“He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested,
We found the first purpose for His first coming in 3:5. He came to deal with the sin question.
1 Jn 3:5, “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.”
1 Ti 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.”
2 Ti 1:10, “…but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel…”
The second purpose of the coming of the Son of God to earth was to destroy the works of the Devil. Jesus made an appearance in the world to destroy the works of the Devil. This is one of the purposes of the incarnation.
PRINCIPLE:
Jesus came to free us from the works of Satan.
APPLICATION:
Jesus came to free us from the bondage of Satan, the sin capacity, and individual acts of sin. The Devil is a powerful foe. It took the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross to defeat him. People love to dismiss him as a fictitious person, the figment of someone’s imagination.
He 2:14-15, 14 “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same [flesh and blood], that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
The Devil is the slanderer of believers, for that is what the name means. Jesus destroyed his works so that believers might escape his tyranny.
