“And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen” (Rom 16:20).
What an awesome promise, beloved, given that it’s quite easy for us to be terrified by our world’s evil, unpredictable and unstable threats! Now, this promise is also quite oxymoronic at face value. For how can a peaceful God also crush the enemy? Answer: in a hostile world, it takes power to confront the “roaring lion” and enforce peace (1 Pet 5:8). The enemy of our souls will not roll over and surrender without putting up a fight!
Furthermore, why doesn’t God just crush Satan directly, rather than under our feet? Well, the answer is simply that we are the ones who are under threat of the devil here on earth. God is already omnipotent and beyond any kind of threat. On the other hand, we’re inherently incapable of contending with the prince of darkness on our own. God avails His victory to us–Satan is under our feet, hallelujah! That’s the beauty of the Gospel of peace (Rom 10:15). That’s what Christmas means to me.
Pastor Josh