REFLECTIONS ON THE CROSS OF CHRIST: Why Did Jesus Die?

Fifty Reasons Jesus Came to Die (an overview of the atonement)

By Reverend Mark Hunnemann

1.to absorb the wrath of God

2.to please His Heavenly Father

3.to learn obedience and be ‘perfected’

4.to achieve His own resurrection from the dead

5.to show the wealth of God’s love and grace for sinners

6. to show His own love for us

7.to cancel the legal demands of the Law against us

8.to become a ransom for many

9.for the forgiveness of our sins

10.to provide the basis of our justification

11.to complete the obedience that becomes our righteousness

12.to take away our condemnation

13.to bring us to faith and keep us faithful

14.to make us holy, blameless, and perfect

15.to give us a clear conscience

16.to obtain for us all things that are good for us.

17.to heal us from moral  and physical sickness

18.to give eternal life to all who believe in Him

19.to deliver us from the present evil age.

20.to reconcile us to God

21.TO BRING US TO GOD

22.so that we might belong to Him

23.to give us confident access to the holiest place

24.to become for us the place where we meet God

25.the Eternal High Priest brings the Old testament Priesthood to an end.

26.to become a sympathetic and helpful High Priest

27.to free us from the futility of our ancestry

28.to free us from slavery to sin

29.that we may die to sin and live to righteousness

30.that we would die bear fruit for God

31.to enable us to live for Christ and not ourselves

32.to make the Cross the ground of all our boasting

33.to enable us to live by faith in Him

34.to give marriage its deepest meaning

35.to create a people passionate for good works

36.to call us to follow His example of costly love and humility

37.to create a band of crucified followers

38.to free us from bondage to fear of death

39.that we should be with Him immediately after death

40.to secure our resurrection from the dead.

41. to disarm the rulers and authorities (Satan/demons)

42.to unleash the power of God in the gospel

43.to destroy hostility between races

44.to ransom people from every tribe, language, people, and nations

45.to gather His sheep from around the world

46.to show that we are not saved by rituals or good works

47.to rescue us from final judgment

48.to gain His joy and ours

49.so that we would be crowned with glory and honor

50.to show that the worst evil is meant by God for good.  (see John Piper, Fifty Reasons Jesus came to Die).

Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.

Satan's Limitations

I'm sure many of us already know that there are limitations that Satan and his demons have on them. They are terrified Jesus Christ because they are truly petrified of being thrown into the lake of fire for eternity before the appointed time. Demons know they do not have the power that Gods Angels do. Satan knows he does not have the same power and wrath that God has. They know they can only do so much.

Satan is not omnipresent

Satan is an individual personality, so he can be in only one place at a time (as seen in Job 1:7). So when we say that the devil is personally tempting us, more than likely it is his power working through his network of demons.

Satan is not omnipotent

Because of this,  many references to Satan or the devil include his whole kingdom. The person of Satan does not personally tempt each of us for he simply cannot do that. Satan must rely on the following agents to carry out his temptation: His Army of demons, the world system which lies under his control, carnal or ignorant Christians he is able to use as he did Peter (Matthew 16:22-23), unbelievers under his influence or domination therefore, he can surely be resisted and made to flee in the name of Jesus Christ. but only by the strength of God all mighty made available to believers in Christ (Ephesians 6:10-18).

Satan is not omniscient
Satan is an angel and angels don’t know everything (1 Peter 1:11-12). There is no indication in Scripture that Satan can really read our thoughts despite it is a common belief. Because he’s an expert on human nature, he’s pretty good at predicting our behavior and can easily tempt and corrupt weak humans.

Satan is not self-existent.

He was created by God . It can even been said that God created and uses Satan to his own ends (2 Corinthians 12:7).

Another one of Satan’s limitations is that he is not allowed to reveal or show himself, being forced to work solely  by secrecy and deceit. He is NOTHING but our vicious enemy to all human souls, but non-appearance is a significant containment of his power. 2 Thess­alonians shows us that Satan must content himself with an appointee, the man of sin, who will appear on his behalf at the end of time, only to be immediately destroyed by the brightness of the coming of Christ.

Satan is now a spiritual vagrant, powerful, yes, with a vast host of fallen angels doing his bidding, but he must tempt us from ‘outside’, and secure our co-operation for everything he wants us to do. He is certainly the prince of this world, but a prince with no palace or rights a dispossessed and a doomed prince. This limiting of Satan is also referred to in the book of Revelation, chapters 12 and 20, the last of these telling us that Satan would be bound during the Christian era so that he would not be able to deceive the nations any more by keeping them in total spiritual darkness. All nations would be penetrated by the Gospel of Christ.

Lying is Satan main weapon against God’s children. He uses the tactic of deceit to separate people from their Heavenly Father. The most common lie is "there is no God,” “God doesn’t care about you,” “the Bible cannot be trusted,” But we must remember the apostle Paul tells us that Satan “masquerades as an angel of light” so that what he says and does sounds good and seems reasonable. Another example would be "familiar spirits" demons masquerading as your past love one in order to get a foothold into your life. Of course they would know exactly what to say that only your grandmother would know and they could appear to look like you're lost and dearly departed. The Bible warns us to "be aware of the familiar spirit"

What makes these demons dangerous Is they are very cunning, and very patient. They lie and manipulate better than the best lawyers and politicians. And they will subtly influence someone for decades if they have to, to gain the coveted result. They have no boundaries of what they will not do to further their own ends. They kill people, they cause severely debilitating illness. They tear families apart, they take all that is good and pure and drag it through the dirt and blood until there is nothing left. They are never to be taken lightly or as a joke. It is not adventurous or romantic or 'cool' to be as hunter. It is dangerous. Not just physically, but spiritually. Whatever they can do to you physically will end, because life is short. But spiritually... the soul is immortal. We who are filled with faith and the Holy Spirit we have nothing to fear,..absolutely not. We all know how this ends and so does the enemy and his network of demons and they know how this all ends. And it isn't good for them. It's only a matter of time.

Here is more great news on his limitations God set forth:

He was casted out of heaven. Isaiah 14:12-14 stipulates: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didn't weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

2. He cannot devise a temptation that is so great that God cannot deliver us from it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Satan is no where near as powerful as God. And he knows this too.

Revelation 20:10; 'And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.'

Written by Jennifer L Auld

Demons vs. You -- You Don't Stand a Chance, Part 4

Continued from: Demons vs. You -- You Don't Stand a Chance, Part 1
Demons vs. You -- You Don't Stand a Chance, Part 2
Demons vs. You -- You Don't Stand a Chance, Part 3

Continuation of this five part series blog I will cover and inform all of the readers on an important aspect in the realm of spiritual warfare.  In this fourth part I continue this discussion regarding why you don’t stand a chance against a demon.  This portion is geared now towards the person who thinks they are walking righteous with God but truly are still holding onto ways of this world.

Now if you’re a serious devoted Christian who is determined to please God with your life, you are a major thorn in the side of the demons and thus they detest you.  Let me be clear on this, demons only care about you because it is God who cares about you.  If God wasn’t emotionally invested in your life they wouldn’t be at all concerned with you.

This is a major aspect as to why demons do what they do.  Do not get caught up with your own silly pride voyages thinking that as humans we are intrinsically threatening to demons.   Truth be known as a species, they (demons) couldn’t care less about us.

For when we commit sin or whatever we do (our flesh) that displeases and makes God groan makes demons giggle with glee.  However, if you are a devoted Christian and walking righteously, you are one of the souls who is bringing God the most joy upon this earth.  Due to your choice to walk righteously which you made, this moves your name up to the top of Satan’s hit list and places a target upon your flesh.

Therefore if Satan can manage to turn you away from God, thus a major score for his kingdom.  Now you are starting to see a clear picture of a spiritual battle taking place.  The Holy Spirit is going to do everything possible to strengthen your devotion to our Heavenly Father and Holy Spirit will use Satan as his pawn to accomplish our Heavenly Father’s agenda.  As I state to all clients which I work with, the will of God is always done whether you approve of it or not!

For all the exaltation which Satan receives about the power Satan has in this world with titles like “the prince of the air”, “the great adversary”. “the lion who devours”, “the serpent” and a slew of other titles.  However, from the perspective viewed by God, Satan is just another pawn being used to edify God.  Therefore this is another reason we should not need to fear Satan when we are staying aligned with God as Satan can do nothing but help us.

The Holy Spirit is always upon our side.  Everything the Holy Spirit does to us is for our own spiritual best and growth.  When we really understand this, it changes how we as humans react to the Holy Spirit allowing demons to come upon or at us.  When we can see the Holy Spirit sliding open that door in front of us and we see our enemies (wolves) racing towards us, we ought to learn to think like in a manner as follows “Okay, this means I’m ready to go to the next level.”  The Holy Spirit is always teaching us and the more we trust this character upon our lives, the more we trust God's methods to teach and draw us closer in relationship with God.

Imagine learning a subject in which you’re very interested in acquiring knowledge.  Being so excited when the teacher starts a brand new chapter in the book the anticipation is nail biting to say the least.  Each time it’s the Holy Spirit who lowers this guard upon us so that we may learn the ways of the Lord.
It is as if the turning of another page in this spiritual teaching manual is occurring and we are to progress forward.  The lesson doesn’t matter even if it’s a lesson we’ve gone over before many times, as every time we review the lesson the principles sink in deeper within us.  The lessons may seem boring at times, but when they impact how we react to Satan’s forces we can rest knowing the Holy Spirit is providing the necessary lesson to be protected.

Whenever demons come at us, the demons know that they have a very limited window of opportunity.  The Holy Spirit will heave them away from us unless the hedge is to remain open from God requesting this.  When this occurs they are not going to waste a moment to come upon us.  The demons want to inflict as much damage as they possibly can, but in many cases, that would be far more than you can physically or mentally handle.  So the Holy Spirit places restrictions on them as instructed by God before the Holy Spirit lets them loose at us.  So to be clear none of us are ever dealing with demons straight on.

So if that was allowed we would be instantly demolished by the demons.  Our enemies, the demons are always working from a handicapped position.  This is not by choice of the demons, but because the Holy Spirit is keeping them on a limited leash.  Thus you might get exhausted hearing Satan constantly harping condemnation in your mind.  Nonetheless, we are to notice that Satan isn’t being allowed to appear in raw form directly in front of you.

Now consider all those creepy and eerie ghost stories we read about in which some person is driven mad by hearing voices and noises that no one else can hear.  Thus Demons can manipulate the physical realm in many strange ways.  Some of the examples of this manipulation are: they have the ability to throw physical objects, twist the laws of physics and create fantastic illusions.  Therefore if you were trapped in one of their “freak” shows you would quickly go insane from watching all of their frightening feats.  Hence one of their aspects they hope to acquire is to take a sane person and turn them insane.

However the Holy Spirit doesn’t let them toy with us to their hearts content so to speak for they have no heart.  Instead the Holy Spirit only allows them to do what works for just in the moment.  As an example if God wants you to practice trust, it is God who instructs to the Holy Spirit to let them come at us with an arsenal of doubt, as the Holy Spirit will block the demons from hitting us in some other area that God has not allowed.

I will continue this series blog regarding demons vs. you as you don’t stand a chance!

Rev. Bradley Luoma