Man's Greatest Enemy
Can I ask you a question? Who is man’s greatest enemy? (Satan) That’s exactly right! And what does Satan cause us to do? (Sin) Right, and what does sin result in? (Death) The meaning of death is “separation.”
When God made Adam, he put him in a perfect place and gave him everything. He told him he could eat of every tree in the garden except for the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, "In the day you eat of that tree in the middle of the garden you will surely die." With full knowledge of what they were supposed to do, Adam and Eve disobeyed the command of God and ate of that tree. But did Adam die on that day? (No) He didn’t die physically that very day, but did he die in any other way? (Yes) So how did he die? (He died spiritually) What evidence do we have that they died spiritually? (Both Adam and Eve felt shame, tried to hide from God and realised they were naked.) These are the results of the beginning of the process of spiritual separation from God. In man’s eyes it may only seem to be a temporary failure, but in God’s eyes it was as good as complete spiritual death because God’s standard is perfection and if not corrected it would definitely result in eternal separation from God in hell. Their solution to seek to cover their shame was to make clothes of leaves for themselves, but God in his wisdom made clothes of animal skins for them. Isn't leather a much better material than leaves that dry out? We see that the very first sin of man resulted in the death of animals to cover the shame of sin. Blood was shed because of man’s sin. In spite of God’s mercy, only years later did man begin to call upon God. Satan causes sin which results in spiritual death (eternal separation from God) which also results in physical death. Physical death comes to every human being; it cannot be avoided. Having done just one sin, we know we will suffer this death. Spiritual death is also a result of sin, but it can be avoided through our preparation in this life. God told Adam and Eve and the Serpent that one day the offspring of Eve would conquer sin and death. This is the message of all the prophets from then on--preparing the way for 'Isa al-Masih who would be anointed by the Spirit of God to deliver mankind from the punishment of sin. From that day until today man’s greatest enemy has been death. He spends his whole life seeking to put off death as long as possible. But physical death is not man’s greatest enemy; spiritual death is. After man dies physically he cannot alter his spiritual destiny. Physical death seals his spiritual fate. Only while he is physically living, can man receive God’s offer to pass from spiritual death to spiritual life.
To all the prophets God gave sacrifices to cover sin. To Moses he gave very specific commands about this. But these sacrifices had to be done year after year because people continued to sin. The sacrifices of animals only covered sins for a short amount of time. And they could only cover past sins because the validity of the sacrifice depended upon the purity of the high priest. The high priest could only guarantee that he was alive, and therefore pure, for the past year not the coming year. If I was in prison and you went to the judge and offered to bring a sheep to be put in prison in my place, would the judge accept the offer? (NO) But if you said to the judge, “This man is my friend, put me in prison instead of him.” Do you think the judge would accept your offer? (Possibly) History shows us that this has actually happened, because the life of a man is equal to another man’s life. But, is the life of an animal equal to that of man? Absolutely not. So a man was needed to rescue man from his fate of eternal separation from God. But since all men are sinners, where would we get enough men to die in each other's place if all men would be given the opportunity to be saved. One man might be able to take the place of another man, but could he take the place of many men? Many times we hear of a bargain being struck between two parties so that one very important man is let out of prison if a number of other men of “lesser” importance are released at the same time. Sin is the issue that separates us from God. If Jesus was a sinful man, at very most, he could only take the place of one other sinful man. But we know that all men are sinners so a man is needed to die for all men. What kind of man would this be? Wouldn’t a perfect man be needed to be able to die for the sins of the whole world! (Yes) For this reason, the very spirit of God--the very nature and essence of God--took on human flesh and was born into this world. That spirit kept the flesh of Jesus Christ perfect so it was accepted before God as a sacrifice. In a similar way, as an Eid sacrifice is to be without physical blemish, Jesus Christ was without spiritual blemish--he never did one sin or even one small fault. He died physically because he took our sin upon himself--physical death is a result of sin. But then to prove his true spiritual nature and power over death, he victoriously rose from the dead three days later by the power and authority of God. He further proved his acceptance before God by ascending alive into heaven in the presence of many people. As God’s High Priest, Jesus Christ could offer himself as the sacrifice; he could guarantee eternal atonement for sin because he could promise that he would be alive forever, unlike the human priests that went before him.
Before Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, he said that if he departed from this earth it would be better for us. He promised to send his Spirit to be in us. He would send the same Spirit that was in him to dwell in those of us who believed that he had died in our place and took the punishment for our sin. He also promised that this same Spirit would cause us to be resurrected to eternal life on the day of judgment. Since it is HIS Spirit, he will never allow himself to be separated from his own Spirit and will take us to join him on that day of resurrection. Today not only does his Spirit live in those who trust in him for their acceptance before God but he also intercedes for those who trust in him for their acceptance before God. He has been appointed by God to come back to earth at the end of time to gather those who trust on him. He has also been appointed by God to judge the world because he is the only man who has lived a perfect life without sin. In judging the world with absolute justice he will put an end to sin and the devil, man's greatest enemy.
From this we can know that we too, who have sinned, can trust in the death of Jesus Christ in our place, and know that in exchange for the punishment of sin we can have victory over death and can be assured of acceptance before God. We must realise that we cannot trust in our work to make us acceptable to God, we must trust solely in what God has done for us. This can only be received humbly. We must first realise the weight, awfulness and shame of our sin and ask God to forgive us and change us. We do this humbly by taking God at his word and thankfully believing, knowing that we are unworthy of it but realising that God has freely promised it to us and knowing that it is the only way for man to be saved from the punishment of sin that he deserves. After all, we all know that if God were to judge man as his deeds deserved, he wouldn't leave a single person alive on the face of the earth. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." What more could God give us then to give us the sure promise of deliverance from the thing that all mankind, from the beginning on, have been seeking deliverance from? Jesus Christ has proved that he can give us what we need most--eternal life. If Satan is our greatest enemy, and if Jesus Christ really did what he said he would do, then what more do we need, but to trust in what Jesus Christ has done for us and place our faith confidently in his promise of eternal life and his eternal presence with us.
This is also a powerful truth for the realising of peace in the world today. You may have heard the saying, "My enemy’s enemy is my friend." Today there seem to be conflicts all over the world. The reason is Satan, our greatest enemy, has deceived us. He knows that he can’t destroy God, so he tries to convince us that other races, nationalities, or individuals are our worst enemies. He tries to bring shame to God by getting the creatures God has made and loves to hate each other and bring God’s holy name into disrepute. But actually we have seen that Satan himself is our worst enemy. If mankind really understood this, then they would become each other's best friends. Sadly this is not happening. Why? It’s not happening because we have been deceived. We fail to recognize our greatest enemy. Instead of praying against people, we should be praying for people. Instead of killing people, we should be helping people. Instead of hating people, we should be loving people. No doubt evil will continue to the end of the world, but every time we see war, we should realise it is not the ultimate solution to a problem but actually an evidence of the curse of sin upon all mankind.
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