Spiritual War pt. 1 – Christ Conquered: We Share His Victory
Updated: 5 days ago
Primary Passages: Col. 2:13–15; Rev. 12:10–11; Rom. 8:1, 33–34
The previous study established that spiritual warfare began long before we were born and will continue after we die. We did not create this conflict, and salvation does not initiate it. We are born into a world already marked by rebellion, deception, accusation, death, and spiritual opposition. The difference salvation makes is not that the warfare suddenly begins, but that through Christ our position in the conflict is radically changed.
That is why the Christian study of spiritual warfare must begin with victory. Before considering the armor of God, resisting the devil, taking thoughts captive, or standing firm under attack, we first have to understand what Christ has already accomplished. Otherwise, spiritual warfare can easily become a fearful preoccupation with what Satan is doing rather than a confident understanding of what Christ has done.
Col. 2:13–15 – The Decisive Victory Has Already Occurred
Paul begins with our condition before Christ:
«“And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.” – Col. 2:13–15 CSB
The progression is critical. We were dead in trespasses, but God made us alive with Christ. Our trespasses were forgiven, the record of debt standing against us was erased, and that debt was taken away through the cross. Only then does Paul declare that Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities and triumphed over them.
This matters because Satan's role as accuser depends upon guilt. An accusation requires a charge, and condemnation requires a valid judgment against that charge. Satan is repeatedly portrayed as an accuser, but the cross has removed the legal ground upon which his accusation against the believer could ultimately stand. The debt was not overlooked, excused, or hidden. It was paid.
That distinction is essential. Satan may accuse the believer, remind him of sins already forgiven, magnify his failures, and attempt to convince him that he remains under condemnation. But accusation and condemnation are not the same thing. An accuser may bring a charge, but only the Judge can render the verdict.
And the Judge has already spoken concerning those who are in Christ.
Rom. 8:1 – No Condemnation Means No Condemnatory Verdict
Paul states the believer's present standing with extraordinary force in Rom. 8:1:
«“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” – Rom. 8:1 CSB»
The Greek is even more compact:
Οὐδὲν ἄρα νῦν κατάκριμα τοῖς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.
Literally, the sentence reads, “Therefore now, no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” There is no expressed verb in the Greek. The English phrase “there is” is supplied because the sentence is nominal, with the present sense understood. Paul is not describing a merely future possibility or saying that believers may escape condemnation at the final judgment if everything goes well. He is declaring a present judicial reality.
The word κατάκριμα refers to condemnation in the judicial sense, a sentence or adverse verdict. Paul is not talking merely about the feeling of guilt, emotional shame, or the experience of being accused. His statement concerns the verdict itself. For the one who is in Christ Jesus, there is now no condemnatory judgment.
That distinction is central to spiritual warfare because Satan's accusation can feel like condemnation even when it is not. The enemy may present real failures, real sins, and real memories before the believer, but the existence of an accusation does not mean the existence of a condemnatory verdict. Paul places the believer's standing not in his own performance but in his location: “in Christ Jesus.”
The force of the verse is therefore not, “You probably will not be condemned later.” It is, “For the person who is in Christ Jesus, no condemnatory verdict exists now.”
Jesus and the Difference Between Sin and Condemnation
This distinction appears beautifully in Jesus' encounter with the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Her guilt was not imaginary. Jesus did not pretend that her sin had not occurred, nor did He redefine evil as good. Yet after her accusers departed, Jesus asked, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She answered, “No one, Lord.” Jesus replied, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore” (John 8:10–11 CSB).
The order matters. Jesus did not say that sin was irrelevant, and He did not say that repentance was unnecessary. He refused condemnation and then called her away from sin. Grace did not deny guilt; grace answered it and opened the way to a different life.
This fits the larger purpose of His coming. John 3:17 declares, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Jesus states the same purpose again in John 12:47: “For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” The Son entered a world already condemned through sin, not to become another voice of accusation, but to become the Savior through whom condemned people could receive life.
That makes Col. 2 extraordinarily important to spiritual warfare. Satan accuses, but Christ has dealt with the debt upon which the accusation rests. Satan points backward to what we were, while the Gospel declares what God has done. Satan says, “Look at the charge.” Christ points to the cross and says, in effect, “The debt has been paid.”
The cross therefore strikes directly at one of Satan's central weapons. He may tempt a believer into sin and then immediately become the accuser concerning the very sin into which he tempted him. He may use genuine failure to produce false conclusions: that God has abandoned the believer, that forgiveness has been exhausted, that usefulness is finished, that testimony is destroyed beyond recovery, or that condemnation has returned. Yet the believer does not answer those accusations by arguing his own goodness. He answers them by returning to the finished work of Christ.
Rom. 8:33–34 – The Accuser Does Not Sit on the Bench
Paul makes the courtroom framework explicit later in the same chapter:
«“Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.” – Rom. 8:33–34 CSB»
There is a prosecutor, but the prosecutor is not the Judge. There may be an accusation, but the accusation cannot overturn God's act of justification. The one who might condemn is the very Christ who died for us, rose for us, sits at the right hand of God, and intercedes for us.
Paul's logic is devastating to satanic accusation. If God justifies, who can successfully prosecute? If Christ died and rose, who can successfully condemn? The question is not whether accusations will come. They will. The question is whether those accusations possess the authority to reverse what God has declared in Christ. They do not.
This is why condemnation and conviction must never be confused. The Holy Spirit convicts in order to bring the believer into truth, confession, repentance, restoration, and deeper fellowship with God. Satan accuses in order to drive the believer toward despair, paralysis, shame, alienation, and defeat. Conviction points toward Christ and restoration. Condemnation says there is no way back.
But Rom. 8:1 says that for those in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnatory verdict now.
Rev. 12:10–11 – The Accuser Has Been Answered
Revelation develops this same truth from another angle:
«“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, ‘The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down. They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; for they did not love their lives to the point of death.’” – Rev. 12:10–11 CSB»
Satan is called “the accuser of our brothers and sisters.” That description is not incidental. Accusation is one of the recurring methods of spiritual warfare. If the enemy can persuade a believer to live as though he remains condemned, he can often steal the confidence, joy, freedom, testimony, and usefulness that should flow from knowing that Christ has justified him.
But Revelation does not say the saints overcome the accuser by proving that every accusation is factually false. Some accusations may concern sins they really committed. Nor do they overcome by establishing their own moral superiority. They overcome “by the blood of the Lamb.”
That is the answer. The blood of Christ does not merely tell us that Jesus loves us. It tells us that the penalty has been borne, the debt has been satisfied, and the accusation no longer has the power to produce condemnation before God. The believer's confidence therefore rests not in a claim of personal innocence but in the righteousness and finished work of Christ.
Revelation then adds “the word of their testimony.” Their testimony is not merely the story of what happened to them. It is their confession of allegiance to Jesus Christ and their refusal to abandon Him under pressure. The blood of the Lamb establishes the basis of their victory, and their testimony demonstrates that they continue to stand upon that victory even when opposition becomes severe.
“They did not love their lives to the point of death” carries the argument even further. Satan's machinery ultimately trades upon the fear of loss – loss of comfort, reputation, security, possessions, relationships, freedom, and finally life itself. But the believer who knows that Christ has conquered death cannot ultimately be controlled by the threat of death.
Christ Conquered – Therefore the Believer Shares His Victory
The warfare existed before us and will continue after us, but something decisive happened in the middle of history that changed the position of everyone who belongs to Christ. At Calvary, Christ dealt with sin, cancelled the debt standing against us, disarmed the powers, and triumphed over them. Through His resurrection, He demonstrated that even death could not hold Him.
That means the believer enters spiritual warfare from an entirely different position than the unbeliever. Satan still lies, accuses, tempts, intimidates, and seeks to destroy testimony, but the Christian belongs to the victorious Christ. The accuser may speak, but he cannot overturn the verdict of God. He may point to sin, but he cannot put back on the believer a debt that Christ has already carried to the cross.
This is the first great movement in understanding spiritual warfare: Christ conquered, and the believer shares His victory. Everything else follows from that truth. Faith rests upon that victory. The armor of God equips us to stand in that victory. The truth tears down lies that contradict that victory. Resistance refuses to surrender ground to a defeated enemy, and perseverance continues standing when the battle becomes severe.
Spiritual warfare did not begin with us, and it will not end with us. But for those who are in Christ, the decisive question has already been answered. The accuser may continue speaking, but he no longer controls the verdict.
Christ does.
Everyone in a battle has weapons. The next post will discuss our Weapons of Righteousness.