I’ve heard it said that when Jesus died on the cross, Satan thought that he’d beaten God. It wasn’t until three days later when Jesus rose that it was clear that God had won. This never quite made sense to me. Romans 6:23 says that the “wages of sin is death” so when Jesus died, He paid the price of sin for all of humanity and Satan lost. I never really understood why the resurrection was so important.
Ellen White tells us in the pamphlet The Sufferings of Christ that the people who crucified Christ were not simply acting out of human ignorance but that “Satan was having full control of the minds of his servants…They are actuated by the same Satanic spirit which moves the most vile and hardened wretches” (White, PH169 7.2). The priests and rulers who charged Jesus, the crowds who shouted, “Crucify him!” (Luke 23:11), the soldiers who beat Jesus, they were all being driven by Satan.
I recently heard a pastor say that Satan never intended for Jesus to die on the cross. At first, it sounded like heresy but as he continued, it began to make a lot of sense. Satan did everything he could to make Christ suffer, but he didn’t want Jesus to die that day. Satan understood that if Jesus died in place of mankind, then we, as God’s children, have the opportunity to gain salvation. He wanted to push Christ to His limit, Satan wanted the suffering to be so great that Jesus would give up on us. The problem with Satan’s plan was that Jesus is God and God is love and love is selfless.
Some might say that since Jesus was divine, crucifixion wasn’t a big deal for Him, but we know that it was. The night before, Jesus had prayed saying “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).
Death was not an event that Christ relished, Ellen White writes “The Father’s glory and sustaining presence had been withdrawn from him, and despair pressed its crushing weight of darkness upon him, and forced from his pale and quivering lips the anguished cry. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”” (White, PH169 9.1). Remember, not only did Jesus bear physical pain, but He bore the sins of all human history up until then and thereafter. He bore guilt and separation from His father.
So, Satan was going to make the process as painful as possible. Jesus was whipped and beaten. Already weak, he carried the unbearable weight of His own cross. Jesus was mocked and spat at. Naked, the guards gambled for his garments. Nails pierced His hands and feet. On the cross, his flesh tore on the large nails as He began to slip down the splinter-filled cross. He pulled himself up again and his muscles burned. Fluid began to fill His lungs as His breaths became shorter. All the while, Satan watched hoping, maybe even believing that Jesus would break, not die, but give up on saving humanity.
I think the real kicker was the people who shouted up at Jesus “come down from the cross” (Mark 15:30), “If You are the King of the Jews…save Yourself!” (Luke 23:37). Satan tempted Christ with the fact that at any moment Jesus could have called down angels to save Him. Jesus is God! He could do anything. But He chose to stay there and save the very people who abused Him, He chose to save you and me.
Jesus’s yearning for the pain to stop, for the guilt to subside, for connection to His father, were far outweighed by His yearning to spend eternity with us, his creation. Ellen White says it best “Jesus did not yield up his life till he had accomplished the work which he came to do, and exclaimed with his departing breath, “It is finished.” Satan then was defeated. He knew that his kingdom was lost. Angels rejoiced as the words were uttered, “It is finished.” The great plan of redemption, which was dependent on the death of Christ, had been thus far carried out. And there was joy in Heaven that the sons of Adam could, through a life of obedience, be finally exalted to the throne of God. Oh, what love! What amazing love! That brought the Son of God to earth to be made sin for us, that we might be reconciled to God, and elevated to a life with him in his mansions in glory. Oh! What is man, that such a price should be paid for his redemption!” (White, PH169 12.1).
If God beat Satan at the cross, what is the need for the resurrection? As it turns out, the resurrection was for our benefit; even though Heaven understood what had happened at the cross, the disciples didn’t get it. As far as they could tell, they had just wasted three and a half years of their lives on a saviour who apparently hadn’t saved anyone. Now He was dead. Maybe He was just a fraud, some crazy guy who convinced twelve gullible men that He was the long-awaited Messiah.
But when Jesus rose, they knew that something divine was going on. The empty grave gave Mary hope, Jesus gave clarity of salvation to the apostles on the road to Emmaus and seeing Jesus’s hands made Thomas believe that Jesus was the Messiah. During the time between Jesus’s resurrection and ascension, many people saw Jesus, we received the great commission and the promise of His second coming.
The Bible says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins…But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:17,20). That’s what it all boils down to, Jesus beat Satan in death but He solidified our faith in the resurrection.
Author: Alley Tiller, attends Park Ridge Church QLD.