Satan’s Attempt to Keep Christ from the Cross -- By: Willard Maxwell Aldrich

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 102:408 (Oct 1945)
Article: Satan’s Attempt to Keep Christ from the Cross
Author: Willard Maxwell Aldrich


Satan’s Attempt to Keep Christ from the Cross

Willard Maxwell Aldrich

“You mean to tell me that the Devil tried to keep Christ from dying on the cross?”

“Just that, and here’s the reason why.”

From the day God created man Satan sought to win from God his allegiance and worship. By subtlety and deceit he succeeded in persuading the creature to rebel against the Creator, and thus he began to establish the kingdom of darkness of which he is prince.

Satan’s success in making man a rebel and a sinner could not be turned to defeat by physical force, or else God’s omnipotence would have long ago routed the forces of evil. Satan’s power must be broken, man forgiven and won back to God by moral means harmonious with the character of God and the free will of man.

Satan controls men (Eph 2:1, 2), and that control must be shattered. Satan held men captive in the prison house of death (Eph 4:8; Isa 14:17; Heb 2:14, 15), and their release had to be effected. Man became a rebel against God. Sin, the cause of his alienation, had to be removed and man reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:19).

As soon as sin entered the world, God announced that His own Son, the virgin-born Seed of the woman, would engage Satan in a pitched battle over sin and bring him to defeat (Gen 3:15). Later, the lineage of Christ was prophesied. He was to be of the seed of Abraham and of the tribe of Judah and of the house of David.

In the ages preceding the first advent of Christ Satan repeatedly tried to prevent the coming of Christ through the promised line by attempting to blot out the line of the Seed. Moreover, the wonderful truth of the incarnation was counterfeited by Satan in the mystery religions of the ancient world, so that unbelieving men could say that the virgin birth was a myth borrowed from other ancient religions.

Following the birth of Jesus Christ, His adversary redoubled his efforts to keep Him from the cross. Either directly or indirectly, he sought to place every obstacle in the way to the cross. Satan inspired King Herod to seek out the Christ child in order to kill Him (Matt 2:13 16–18; Rev 12:4)....

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