Day 166: Luke 11:14–23

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his estate, his possessions are secure. But when one stronger than he attacks and overpowers him, he takes from him all his weapons he trusted in, and divides up his plunder (vv. 21–22).

Just as God is possessive over His holy house, you can be sure Satan is possessive over his unholy house. Therefore, we can’t help but deal with the reality of Luke 11:21, assuming that he is the “strong man” in Jesus’ parable. But thank God we have verse 22 to follow it up, where we learn some valuable things about our Jesus, our One and Only:

1. Satan may be strong, but Christ is “stronger.” We are wise neither to overestimate nor underestimate Satan’s power. But even though we are no match for him, he is no match for God. We may be at war with a very powerful enemy, but we who are in Christ are at peace with a far more powerful God. As Paul taught, we can now take our stand against the enemy because we are “strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (Eph. 6:10).

2. Christ will attack and overcome Satan. Satan is a defeated foe. The defeating blows actually came through a hammer on the nails of the cross. Christ finished the work when He willingly gave His life for our sins. So God is now biding His time until His kingdom calendar has been accomplished and all who will receive His salvation are redeemed. Then one day, God’s finger is going to point right at the strong man, and Satan is going to wish he’d never existed.

3. Our someone stronger is going to take away Satan’s armor and divide up the spoils. Do you know what this means to us? Jesus Christ is going to take back what Satan has stolen from us! And not all the spoils have to wait until we’re in heaven!

I can readily cite a personal example. Even though Satan stole many things from me through my childhood victimization, I am finally ready to say that God has given me back more than my enemy took. The enemy has fought against me with his weapons of shame, secrecy, and deception, but the plunder my Lord has won back for me has finally tipped the scale. Through the many response letters I’ve received from my book Breaking Free: Making Liberty in Christ a Reality in Life, I believe I can now say that the grace gift of seeing others helped through the power of the Holy Spirit has begun to outweigh the many years of pain that resulted from the abuse. The strong man may have put up a good fight, but his fight was no match for my stronger Man’s muscle.