Andrew S M Clark

We’re in a spiritual battle. This is one of the predominant themes of the entirety of the scriptures, old and new. The battle may sometimes find human expression, but undergirding is the activity of the Satan and his rebellion which seeks to usurp God’s intention to have a people for himself and to restore Eden. Christ has delivered a significant blow to Satan’s plans through Jesus’ death and resurrection by disarming the powers and claiming back the authority that was stolen, which makes it possible for humans to step into Christ and so into freedom.

This battle manifests itself on a number of fronts, of which we must be prepared for and armoured against (Eph 6: 11):

1. The Inner Battle: there is a war that wages, still, against our souls. In the Old Testament, nowhere is this more aptly personified than in Job, who is taken to the very brink, but who still proclaims ‘I know that my redeemer lives.’ In the New Testament, Jesus goes through the inner battle in many places, but particularly in the desert being tempted to go the easy way, in Gethsemane when the temptation is to go the easy way, and on the cross when every force of evil is willing his demise. We may never have to face those extremes, but the temptation is the same – to turn us away from God, to dishonour him, to forsake righteousness and holiness, and to live in defeat. James says ‘submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you’ (Jas 4:7). Peter tells us ‘Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers is throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of suffering’ (1 Pe 5: 9).
2. Resistance to the Gospel: the Good News of the Gospel is bad news for Satan. It reminds him again and again that his days are numbered and that he is defeated. Yet, Satan persists to seek to withdraw glory from God; to pervert the course of the gospel’s spread; and to divert the church through sin or disunity. Why? Because the ‘fullness of the Gentiles‘ – the completion of the great commission – means the end of the game for Satan and his forces. Everyone wants to avoid the day that will lead to their ultimate destruction! Where there is opposition to the gospel, in any form, even when it is expressed humanly, its root is spiritual deception and disruption. The task is to speak truth to lies, and that, ultimately, is what the simple proclamation of the gospel is: that there is a messiah, his name is Jesus, and that through him, God is going to restore all things, not only just individuals who trust in him. We are all caught in the crossfire of the Satan’s envy because God chose humans to have dominion on earth and not him and other spiritual creatures like him. We’re told that ‘the god of this age (Satan) has blinded the eyes of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God’ (2 Cor 4: 4).
3. The Winning of the Nations: closely related to 2, above, is the reclamation of the nations that God is in the process of. The cross reverses Genesis 11 and the scattering of the nations. Jesus victory on the cross, his defeat of Satan, and both the great commission and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is the beginning of God’s plan to reclaim the nations that he scatters at Babel. Here’s the thing, when the nations are scattered, they are apportioned land and a god (an elohim) to rule over them as part of the divorce settlement. The gods did not all act rightly, are duly judged (cf Psalm 82), and condemned to die like men, and who ultimately become idols who demand worship. These are what Paul calls the ‘principalities and powers’ that wage war. The response to these is not to tackle them, but to be aware of them. They, and any minions they employ, are still defeated by reminding them that Christ has the victory, and where their influence impinges on the ground, the gospel and the Word of God is our weapon – the ‘sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God‘, as Paul describes it in Eph 6. Our commission is to go in the authority of Jesus to invite submission to Christ: we’re to hold out the call to obey Christ, to be baptised and become disciples in all the nations (Matt 28: 19). This is our task – we do this as we go, wherever we go – it’s not just the task for ‘missionaries’, we are all the missionaries. But remember, we’re not against people, there are systemic systems of evil injustice, war, crime, hatred, greed and every ugly thing that enslaves humankind – all to prevent the liberation of the people God want’s for himself.

How does this play out in every day life? We might look at the categories above and ask ourselves where we see this at play in our own experience, in our churches, or in our communities, or the nations. Where do these battles currently ‘rage’ in our contexts? Our response is to be clothed in Christ, to be in the Word of God, to be in prayer and intercession, to be messengers of hope and truth, and to alleviate unjust suffering as far as we are able. Not forgetting the shared commission in all the ways that pans out. Teaching children the gospel isn’t a secondary task, it is a liberating, freeing act of spiritual warfare. Baptism isn’t a perfunctory rite, it is a warfare declaration of allegiance to the death and resurrection of Jesus and being alive in him….and so on…

Personally, we want to evaluate the source of the things that tempt us to take the easy route or get out of the battle – sometimes the battle gets fierce, we suffer defeats, we wear the scars, and go through the humiliation and even the suffering. But, we can do all things in Christ who strengthens us (Phil 4:13), so we are told. ‘Greater is he that is in us than which is in the world‘ (1 John 4:4)

And as far as the world goes….well, everyone and their aunt has their pet conspiracy theories, but we must be alert to the movings of the powers of darkness throughout the nations, by a number of means. I often can’t do much about those but pray ‘your Kingdom come, your will be done’ – but that in itself is to raise a fist against the evil injustice and disordering of the world.

When I became a Christian, it was in a Salvation Army context, as I’m sure you’ll know. When I became a ‘solder’, was enrolled and first put on my uniform, we sang a song:

1 In the Army of Jesus we’ve taken our stand
To fight ‘gainst the forces of sin,
To the rescue we go, Satan’s power to o’erthrow,
And his captives to Jesus we’ll win.

Refrain:
I’ll stand for Christ, for Christ alone
Amid the tempest and the storm.
Where Jesus leads I’ll follow on;
I’ll stand, I’ll stand for Christ alone.

2 We go forth not to fight ‘gainst the sinner, but sin;
The lost and the out cast we love;
And the claims of our King we before them will bring
As we urge them his mercy to prove.

3 Jesus pitied our case, and he died for our race,
To save a lost world he was slain;
But he rose and now lives, and his pardon he gives
Unto all who will call on his name.

4 Though our trials be great and God’s enemies strong,
To battle undaunted we go,
For our warfare’s the Lord’s and to him we belong,
In his strength we shall conquer the foe.

Pretty good song if you ask me!

‘For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world, On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedience to Christ‘ (2 Cor 10: 3 – 5). Truth to lies. Gospel to every nation and every creature. From now until Kingdom come.