Battles fought By Jesus ~ Benny B. Bristow

When Jesus left the splendors of heaven to become flesh (John 1:14), He would eventually encounter many battles. Even though Jesus came to bring peace, He also came to fight the devil and sin. In fact, this was the way His ministry began. For immediately after His baptism where He received the approval of His Father, Jesus was led into the wilderness to face the devil in a battle (Mt. 3:16,17; 4:1-4).  Therefore, please consider some of the battles fought Jesus fought during His earthly mission.

The Battle of Darkness

How disturbing it must have been for Jesus to see all the evil and sin that existed on the earth. Certainly, He had known about this problem while with His Father in heaven, but now, for the first time, He sees it through physical eyes.

As He began teaching, He saw the opposition of evil and darkness on every hand. Jesus was the light of the world, but this was disturbing to sinners. Jesus summed up the situation with the following words: “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:19-20).

Therefore, just as God “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5), Jesus likewise saw a world of sin and darkness. Jesus saw what John later described, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).

The Battle With Enemies

It is true that Jesus experienced some popularity, but as a general rule, He was never free of enemies. There were those who followed Him with the same persistence of buzzards that are seeking carrion. Therefore, they made effort possible effort to destroy the influence of His words and actions. For example, they made their attacks against who He was, His heavenly messages, and His undeniable miracles.

However, Jesus fought back with wisdom and truth. Just as He had used the sword, the word of God, against Satan during His temptations in the wilderness, He did the same with all His enemies. Thus, He spoke with power and authority (Mk. 1:22).

Finally the time came when His enemies thought that their only option for winning over Jesus was to put Him to death. However, when they crucified Jesus, He won His greatest victory of all. He won the victory over death!

The apostle Paul asked, “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).