Jesus, so she poured some perfume on Jesus’ feet and head (Matthew 26:6-13; John 12:1-8). This was very expensive perfume. They could have sold it for 300 pieces of silver, which was equal to a year’s wages—a huge sum of money. Judas and some of the disciples were angry at Mary for “wasting” that kind of money. Judas said it would have been better to sell it and give the money to the poor people, but actually, Judas just wanted to steal some of the money, which is why he was so angry. But Jesus supported Mary and praised her for what she did. Matthew 26:14 says that it was at this time Judas went to the chief priests and said he was willing to hand Jesus over to them for pay. It looks like Judas finally realized that Jesus and his kingdom was not going to make him rich, and so he chose to turn his back on Jesus. At least he would get some money out of the deal.
Satan Entered Judas And He Went To The Chief Priests
Luke 22:2-6 says: “The chief priests and the experts in the law were trying to find some way to execute Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered Judas, the one called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve. He …discussed with the chief priests and officers of the temple guard how he might betray Jesus, handing him over to them. They were delighted and arranged to give him money.” (NET) (also Matthew 26:14-16) Judas Made His Own Choice To Betray Jesus, But He Was Also Following God’s Plan The chief priests were delighted to hear about Judas’ plan. And even though he had talked with them in secret, Jesus knew exactly what Judas was thinking and planning, since Jesus is God. Jesus also knew that Satan was behind the idea too. God knows everything, and he knew from the beginning that Judas would choose to betray Jesus. It’s true that Judas followed his own desires and Satan’s plan, and so God will punish him for it (Matthew 16:14). But God allowed him to do it because it was also part of his plan. He had actually prophesied that this would happen long before it did (Psalms 41:9; John 13:18-26; John 6:70-71). God was allowing these men to fulfill his own plan.
Judas And Satan And The Chief Priests Thought They Could Trick Jesus Do you think Satan knew what God was planning to do at the crucifixion of Jesus? Do you think he knew about the resurrection and all that would happen after Jesus was crucified? No. Satan was only focused on killing Jesus because he thought it was his own idea. Judas had secret talks with the chief priests and they thought Jesus didn’t know about their plan. But Jesus knew everything they were doing. The leaders thought they could sneak up on Jesus when he was unprepared, and capture him and nail him to the cross. But they had no idea that this was God’s plan all along (Acts 2:23; Acts 4:28). If Satan and the priests had known what Jesus would accomplish on the cross, they wouldn’t have done it.
1 Corinthians 2:7-8 says: “...we speak the wisdom of God,hiddenin amystery… None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (NET) Satan Didn’t Know What Christ’s Death Would Accomplish
These verses in 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 show us that Satan, along with all the other rulers, including the chief priests, didn’t know that Jesus would die for the purpose of saving mankind. They thought that Jesus had just come to start a new kingdom. They had heard John the Baptist and Jesus talk about his kingdom coming soon, so Satan thought Jesus had come to be the king of the world. And that is true—God had prophesied in the Old Testament that he would establish his kingdom on the earth with King David’s heir on the throne. Jesus was that king. But God also planned for something else to come first, and that part was hidden from Satan. The part that was hidden was salvation through the cross and the coming church. The Bible calls it a “mystery” because it was a hidden secret.
Satan Didn’t Believe Jesus Had The Power To Become A King
Jesus had talked a lot about the kingdom, but it seems that Satan didn’t believe Jesus had enough power and influence to actually become a king. Most kings in those days were strong warriors and needed the power of large armies to become kings by force. But Jesus wasn’t like that. He didn’t gather an army to fight the Romans. Jesus was just a gentle, gracious religious leader in Satan’s eyes.
Satan used his influence to convince the leaders of the Jews to hate Jesus. They didn’t want Jesus to be their king—they wanted to kill him instead. So it looks like Satan thought he was winning—and that God’s plan to set up a new king was failing. Satan probably thought that Jesus didn’t have enough political influence or the military power to actually become king and overcome Satan’s powerful kingdom. So he decided to get rid of Jesus by using Judas.
Satan Entered Judas Again At The Mealtime
Satan had already used Judas to make an agreement with the chief priests, so then he just had to wait for a convenient time to hand Jesus over to them when no crowds were around. Satan was watching and waiting. And it wasn’t long until the opportunity came around. Jesus was celebrating the Passover with his disciples. There were no crowds around—just the apostles now.
They were eating the meal together around the table and were busy talking, but Judas’ thoughts were somewhere else. He knew this was a good time to go to the priests, but he needed an excuse to get away. Besides, the conversation was getting really uncomfortable, talking about betrayal. Jesus handed Judas a piece of bread and told him to do something quickly. It really didn’t matter what was said, because Judas’ mind was probably already made up: he was ready to get out of that room. It was the perfect time to slip away, and Satan came and took control of Judas. It was time to go.
John 13:27-30 says: “…after Judas took the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "What you are about to do, do quickly." (Now none of those present at the table understood why Jesus said this to Judas. Some thought that, because Judas had the money box, Jesus was telling him to buy whatever they needed for the feast, or to give something to the poor.) Judas took the piece of bread and went out immediately. (Now it was night.)” (NET) The apostles didn’t know what Judas was going to do, but Jesus knew exactly what Satan and Judas were doing.
Jesus Told The Disciples About The Cross, But He Hid His Plan From Satan In the days leading up to the cross, Jesus told the disciples what was coming and also even showed them from the Scriptures that God had prophesied about the cross. But they didn’t understand. Nor did Satan. Even though Jesus talked about his death to the disciples, he was able to somehow hide his plan from Satan. We don’t know if Satan was present when Jesus told the disciples, but Satan isn’t omnipresent like God, so he doesn’t hear or see everything. And also, God can easily keep him from knowing certain things. Satan is not all-knowing. 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 makes it clear that Satan and the other rulers of the earth didn’t know what purpose God had in mind for the cross. It was a mystery until he revealed it later.
Satan Wanted To Control Judas Himself In the examples above (Luke 22:3 and John 13:27) Satan himself entered Judas. But as we have seen in other passages, Satan normally used other demons to do that sort of work for him. So why would Satan enter Judas himself this time rather than use another demon? It looks like he probably wanted full control of the operation and to make sure the job was done right, so he entered Judas himself. In the Bible we only see two examples of Satan entering a person: Judas and probably the antichrist during the last days. So we can see that Satan must have thought that getting Jesus crucified was an extremely important job. Satan didn’t want another demon to mess it up, so he did it himself.
Satan And Judas Arranged To Have Jesus Arrested
After Satan entered Judas, he directed him to go straight to the temple rulers, and they ordered soldiers to go immediately and arrest Jesus. Judas led them to where Jesus was and they arrested him and then quickly tried him in a phony court session in the middle of the night. False witnesses were arranged to tell lies about him there, but Jesus didn’t bother to answer them. He could have easily disputed their lies and even done a miracle in order to escape. He’d done it before, but this time he didn’t. He stood there silently and let them talk. After trying and sentencing him falsely, they took him away and tortured him with beatings, whippings and a crown of thorns on his head. They had no mercy on him.
Satan Was Thrilled To Humiliate Jesus And Have Him Suffer And Die On The Cross When the soldiers beat and whipped and humiliated Jesus, Satan must have been extremely happy to see him bear so much pain. He probably put many of those evil thoughts in the minds of the soldiers as they tortured Jesus. Remember, Satan is aterrorist—the worst one that ever existed. And when they finally nailed Jesus to the cross and hung him up to die in humility, Satan must have been overjoyed. He must have thought that this human being that God had sent to become a king had failed in trying to become king and now he was dying a shameful death—just like an evil criminal. Satan thought he had won. But instead, we see that one of God’s ancient prophecies was being fulfilled: The snake would strike the heel of the promised one (Genesis 3:15).
Satan Thought He Had Won, But He Was Actually Helping To Defeat Himself
Satan thought he had defeated Jesus, but it wasn’t long before he realized that he himself was the one who was actually defeated. When Jesus rose from the dead, Satan must have wondered what on earth just happened. Then he probably remembered that ancient prophecy God made in the garden of Eden—the prophecy that said that the serpent would attack the heel of the promised one, but that his heel would strike the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). The head of the serpent is a picture of Satan’s power. And when Jesus rose from the dead, it was a deadly blow to Satan’s power. Satan must have been totally surprised. He thought Jesus was finished, but here he was—very much alive again! And he had a new body that would never die again. When Satan planned the death of Jesus, he didn’t realize that he was actually planning his own defeat. God was using Satan to accomplish his own plan and Satan didn’t even know it.
Jesus’ Death And Resurrection Broke Open The Prison Gates Of Death
After his death on the cross, Jesus didn’t remain in the grave. He rose again! It’s very important to understand exactly what Jesus did there for mankind. He didn’t die and rise again for himself. He died to pay for the sins of the world! Since he was innocent, he could pay the sin debt for others—for all of mankind. And he rose again so that others could also rise again to be free from the power of death. So now sin has lost its ability to rule over us. When we believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ on our behalf we are freed from the enslavement of Satan’s chains!! When the giant stone was rolled away from Jesus’ grave and Jesus rose up and came out of that tomb, it was like a beautiful picture of the prison door of death being opened wide and the chains of sin and death that had bound mankind being broken. God also gave another good visual picture of what just happened as a result of Jesus’ death and resurrection:
Matthew 27:51-53 : “…The earth shook and the rocks were split apart…tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had died were raised. (They came out of the tombs after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many…)” (NET) Jesus’ Triumph In Bible times, when a king or army general conquered another city, he marched into that city and took away all the enemy’s weapons, and their conquered king couldn’t do anything about it. Then while that conquered king was watching, the new king could also open the prison doors and free all the prisoners that the previous king had made into slaves. Then he would take them all home to their own land. When they arrived they would have a great celebration parade called a Triumph. Their enemies were destroyed and some of the captives could be set free and become citizens of their new country. In a similar way, when Jesus raised these first dead believers from the grave, it was like a triumphant parade in front of Satan. He was showing Satan that he had been conquered, and death would no longer hold mankind forever (Colossians 2:15; Ephesians 4:8).
Jesus Was The First Man To Defeat Death
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 says: “…Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits…” (NET)
Jesus is called the “firstfruits” here, which means he is the first of many more people to come. Many more of his people will be resurrected.
Colossians 1:18 also says that Christ was: “...thefirstbornfrom among the dead...”
Jesus Used Satan To Conquer Death
Jesus was the beginning of a new family—those who conquer death by faith in Jesus. He was the one who opened the door of Satan’s prison of death and he allowed others to go free (Matthew 27:50-53). And the remarkable thing is that he used Satan to be involved!
Satan thought he had defeated Jesus, but in God’s amazing plan, Satan had actually aided in his own defeat by helping conquer death. The nails that Satan meant for Jesus actually became like nails in Satan’s own coffin, so to speak. I’m sure this made Satan extremely angry when he realized it. The Cross Canceled Our Certificate Of Debt And Disarmed Satan’s Hold On Us In ancient times when someone was in debt, the creditor often wrote a document or certificate of indebtedness which specified the details of the debt (e.g. Luke 16:5-7). Later, when the debt was paid in full, they would write “It is finished” across the certificate in order to prove the debt was cancelled and no more money was owed. Then it could be nailed up on a post in a public area to show everyone that the debtor was totally free of debt. In a similar way, Jesus allowed our “debt of sin” (death) to be nailed to the cross along with him. In this way he cancelled our debt of sin and publicly displayed to the world that our debt was paid in full by Christ’s death, and he had disarmed Satan and his demons of any accusations they could make against us. For those of us who believe in Christ’s death for us, Satan can no longer accuse us and say that we are guilty, because our guilt and sin debt was publicly nailed to the cross with Christ. In this way Christ triumphed over Satan for everyone to see. Satan tried to shame Christ publicly on the cross, but instead now Satan is put to open shame by the cross. This death on the cross became a public triumph over Satan.
Colossians 2:13-15 says: “When you were dead in your sins ...God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, havingcanceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away,nailing it to the cross.And havingdisarmed the powers and authorities,he made apublic spectacleof them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Jesus disarmed Satan’s powers and authorities, and made a public spectacle of them—on the cross. He triumphed over sin and death—the power which Satan used to enslave us. It was like Christ broke down the prison doors of sin and death and took away the jailer’s weapons, and loosed the chains and now we are free to leave that prison if we want to. All those prisoners of Satan who believe in Christ’s death are now free men. The power of sin and death has been conquered and no longer needs to enslave us. And soon, in the end times, Christ will do away with sin and death altogether (Revelation 21:4).
How Weakness Triumphed Over Satan’s Strength
Consider for a moment: what did Jesus use to triumph over Satan’s power? Jesus is all-powerful and so God could have chosen many powerful things to triumph over Satan. But Jesus didn’t form an army to fight Satan. He didn’t send strong angels to get rid of Satan. And he didn’t choose some amazing powerful miracle to triumph over Satan. What was it that conquered Satan? He used things that Satan sees as weakness: humility, submission and death. Jesus humbled himself, submitted to God, and died. All of these seemed like weaknesses to Satan. When Satan tempted Jesus in the desert, Jesus didn’t use power or miracles or angels to beat Satan’s temptations. He humbly submitted to God’s will and obeyed. That’s all. And later, Jesus humbled himself and submitted to God’s will and died on the cross, and that is what defeated Satan. Satan is very proud and doesn’t like to humble himself. For him, humility is just foolishness and a sign of weakness. But humility is what defeated him! Humility and submission are powerful in God’s eyes.
1 Corinthians 1:18 says: “…the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Satan Doesn’t Know Everything That People Are Thinking As we mentioned earlier, the story of the cross shows us again that Satan didn’t know what Jesus was thinking or planning when he was dying on the cross (1 Corinthians 2:7-8). Satan and everyone else thought that Jesus had come in order to be king. But God’s hidden plan was for Jesus to die on the cross first and then become king later. And since Satan didn’t know about God’s hidden plans, he really wanted to see Jesus crucified. Some people think that Satan can know everything we are thinking—like God does. But obviously Satan didn’t know what Jesus (as a human) was thinking. This shows us that Satan can’t know everything we are thinking (1 Corinthians 2:11-12). Yes, Satan and the demons know many things and have the ability to plant thoughts into people’s minds, (Acts 5:3) and even control their bodies if allowed. It’s possible they might even be able to know some of our thoughts, but they don’t know everything like God does, because God has limited them. And Satan is especially limited because he can’t be with everyone at the same time.
Satan Didn’t Know Nebuchadnezzar’s Thoughts
Another example of Satan’s limitations from the Old Testament is King Nebuchadnezzar. During the time of Daniel the prophet, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and wanted to know the meaning of it, so he called for his magicians and sorcerers—but the king didn’t tell them what his dream was. He expected all these wise men to ask the spirits what the dream was and then explain it to him. But they could not do it. These wise men depended on demons and Satan’s power to help them, but Satan couldn’t help at all. He didn’t know the king’s thoughts and dreams. But God did reveal it all to Daniel.
Daniel 2:27-28 says: “Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these...”
Only God knows all people’s hidden thoughts, so he could help Daniel know what the king’s dream was. It’s true that Satan and the demons do know many more things than humans do, but they didn’t know what Nebuchadnezzar was thinking or dreaming. They know lots of things about us too, but they don’t know everything. Only God is omniscient, and they are not God! The Demons Watch Us 1 Peter 1:12 says: “…Even angels long to look into these things.”
We’ve looked at this verse before. It shows us that the angels don’t know everything—so they have a strong desire to learn more new things. So most likely the demons do also. They can observe and study many things to learn more. It seems that if Satan and the demons want to know what we’re thinking or planning, they would have to be near us in order to learn about us. They don’t know everything like God does. God is everywhere all the time (omnipresent) and he knows everything about us (omniscient), but the demons can only be at one place at a time and so they are much more limited than God.
Satan and the demons have been around for thousands of years so they have learned many things about people. They are much smarter than we are, but they still have much to learn. They can start studying us when we’re still children and listen to everything we say and learn so much about us. They can study our ways and customs—our habits, or things we do in secret, when no one else is around to see us. If they follow us, they can notice what we talk about or what types of things we like to look at, and find out what our weaknesses are—or what easily tempts us to sin. Satan probably did that with Judas so Satan saw that Judas liked to secretly steal money. He knew that Judas was tempted by money, so that’s what he used to tempt him (Luke 22:2-6).
Demons Don’t Have A Mouth But They Can Talk To Us
Satan and his fallen angels are much different than us humans. They don’t have bodies like our bodies. They don’t have human eyes, but they can still see us somehow. They don’t have human ears, but they can hear us speak. They don’t need a human mouth to talk to us—instead they can speak directly into our thoughts (Acts 5:3) and possibly hear some of our thoughts too. However, since Satan and the demons are not omnipresent like God, they cannot talk to us all the time. But God does watch out for us believers all the time. If Satan wants to tempt us, God must first allow it (Luke 22:31). God is like a protective wall that surrounds us believers.
God Did Not Deceive Satan—Satan Deceived Himself
Here’s another thing to consider. Just because Satan didn’t know what Jesus was planning to do on the cross, we should never think that God deceived or lied to Satan when he hid what Jesus was going to do on the cross. God can not lie. He only tells the truth. But God didn’t reveal the purpose of the cross to Satan ahead of time, and what would be accomplished there, so Satan ended up deceiving himself. He didn’t know that Jesus’ death on the cross would fulfill God’s plan and pay for sins. He only wanted to kill Jesus. So that is how God used Satan to defeat himself when Satan went into Judas and put Jesus on the cross. This shows us again that God’s wisdom far exceeds Satan’s wisdom. Satan doesn’t know everything—but God does. He knows everything about Satan and his plans, so he is able to use Satan against himself.
Summary:
God Uses The “Jailer” To Help Free The Prisoners
Jesus used humility to defeat Satan’s pride.
Jesus as a human defeated a powerful angel.
Jesus used his enemy to defeat himself.
Satan tried to deceive and trick Jesus but ended up tricking himself.
Satan tried to harm mankind by killing their king, but he ended up helping mankind.
Only God has all wisdom and knowledge, so he is even able to use a powerful spirit like Satan against himself. God even uses this enemy to help us! Satan—“the spiritual jailer”—who imprisoned all mankind, was used by God to help break open the “prison doors” and loosen the chains of sin and death that bound us! God is all-powerful and all-knowing and there is no man or spirit who can triumph over him (Php 2:5-10; 1 Peter 3:22).
Colossians 2:15 says: “...having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Summary Of Last Three Chapters In these last 3 chapters, we have seen 3 ways in which Jesus defeated the powers of Satan:
Chapter 8 - Jesus Breaks Satan’s Spear (of temptations)
Chapter 9 - Jesus Breaks Through Satan’s Army (of demons)
Chapter 10 - Jesus Breaks Satan’s Chains (of sin and death)
In this next chapter we will see another very important way in which Jesus defeated the power of Satan and his rule over mankind:
Chapter 11 - Jesus breaks the family link to Adam (and creates a new human family.)