When I read this to my wife
last night before we fell asleep, we both could not help being grabbed by the
triumph and brilliance of its truth. Read it slowly. Devotionally. And let this
certainty bring you comfort: our suffering only exponentially increases our joy
– now and forever – in the God of our redemption.
God permits Satan to rule
in order to glorify His name in the recovery of His elect children, snatching
them from the grasp of this ruling demon. When this war is finished, how
glorious will be the name of God! He came into the battle when this enemy
claimed every man, body and mind and heart. Not a one of all the offspring of
Adam offered to volunteer in the service of God. Then, as He willed, God made
certain chosen ones willing in the day of
His power (Ps. 110:3). In the end every creature shall magnify the name of
God: for His workmanship in creating Heaven and the earth; for His providence
in preserving His elect; for His power in giving the saints new life, the new
heart, and the faith to become sons of God through Christ. And this new
creation, this new babe of grace, is then enabled to beat the Devil out of the
field and cause him to flee (James 4:7). By introducing Adam to sin, Satan was
able to drive him out of Paradise. But God’s children will drive the Devil out
of this world into the Lake of Fire. And all works and events will empty
themselves into one great swelling redemption. If God had not permitted Satan
to take His elect ones prisoners (Eph. 2.1), they would not have been able to
enter Heaven with such acclamations of triumph. There are three expressions of great joy on the Scripture: the joy of
a woman after she travails; the joy of harvest; and the joy of one that divides
the spoil. These exultations come with sadness: the pain and tears of the
travailing woman; the fear of failure of the farmer; the perils and wounds of
the soldier. But at the last they are paid for all, the
remembrance of their past sorrows feeding their presents joys. If Christ
had come and entered into affinity with our nature, and had returned peaceably
with us to Heaven, finding no resistance, what then? It would have been an
admirable love; it would have afforded the joy of marriage. But how much more
joyful is the nuptial song we sing because He came as a conqueror, who rescued
His bride from the vicious rulership of Satan, snatching them from the very
chambers of hell, as he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men (Eph. 4:8).
– William
Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armor
in The Fifty Greatest Christian Classics,
Vol. 2 (48), emphasis mine
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