Calvary - The Battle Ground

Colossians 2:15. And having spoiled principalities and powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it.

The cross, to the eye of reason, is the center of sorrow and the lowest depth of shame. The place where our Lord and Savior suffered and was mocked and numbered with the transgressors.

A deeper woe than what our Savior suffered on that mount cannot be imagined.

Yet, there is another aspect of the cross that has not been so much talked about, yet it should be.

It is a marker of a battlefield where Satan and all his armies fell in defeat and the Lord of Glory rose to victory. A place where Jesus of Nazareth spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it.

A place where with every blow that Satan struck, he lost something.

When Adam fell and lost dominion in the garden, Satan, along with sin and shame turned this world into a place of woe. Chains of death and the yoke of shame and sorrow were heavy on mankind, but God had given a promise.

Isaiah 10:27 said it this way: And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder and his yoke from off thy neck and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

And in the fulness of time the deliverer came forth. The Bible says that in the fulness of time God sent forth his Son, born of a virgin and laid in a manger.

Friend, the battle was already raging.

When Satan knew that his enemy was born, he conspired to put him to death. He gripped the heart of Herod to seek and destroy him.

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Matthew chapter 4, Satan tried to bargain his way out of his fate. He tried temptation and bribery, but Jesus would not fall to these things.

For 33 years Satan sent arrows at him in an attempt to stop his ministry to avoid the coming battle.

Now we are at Calvary and the battle has reached it’s peak. As Jesus is lifted up from the earth, rejected, and alone, an awful clamour is heard throughout the legions of hell as every demonic spirit is called to battle. Onward they come.

Satan’s forces are roaring from their hiding places.

The Lord Jesus says in Psalms 22, Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me. They have gaped upon me with their mouth as a ravening and a roaring lion. Dog’s have compassed me about.

A cry goes out from the leader of the legions of darkness. Fight neither with small or great, save only with the King of Israel.

Death is there upon his pale horse, and with him the darkness that covers the land at midday. A darkness like the one that covered the land of Egypt. A darkness which can be felt.

The battle seems to waver for it is one against many.

Our champion cries out in the heat of battle, "I thirst."

It seems as though our King Jesus is weakening. But look! With every drop of blood that flows down that cross, Satan is suffering loss. The walls of hell are beginning to shake.

The cry from the cross, "It is finished." "I have trodden the wine press alone. The year of my redeemed is come."

The sword of the law could not slay him, for he had not transgressed the law, but fulfulled it. Jesus arose victorious. And listen. This is very important. He divided the spoil. What does that mean? All that Satan had taken captive from man Jesus regained.

As the chastisement fell on him, our peace which had been lost to Satan was then taken from the place where it had been locked away.

As the stripes were laid upon his back, our healing and our health was restored.

Jesus regained what Adam lost, and he didn’t do it for himself, but he did it for you and for me. He divided the spoil for his redeemed.

Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head.

The cross it is a symbol of suffering and shame, but it is also the marker of the battlefield where our Lord defeated the foe of all mankind. It is the place where Satan felt the heel of power placed firmly upon his head.