Romans 16:20 Now the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. (Recovery Version)
Through the church God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the rulers and the authorities, and the enemy is subdued (Ephesians 3:10).
God’s creation of man was first for man to be in His image to express Him and second to have His authority to deal with His enemy to represent Him (Genesis 1:26); the church was predestinated for the sonship of God and also was destined to subdue the enemy by making God’s multifarious wisdom known through the church. If there were not such an evil one in the universe, God’s wisdom would not need to be manifested; it is through all the troubles rendered by Satan that God has the opportunity to show forth His wisdom (2 Chronicles 1:10; cf. Colossians 2:2-3). Every damage from Satan is a good opportunity for God to display His wisdom; the more troubles there are, the more opportunities there are to display the Lord’s wisdom. The Lord Jesus told the opposing Jewish religionists, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19); their destroying simply gave the Lord the opportunity to build up something greater than what was destroyed. The built-up church is the goal of God and the target of the enemy (Matthew 16:18; cf. Revelation 1:11-12). The Bible clearly and thoroughly reveals that what God has been doing in past generations, still is doing now, and will be doing in the future is to fully accomplish His sonship in us and to subdue the enemy, to cast out the serpent; this will be done through the church and by the church.As regards the sonship, we are in a process, and as regards the subduing of the enemy, we are in a battle. In the eyes of the Lord and in our experience of living the church life, Satan has already been defeated (John 14:30; 1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14; Romans 16:20). There is no need for us to be sorrowful; we should always be happy and praising the Lord because even a defeat is a preparation for a further victory; ultimately, the Bible, especially the book of Revelation, is a book of victory, not a book of defeat. (2014 Fall ITERO, msg. 2 outline)
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