‘‘The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.’’ John 14:30
The Bible says, ‘The accuser of our brothers and sisters…has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony’ (Revelation 12:10-11). Satan is ‘the accuser’. On what basis does he accuse us? Sin! It’s not that God won’t forgive sin, but that when we refuse to acknowledge it and repent of it, we give Satan an opportunity to condemn us. Now you understand why you feel so bad when you harbour unconfessed sin. By doing it, you are giving Satan power over you. Notice what Jesus said: ‘The prince of this world [Satan] cometh, and hath nothing in me.’ Satan couldn’t point to a single sin in the life of Christ; therefore, he had no power over Him. And here is the good news: when you are ‘in Christ’, Satan loses his power to condemn you too. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit’ (Romans 8:1). Will you still sin from time to time? Yes, and when you repent, God will cleanse you, work with you, and give you victory. But as long as you are positioned securely ‘in Christ’, the One in whom there is no sin, Satan’s condemnation falls on deaf ears and you live with the joy of knowing you are fully accepted by God. So when Satan says, ‘You sinned, therefore you’re not a Christian,’ don’t believe him. As long as you’re ‘in Christ’, you’re simply a Christian under construction. Knowing that takes a powerful weapon out of Satan’s hands.
