I thought I’d start Part 3 with a high-stakes quiz.
There are only two questions, but your answers will define how you view every struggle in your life:
(1) Has Satan been decisively defeated?
(2) Do Christians still have to contend with his schemes?
Scripture offers a paradoxical “Yes” to both. Here, we’ll explore how a defeated enemy can still be a deadly one – and why that reality changes everything about how we pray.
(1) Satan Has Been Defeated by Christ
Scripture affirms that Jesus, through his humiliation and exaltation, defeated Satan and his forces. Consider the following:
Just prior to His sufferings, Jesus frames his mission in this way:
“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” (John 12:31)
Jesus presents the event of his death and resurrection as the means by which Satan, the ruler of this world, will be driven out.
Christ dethrones Satan.
Following this line of thought, the writer of Hebrews explains that Jesus shared in our humanity “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14). In other words, the cross of Christ was the means by which Satan, the one who wields the power of death, was decisively defeated.
Paul reiterates this to the Colossians, explaining that Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 2:15).
(2) Christians Still Have to Contend with Satan – Through Prayer
Yet, this same Paul who affirmed that Satan has been defeated through Christ, also calls us to “stand againstthe schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). In case we thought that we were fighting against human opponents of the gospel, Paul writes “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, againstthe cosmic powers overthis present darkness, againstthe spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) Paul is clear about who the enemy is.
This is startling coming from Paul, since it is this very Paul who experienced the worst of human institutions and the very worst human condition (2 Corinthians 11:23–27):
- From Roman authorities “imprisonments” and “countless beatings”;
- At “the hands of the Jews” he was lashed thirty-nine strokes on five occasions;
- From “Gentiles” and “false brothers,” constant danger.
Despite seeing the very worst of humanity, Paul recognized that the true fight was against satanic forces.
But how do we fight?
Paul highlights a list of ways we can stand our ground in Ephesians 6:10-20. Ultimately, he concludes in v18 that to contend against Satan involves, “prayingat all timesin the Spirit,with all prayer and supplication… makingsupplication for all the saints”. For Paul, prayer is indispensable in the fight against Satan.
Paul did not invent this link between prayer and spiritual warfare; our Lord himself exemplified it. Jesus taught that prayerful dependence on God is vital for resisting the enemy. He taught that spiritual warfare is an inseparable part of prayer when he told us to pray, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). At the most crucial moment of his own struggle, he reiterated: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Matthew 26:41).
He further taught that prayer was not merely to guard the individual, but a means to preserve the community: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you… but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:31–32). Following in Christ’s footsteps, Paul called the Ephesian Christians to make “supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).[1]
Yet, this leaves the initial rhetorical question unanswered: If Satan has been defeated, pray for what?! Perhaps a French Lutheran theologian by the name of Oscar Cullmann (1902–1999) can help us.
Between D-Day and V-Day
In his seminal book Christ and Time, Cullmann explained the already and not yet tension:[2]
On June 6, 1944, the Allies successfully landed in France, penetrating Nazi Germany’s “impenetrable” fortress. This was the decisive event that made Allied victory inevitable. It was D-Day, the day that effectively won the war.
Yet, even though the war’s outcome was decided on that day, victory was not fully experienced or celebrated until V-Day(May 8, 1945). The fighting only stopped once the surrender was finalized.
In between D-Day and V-Day, Europe was anything but peaceful. Brutal battles were fought. A stubborn Hitler would refuse to throw in the towel, inflicting blow upon blow on those who would oppose the falling Nazi regime. His time was running out but he fought all the more violently.
To those on the ground the battle was still red hot.
Cullmann explains that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was the spiritual D-Day – it was the decisive event that fundamentally defeated Satan.
Yet, while D-Day has passed, we are still await V-Day – that is, Christ’s second coming.
On that day, the victory won will be fully realized, and only then will the war officially end.
In between D-Day and V-Day, our world is anything but peaceful. Even though God has put “everything in subjection” to Christ, at “present,we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.” (Hebrews 2:8) The battle is still red hot and believers still experience Satan’s “great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Revelation 12:12)
In between D-Day and V-Day, Satan has real influence:
- The “whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).
- He blinds the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4), which is why evangelism can never do without prayer.
- He seeks to devour believers (1 Peter 5:8).
- The great apostle himself described “a messenger of Satan” sent to harass him (2 Corinthians 12:7).
Contending in Prayer
If our distorted beliefs about evil can sap our desire for prayer, then understanding the already and not yet reality should reignite it. We contend in prayer for ourselves and “all the saints” because the battle remains red hot. Temptations press in from every side, persecution is widespread, and false gospels abound. This reality compels us to “pray at all times in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18).
However, we must close with a caution: even as we contend, let us remember that Satan is not an equal and opposite power to God.
- The Father alone holds ultimate authority; Satan’s power is permitted and limited (Job 1:6–12; Luke 22:31).[3]
- The Son has already secured the decisive victory.
- The Spirit who indwells us is greater than any force in the world (1 John 4:4).
Therefore, we fight on our knees – not with our eyes fixed on Satan, but on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1–2).
[1] Following in the footsteps of Jesus, Paul and the saints of old, we must recover this sense that we are the Church Militant. (God-willing, we will explore this classic term more when we look at “What is the Church?” in our sermon series in June.) Our practice of prayer is one crucial aspect of this. The reason we need to give special attention to this is that our socioeconomic setting in comfortable Singapore makes it hard to imagine that we are at war.
[2] There isn’t space to explore this here but the failure to hold the tension between the already and the not yet and overemphasising either at the expense of the other has led to many issues in the Christian Church for the past two millennia.
[3] Likewise, this mind boggling question of why God will permit Satan to have authority is an issue that can be explored another time.
