Jesus came to redeem you and me from a lost and sinful life. His death on the cross, and His final breath sealed our fate (if you will) as He raised His voice and shouted…”It is finished!”
“There’s a line that’s been drawn through the ages, on that line stands the old rugged cross;
On that cross a battle is raging, for the gain of man’s soul or his loss.
On one side march the forces of evil, all the demons and devils of hell:
On the other the angels of glory, and they meet on Golgotha’s hill.
The earth shakes with the force of the conflict, and the sun refuses to shine;
For there hangs God’s Son in the balance, and then through the darkness He cries:
‘It is finished!’ The battle is over, it is finished, there’ll be no more war;
It is finished, the end of the conflict, it is finished and Jesus is Lord.
In my heart the battle was raging, not all prisoner’s of war have come home:
They were battle fields of my own making, didn’t know that the war had been won.
Then I heard that the King of the Ages had fought all the battle for me:
And the victory was mine for the claiming, and now, praise His name I am free!
“It is finished!”
This spiritual song was written less than 50 years ago (in 1976) and speaks toward our struggle in this life. We struggle (battle) against the rulers, the powers and the forces of darkness. See Ephesians 6:12…Our fight is not against each other. We don’t compete man to man. We are not in a ‘hand-to-hand’ combat zone. Ladies and gentlemen,our adversary is unseen and he (Satan) is behind our struggles.
We sing the song, “Lord, make us instruments of Your peace…” and rightly so. Our desire is to spread the gospel of peace to a lost and dying world. Wouldn’t it make sense that Satan is doing the same? You don’t need to look past the 6:00 o’clock news to see that his minions are carrying out the work of evil. Sadly, they often do this work unknowingly serving the prince of this world (John 12:31).
So how do I ‘fight’ and unseen foe? With what shall I arm myself before I step onto the battle field against the ‘prince of this world?’ A soldier would be soundly defeated if he walked into battle with only a single-shot, short range pistol. (unless his name was David and his opponent was 9 foot tall.) Any warrior knows that he must be properly prepared to face his enemy (and David WAS well prepared). Without the proper tools he’d surely fail. So what do I ‘put on?’ Stay with Ephesians 6 and you’ll read the answer; the complete armor of God. Know in your heart the victory has been won and fight with faith (there’s a song about that too). As our lead song states in its final verse, ‘…and the victory was mine for the claiming…’. By faith I hope you will claim the victory, because Jesus said it loud and clear, “It is finished!”