The War of All Wars: Already Won

Greater Understanding to Celebrate this Easter

Isaiah 4-6

Surely he has borne our sufferings and carried our sorrows; yet we considered him stricken, and struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities, And the punishment that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, each of us, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The seder is a symbolic meal to commemorate the passage of the Jewish people from a time of bondage to a time of freedom. In Exodus 12, God instructed the Israelites to sacrifice a blemish-free, year-old male lamb before the sun set and then roast and eat the meat with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They were further instructed to take hyssop, a small, bush-like plant in the mint family with purple flowers, dip it in the basin filled with the lamb’s blood and paint the blood on the doorposts of their house. They were to be dressed, ready to leave in haste.

God told them, "For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt." (Exodus 12:12-13).

God further commanded that this Passover day be memorialized and celebrated as a Feast to the Lord throughout all generations as a permanent ordinance.

A post by the Biblical Archaeology Society, describes the Last Supper as a Passover meal:

Three out of four of the canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) agree that the Last Supper was held only after the Jewish holiday had begun. Moreover, one of the best known and painstakingly detailed studies of the Last Supper—Joachim Jeremias’s book The Eucharistic Words of Jesus—lists no fewer than 14 distinct parallels between the Last Supper tradition and the Passover Seder.

There are entire books, sets of books and movies on each element of the last week of Christ’s life before his betrayal, crucifixion, and victorious resurrection....and what His resurrection means to our eternal life with the Father. It’s not possible to address each element here in this short period of time together this evening. But I want to share something with you that we don’t talk about enough as Christians.

In November, 2022, I did a special event series with Pastor Doug van Dorn, author of “Giants: Sons of gods.”  (This is one of my favorite books! After completing our series, he realized there was much more to reveal and penned the 10th Anniversary Edition which has just been released. Find it here. The link to our 4-part audio series on the Giants is here).

In Week 2 of the series, Pastor Doug expanded on the death and resurrection of Jesus, calling it the “greatest story never really told” – I’ve paraphrased part of our conversation here:

Pastor Doug:
One of the most important, yet overlooked messages in all of Christendom is found in oft-sighted Apostles Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell.

The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

(Pastor Doug continues…)

And a lot of people don't understand that magnitude of what this means.

This doesn't mean that Jesus went to Hell to be punished. It literally means that He went down into the place called Hades to proclaim victory over the evil powers of hell and the gods of the underworld, including Satan himself...

Jesus had done everything that the Prophets prophesied would occur and everything the Law demanded be done. The only thing left to do: defeat them on their own grounds and in their form as demons.

What started in Genesis 3:15 ended when Jesus descended into Hades. He declared victory over satan, the demon remains of the Nephelium, the spirits of the Watchers. He then freed the souls that had been captives since the beginning of time. These souls were the Old Testament saints who went to heaven to be with Him.

You see in Luke 16, there seems to be two parts to Hades – a place where some are punished by fire and a place where others simply exist. This is where Lazarus, the beggar, was comforted by Abraham.  That part of Hades was emptied and all who had been held captive were freed.

What started in Genesis 3:15 was ended when Jesus descended to Hell, he paid the penalty for EVERYONE who had previously lived and died on Earth – they were part of satan’s seed (Genesis 3:15). They were held in captivity and couldn’t be freed until the penalty for their sin had been paid.

Jesus conquered death AND set ALL humans free to go with him to Heaven.

When He rose from the dead on the third day, He not only declared victory over sin, but He was also victorious over death AND over Satan!

The disciples understood this. It’s why they began to proclaim that everyone in this world had been born into sin and slavery. People understood that Jesus freed them from the legal bondage of being born here on Earth and into Satan’s kingdom. People could gain freedom for ALL ETERNITY through belief in Jesus. 

If each person turns to Jesus in faith, trusts that He is God made flesh, and knows unequivocally that He has done all that is necessary for us to be saved, we will have freedom from all things, and that includes freedom from the snares of Satan himself.

When Jesus said on the cross, It is finished, He meant it. It’s the greatest story EVER told, the fulfillment of His promise. His victory is not in the future: it has already been done!

Last Sunday, I posted a substack about Abraham and Isaac. When Abraham said to Isaac, “God will provide the sacrifice,” it was prophetic in two ways: 1) a ram was provided for worship instead of killing Isaac and 2) it was a promise that God would provide the final sacrifice through His Son.

I hope you made this story real all week long. Remember what God was willing to do to get His world back that was snared away in the Garden.

People often say, “I’ve read the book, I know God wins in the end.” We need to change that: GOD HAS ALREADY WON through the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Today’s Prayer:

Dear Lord, we know the story well of Your last weeks and days and hours as a human being on this earth. We’ve heard it over and over since we were children, and we commemorate it each year with the rituals that come with Holy Week.

But this year, we are putting more understanding into the celebration of Your descent into hell really accomplished. YOU have already won the War of All Wars: Victory over Satan and his demons and his earthly minions. We have nothing to fear! With Your Word come to life, we will live powerfully, gratefully, and joyfully knowing We are Yours. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for all You have done to solidify our Eternal Life with You. In praise we say, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah – in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!