Jesus has freed us from the cruel tyranny of Satan
3 min • Digitized on January 25, 2022
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 190
By Venerable Louis of Granada
From this miserable slavery the Son of God has delivered us. By the superabundant grace of God we have been redeemed; by the sacrifice of the cross we have been purchased.
Hence the Apostle tells us that “our old man—bur sensual appetite—is crucified with Christ.” [Rom. vi. 6.] By the merits of His crucifixion we have been strengthened to subdue and crucify our enemies, inflicting upon them the suffering which they caused us to endure, and reducing to slavery the tyrants whom we formerly served.
Thus do we verify the words of Isaias: “They shall make them captives that had taken them, and shall subdue their oppressors.” [Isaias xiv. 2.] Before the reign of grace the flesh ruled the spirit and made it the slave of the most depraved desires. But strengthened by grace the spirit rules the flesh and makes it the docile instrument of the noblest deeds.
We find a forcible illustration of this defeat of the power of darkness and the triumph of truth in the example of King Adonibezec, whom the children of Israel put to death after cutting off his fingers and toes. In the midst of his suffering the unhappy king exclaimed: “Seventy kings having their fingers and their toes cut off gathered up the leavings of the meat under my table; as I have done, so God hath requited me.” [Judges i. 7.]
This cruel tyrant is a figure of the prince of this world, who has disabled the children of God by robbing them of the use of their noblest faculties, and thus rendering them powerless to do any good.
Reduced to so helpless a condition, he throws to them from the store of his vile pleasures what are fitly called crumbs, for the gratifications which sin brings are never able to satisfy the appetites of the wicked. See, then, that even of the brutal pleasures for which they bargained with Satan their cruel master will not give them sufficient.
Christ came and by His Passion overcame this enemy and compelled him to endure the same sufferings which he had inflicted on others. He cut off his members—that is, He deprived him of his power and bound him hand and foot. Adonibezec, the Holy Scriptures tell us, suffered death in Jerusalem. In the same city our Saviour died to destroy the tyrant sin.
It was after this great Sacrifice that men learned to conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil. Strengthened by the grace which Christ has purchased for us, neither the pleasures of the world nor the power of Satan can force them to commit a mortal sin.