June 6, 1944. D-Day. 176,000 Allied troops stormed ashore on a 60-mile beachhead in Normandy, France, successfully completing the largest sea-borne invasion in history. The Germans fought back fiercely, but by the end of June, one million Allied troops were advancing westward, blasting holes in the German line. Germany’s generals soon realized they were beaten, but Hitler ordered them to fight to the death. It would take eleven months of excruciating war before Berlin surrendered. Meanwhile, in Nazi-occupied Paris, electrified citizens overthrew the puppet government when they realized the Allied invasion had assured their liberation. Behind enemy lines, POWs learned of the invasion on secret radios and spread word through the prison camps, “They’ve come! They’ve come!” In front of puzzled guards, emaciated captives jumped and shouted, hugged each other, and rolled on the ground in joy. The decisive battle had already been won. The old regime was collapsing. The new world was dawning.
So it is for the coming of Christ's kingdom and God's new world. A truly earth shaking event occurred 2,000 years ago in Palestine when “the Word was made flesh” and God came to dwell among us. Jesus the son of Mary was filled with the fullness of God and sent to raid the dominion of Satan. During his temptations in the desert, Jesus successfully overcame all the devil’s deadly deceptions. Satan challenged him with the question, “If you are the son of God . . . .” Instead of trying to secure his physical life or spiritual destiny through material, religious or political power, he fixed his trust on God alone (Matt. 4).
As a man upon whom the Spirit rested, Jesus represented the in breaking of the kingdom of God. He said, “The kingdom of God is near; repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). He explained that God’s purpose in his ministry was to “bind” the tyrant Satan, and declared with authority, “If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you!” (Matt. 12:28,29). Jesus not only proclaimed the realm of God, he was a living embodiment of it, the one human being over whom Satan had no power (John 14:30). It was a revolution, a new regime! The coming of Jesus was God’s D-Day.
Satan and his minions of death were utterly defeated by the cross of Christ. The controlling spiritual-world-order that separates oppressed humanity from God, was swallowed up by Christ’s empty tomb. Now we live in the time lag between that decisive event on Calvary and the final victory at Christ’s second coming. It is a time of ongoing struggle, but also a moment of delirious hope and anticipation, a time to repudiate and defy the defeated demonic powers along with their worldly strongholds that are already collapsing in confusion. There is no reason to live any longer in bondage to the old regime of Satan when the crucified and risen Jesus has overcome those powers and established a new regime of freedom on Calvary.
