THE GREAT OVERCOMER
Hidden in plain sight, this verse unveils a wonderful revelation of the person of God Himself. What a glorious revelation it is!
Jesus was speaking to His apostles on the night of His arrest and kangaroo court trial before being crucified. Together the men had eaten Seder, the last true Passover meal before its fulfillment. Jesus took the opportunity to teach them about the soon-coming of the Holy Spirit who would take His place in their hearts and lives after His death, resurrection and ascension to the Father's right hand.
He knew that the severity and injustice of His trial before the Jews and Romans would cause His men to deny knowing HIm. Undoubtedly, His betrayal by Judas, one who had walked with them during Jesus' ministry, would be unexplainable and devastating to them. None suspected the perfidy nursed in Judas' heart, so the kiss on Jesus' cheek and His arrest would totally unnerve them.
For three-and-one-half years Jesus and His small company of men had avoided any scrape with Roman law, until now, suddenly, Jesus was their prisoner! They were not prepared for this! The Man to whom they had given their lives and loyalty was under the domination of the Romans. Jesus spoke comfort to them before it all happened.
In their weakness the apostles did desert Him. They fled. They denied knowing Him. They were mere onlookers at a contrived court that condemned Him to die.
Before Jesus succumbed to such mistreatment and unjust death, He had encouraged the apostles with word of the coming Holy Spirit who would be their peace. He had warned them that in the world they would have tribulation, such as they would witness in His life that very night!
Fear! That's what seized them now! Not peace! Fear! The apostles shrank from their duty to stand with Jesus, not matter what He had told them. "Take courage! Instead, they lied about their relationship with Him, though their dialect gave them away. All were Galileans!
One phrase remains of His encouragement to them: "I have overcome the world." Little did they perceive then what aweful depths of truth about God Himself is wrapped in those words.
Because Jesus transcends time, He could speak of His having overcome the world even before His physical death. It was a truth that originated from before the foundation of the world. It is true today! As our Second Adam, the Son of Man overcame the devil and all his wiles aimed to change believers' faith to sight and instead to serve what we can feel, hear, see and smell. John described "the world" well in his epistle:
In a truth "the world" is idolatry. It makes things, reputation, enjoyment, SIN of any sort something to be worshipped and revered, and substitutes them for revering God supremely. It is the opposite of obeying God and His commandments out of love.
The world is what the serpent offered Eve in the Garden of Eden. Though Genesis does not quote the devil as having said this, Eve pondered what must have been the devil's suggestion:
The pair forfeited their state of innocence and righteousness in exchange for all they thought the world offered. Satan sold them a bill of goods that damned their souls! He also gained rulership over mankind:
What began in the Garden continues to this day. Satan has dominion over this world and its population. He is bent on keeping every soul from finding and knowing God. He does all in his power to prevent the Gospel seed from taking root in peoples' hearts and bearing good fruit. The parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 clarifies that in detail.
Why didn't God snuff out the devil when he sinned, when he raised himself in pride against God? Why did He let the devil tempt Eve in the Garden to allow the fall into sin of the whole human race? In John 16:33, the verse quoted at the beginning, is hidden the clue to the answer.
God, as God, could have destroyed the devil with one stroke of His hand or one utterance of His voice! He created the angels and the glorious universe long before He created the earth, as narrated in Genesis. Lucifer was His most beautiful, talented angel. It is he who determined to be as powerful or more so than God, and, therefore, forfeited his position and standing in heaven. He became God's enemy and has been ever since.
As his creator, God could have destroyed the devil on the spot at the very beginning of his rebellion. He didn't then and hasn't yet. But, why?
A similar parallel appears in the book of Esther. Vashti, the beautiful queen: her name meant 'beautiful,' was so taken by admirers at the dinner party she gave for them that when her husband, King Ahasuerus, summoned her to appear at his party, she refused to go. She went against Persian precedent and law with her refusal: Whoever defied the king met death. We know that because later in the story, Esther feared to appear before his throne without his sending for her first. Death would be her due if he was angry with her appearing there.
Rather than having Vashti put to death, we read that her crown was taken and she was no longer allowed in the king's presence. The king would give her royal position to another. Vashti must have been 'imprisoned' in the king's harem of concubines rather than being put to death. He never summoned her again.
The Bible doesn't explain why the king didn't have Vashti put to death. He could have and perhaps should have, but instead he let her live. It does tell us in detail how he chose Esther to take Vashti's place, though.
Vashti's rebellion against the king seems to have transferred to another character, Haman. He sought to exterminate all the Jews in the kingdom to prevent the coming Second Adam, the Son of Man. Similarly, the devil transferred his power to a serpent to unseat God's plan for Adam and Eve, the dressers of the Garden.
God let the devil live. He knew he would wage war against Him ever after, but chose to spare his existence anyway. But, why? Here is a possible reason:
Lucifer was and still is a created being. It really is preposterous for him to believe he can overcome or become equal to God who created him. Nonetheless, he tries!
God intentionally created the universe and the angelic host. He gave them abilities and knowledge well beyond what He gave humans. So magnanimous, so perfect is His character, far beyond human comprehension, that His justice, His all-knowing, all the balance of His Perfection did not exercise vengeance as we envision to be His right. Instead He chose to create another creature to take the place the devil forfeited...to be His glory. Man was that creation:
While it is true that those verses refer to Jesus ultimately, they also bear witness to the purpose for which man was created. God wanted a created being who would love Him for Himself and not betray Him. He put the pair, Adam and Eve, in the Garden with the responsibility of tending and grooming it, and they did.
Satan stole their birthright. He wanted the glory given them by God. He wanted their worship rather than their giving it to God. He wanted their subjugation to him as their god. There came the fateful day when the serpent tempted Eve and she took the bait. Without realizing the seriousness of their decision, the pair relinquished the great glory that rested on them for a mess of pottage! They became lost sinners!
Adam and Eve had not obeyed the one command God gave them: to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They failed miserably. They had been duped! Immediately, God gave them His solution:
One created being would overcome another created being. Because the humans had failed to obey Him, God chose to take the responsibility on Himself. He would become the Perfect and holy GodMan. He would overcome the devil and his lies, not as all-powerful God, but as a humble, obedient Servant to buy back the salvation of mankind lost with the bite of forbidden fruit.
Said another way, instead of using His power as God to bring down the devil, God chose to use another created Divine Being to do it by overcoming all the temptations thrown at Him by the devil---and that created One was the Person of Jesus Christ! He won the victory over sin and death through the things which He suffered: obedience without sinning! He holds those keys forever!
Jesus conquered the devil, not through His almighty power as God which He could have done in an instant, but through the humility and longsuffering of a Man in a human body, being tempted in all aspects like we are, yet without sin:
Right now God is giving the devil enough rope to hang himself. That is exactly what he is doing! God chose to suffer the extremes of death and separation within the Godhead to accomplish victory over satan. Even more than that, because of His triumphant death and resurrection, Jesus is able to impart to those who believe in Him the power to also overcome:
As our Second Adam, Jesus righteously and justly overcame the devil. He overcame the world of demons and idolatry perfectly, the reflection of His Nature.
Though this is a sneak peek ahead, the book of Revelation says:
It won't be long until Jesus takes the throne over the world and the evil demons and angels that currently control it. He will rule righteously and justly, for He has overcome the world and all that is in it! And, when it has become His kingdom, He will remove His crown and lay it at the feet of His Father:
God will have perfected His Perfection: He will have gone to the extremity of Who He is and 'proven' Himself. That is His victory! He is all that He says He is. He has gone there: longsuffering, mercifulness, patience, goodness, humility, justice, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful: each and more, tempered perfectly by all His attributes.
It is impossible to describe God with human vocabulary and understanding, but He has overcome the world and the devil!! And, living in the power of His Holy Spirit, we are victors and overcomers through Jesus Christ, too!
We must and can be faithful to the One who deserves all the glory! He is victor! He is our Victory!