Repentance Ruins Everything

The Reason the Son of God Appeared

Sinning from The Beginning

The devil spends years building the castle of sin. He digs moats and builds sharpened stakes surrounding it. He works hard to train the sinner in his own hellish habits. He twists the hooks of sin deeper into a man's life. He is Hell’s version of Samuel’s mother, bringing new and larger irons and fetters to clasp around the sinner’s neck each year as he grows up.

That wicked dragon spends his time setting up signposts on the King's Highway: “Turn away here, there's a shortcut!” He hires all the vendors and entertainment to build Vanity Fair along the narrow path.

The devil spends decades perfecting these machinations: via tempters, via subordinate devils, via the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. 

But one sentence from Christ ruins all his work.

Thy Sins Be Forgiven Thee

One short sentence from Christ: “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5), brings back the one who is even miles down the wrong path. It is one sentence from Christ: "Neither do I condemn you; Go and sin no more" (John 8:11), that tears down the castle of sin that was decades in construction. It is but one sentence from Christ that breaks all the fetters of sin, digs out all the hooks, and unlocks all the prison doors.

This is the truth that infuriated the Pharisees and causes demons to tremble: “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6). Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. He has been coming to do so for a long, long time. But this time, when that roaring lion draws near to the sheep, he finds the Shepherd there, with staff and rod in hand. The Good Shepherd can rip the wandering sheep out of the lions maw, and take the bottom half of the jaw out with it.

What the evil one has spent so much time curating, one word from Christ brings to nothing.

"But say the word..." (Matthew 8:9) 

The Gaderene Swine, by Briton. 1883

The Gadarene demoniac had a legion of demons. He was enslaved to the kingdom of the devil. None could restrain him, and for years, "always, night and day" (Mark 5:5) , he belonged to the darkness. He probably started with one demon, but came to have over 4000 demons in him.

But, there is no contest with the Lord of Glory: the demon-possessed man is thrown at the feet of Christ, and the devils beg the Lord not to be harsh with them. They say, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” (Mark 5:7). Jesus drowns the work of thousands of devils with the swine. 

Take heart, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee. That one sentence is the ruin of the work of thousands of devils. This is one of the reasons we need to confess our sins to God. Satan loses his grip.

“Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

In John's first epistle, he says the reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the evil one. In the context, we see that those "works" are sinful practices. This is the purpose Christ came. To save His people from their sins. To destroy the devil’s deeds. To bind the strong man, and plunder his goods.

Repentance Ruins Everything

The ruin of Satan's works is repentance. Repentance destroys the sandcastle of sin. It kicks it over; it washes it away. Not the repentance itself, but the grace of God at work in repentance. Listen, you who think confession of sin and repentance is below you: Humble repentance is how you can destroy Satan’s kingdom. That is how you destroy the works of the devil.

Starting in our own life of confession of sin and repentance, the Son of God tears down the works of Satan, despite our involvement in them. What mercy! Even though we deserve to be destroyed for our sin, for doing the works of the evil one, for acting as traitors, God offers His pardon to the repentant. Christ took our place, and was pierced for our transgressions. 

“Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Instead of destroying us for being traitors, the Father offers pardon and re-admittance into His kingdom. In His love, He offers to remove our sins from us as far as the East is from the West. His mercy condescends to wash us white as snow, and to free us from our sins by the precious blood of Christ. 

There were two men who stood in the temple praying. One prayed by himself, “Thank you that I'm not like other men: I do all these amazing things,” but around his ankles are the chains of Satan. 

The other man stands far off. He beats his chest. He casts his eyes down; he won’t even look up to heaven, saying, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). He turns, and steps over the broken chains of Satan and walks out the door. Justified. 

This love of Christ to forgive is powerful. The power of His pardon is greater than the power of devils. His forgiveness is more valuable than anything else in this life. That is why Paul says, "I count everything else as rubbish compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ" (Philippians 3:7). To know Him: Because to know Him is to know His pardon. It is to hear Him say,

“Take heart my son, thy sins are forgiven thee.”

The Destruction of Babylon, Salvation of Sinners

Pharaoh spent years and years building up his kingdom, and in ten short plagues, God brings it to nothing, and brings his people out free. Christ, also, has accomplished His exodus. The kingdom that the evil one has spent so much time building: placing the little turrets in the corners of towers, polishing off the idols in the hallways; the Son has taken the keys by the virtue of His death, burial and resurrection, and on His return, God will send His plagues on it. 

John Martin’s Seventh Plague of Egypt, 1823

The day is coming when the immoralities of the devil's kingdom are remembered before God, and He will not forget them. The Lord will send His plagues on Babylon the Great Whore, and the smoke of her burning will go up forever and ever. So He says, 

“Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:5).

But today is the day of salvation. God will forget your sins if you confess and repent of them. He will remember them no more. The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil. That destruction can be now, through faith in Christ with an assurance of pardon. Or, that destruction can be later, when the Son of God comes with fire in His eyes: eyes from which no one can hide themselves. The Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. And He will return, winnowing fork in hand, to clear His threshing floor.

Outside of Christ, we are just another statue in the dismal halls of the prince of darkness. But, in Christ, you can be a pillar in the temple of God.

“The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name” (Revelation 3:12).

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In Christ,

Cody

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