Reaching Down the Throat of Evil

By Steve Wyatt

Bill was walking with his 10-year-old daughter and her small dog. Without warning, a neighbor”s pit bull rushed at his daughter”s dog. Bill quickly lifted his daughter and her pet to the roof of a nearby car, but the pit bull jumped onto the car”s hood and then onto its roof and savagely grabbed the smaller dog by its left hind leg.

Bill saw the pit bull release its powerful jaws in an attempt snap at the neck of the smaller dog, so he reached into the pit bull”s mouth and grabbed its tongue. The dog bit down on Bill”s hand, but Bill stubbornly refused to let go, saying later, “I wasn”t about to let that beast kill my daughter”s dog!”

Finally, after a protracted struggle, the pit bull”s owner rushed in and dragged his vicious dog back home. Bill”s hand was injured, but he became an instant hero in his daughter”s eyes and a savior to that unsuspecting pup.

In that same way, Jesus Christ reached down the throat of evil itself on our behalf. In fact, that”s why he came here in the first place. The Bible says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil”s work” (1 John 3:8).

But didn”t Jesus say he had come to seek and to save?

Of course he did.

And didn”t they call him prince of peace?

You know they did.

And wasn”t his a healing ministry marked by compassion for harassed and helpless people?

It certainly was.

But to say Jesus came to save assumes that something was holding us captive. To say he came to bring peace suggests that chaos ruled the day. And to say he came to heal implies that a sickness was ravaging mankind””a disease Jesus came to extract.

It”s true. Jesus came to bring liberation. But before freedom, there needed to be destruction. And that”s why Jesus reached down evil”s throat””not just temporarily subduing it, but forever destroying it. In Jesus” brutal death and powerful resurrection, our Lord forever defeated the forces of evil.

Remember when the demons asked Jesus if he had come to destroy them (Mark 1:24)?

The answer was so obvious Jesus didn”t even bother to reply. Of course he had! Instead, Jesus said, “Be quiet!” Then, “Come out of him!” (Mark 1:25).

Jesus died on the cross to redeem us and forgive our sin, but he also came to forever break the back of evil. And that”s why we who are in Christ are no longer under evil”s dominion. Because Jesus “gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age” (Galatians 1:4).

Steve Wyatt is lead pastor at The Crossroads Church in Anthem, Arizona.