Overcoming Our Enemy
Day 355: Revelation 12:1-17
“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testim loved not their lives even unto death.” - Revelation 12:11 ESV
Our reading for today is a timeline roller coaster, and it can be confusing to identify the characters in play. One of the characters that is pretty easy to identify is our enemy. In this passage alone, he is called:
Satan (accuser/adversary)
Devil (slanderer)
Serpent (Genesis 3)
Deceiver (leads the whole world astray)
Dragon (great shimmering serpent)
Wow, this is pretty daunting to think about us having to deal with an enemy who has been at his game for so long. How are we supposed to resist such an opponent that aims to destroy us? (John 10:10)
John makes it clear as he writes how Christians did and will overcome our enemy:
Blood of the Lamb
Word of our testimony
We do not love this life too much that we refuse to lose it.
Jesus “threw down” the Devil and his demons when He shed His blood. This sacrifice allows us to come to Him by faith. When God saves us through Jesus, it produces for us a testimony to share. As we grow in our faith, we will get to the point where dying for Jesus is something we would welcome and see as an honor.
With these three, the Devil cannot cope. Jesus is too strong, and our testimonies of His work among us are irrefutable. Victory is found in Christ alone.
"Unless people are certain that they have been justified through faith (to use Paul’s language, Rom. 5:1), they have no hope of standing up against the devil’s accusations." - Easley, K. H. (1998). Revelation (Vol. 12, p. 212)