After God became a man and put that man with Satan within him upon Himself, He brought that man to the cross. Satan thought he had succeeded, but he only gave the Lord an easy way to put him to death. A mouse that is loose in a house is rather difficult for the owner to catch. But if the owner sets a trap with a little bait, the mouse will then be tempted to seize the bait. The mouse at first will think that it has succeeded in getting the bait, but it will not realize that it has been trapped until it is too late. Once the mouse is trapped, it is easy for the owner of the house to come and put it to death. Like a trap set to catch a mouse, Adam became a trap to catch Satan. Satan was the “naughty mouse” running loose in the universe. When Satan came to possess man, he thought he was successful, but he did not realize that he had fallen into a trap. Satan thought that man was his home, but he did not know that man was a trap. He thought man was his food, but man was only the bait. By seizing man, Satan was caught and imprisoned in man. Subsequently, the Lord came and put man upon Himself to bring him to the cross, that “through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). Man was the trap, and the devil was trapped in him. Through incarnation God put the corrupted man upon Himself and brought this man to death on the cross. At the same time, Satan within this fallen man was put to death also. Thus, it is by His death on the cross that Christ destroyed the devil. This is the reason that Satan is afraid of the cross, and this is the reason the Lord told us to take up the cross. The cross is the only weapon by which we can overcome Satan.
Where is Satan? Satan is in us—in our flesh. But where is our flesh now? Galatians 5:24 says, “They who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.” Our flesh, with Satan in it, is on the cross; thus, Satan has been put to death on the cross. For this we must praise the Lord. But is this the end? No, burial follows death. But even the grave is not the end. After burial, there was resurrection. Israel went into the Red Sea with Pharaoh and his army, but they were resurrected from the death water without Pharaoh and his army. Pharaoh and his army were buried in the death water of the Red Sea (Exo. 14:22-30). Christ brought man with Satan into death and the grave and brought man without Satan out of death and the grave. He left Satan buried in the grave. Now this resurrected man is one with Christ.
Let me ask, when was it that we were regenerated? We may think that we were regenerated in a certain year after our birth, but that is too late. Actually, we were regenerated through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3). When Christ was resurrected, we who believe in Him also were resurrected. This can be proven by Ephesians 2:5 and 6, which say that God “made us alive together with Christ...and raised us up together with Him.” At the time when Christ was resurrected, we were resurrected with Him. We must be deeply impressed with this. Man was ruined by Satan when Satan came into him. But God, through incarnation, put this man, with Satan in him, upon Himself, brought this man to the cross, put this man, including Satan, to death, and buried this man in the grave. He then brought man into resurrection, and through this resurrection man and God became one. Through incarnation God came into man, and through resurrection man and God became one. Now God is in man’s spirit.
We need to be joyful—but not overly joyful. Why? Because we must always bear the cross daily. Whenever our flesh is away from the cross, we will find that Satan is alive again. We need to say Hallelujah, because the Lord Jesus is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), but we must also be on the alert, for we are still in this flesh. When the flesh comes down off the cross, the devil is alive again. This is the reason that we must live in the spirit all the time and apply the cross to the flesh. Though Satan by the fall entered into man, he was dealt with by the Lord, and now through His resurrection the Lord is within us (cf. John 20:22). From now on our responsibility and business are not to try to do anything good. Good will only deceive and blind us. We must simply follow the Lord in our spirit and apply the cross to the flesh. This will spontaneously put Satan to death. We must learn to practice this one thing with these two aspects: follow the Lord in our spirit and put the flesh, including Satan, to death on the cross.
What will be the ultimate issue of this? On the one hand, there will be the New Jerusalem, and on the other hand, there will be the lake of fire. The New Jerusalem is the Triune God mingled with the resurrected man, and the lake of fire is Satan’s ultimate destruction. The lake of fire is the place for Satan (Matt. 25:41b). All that is not related to the Triune God and the resurrected man will be put into the lake of fire with Satan (v. 41a; Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14-15). There will be only one tree in the New Jerusalem—the tree of life (22:2). The other tree will be in the lake of fire. This is the ultimate conclusion of the entire Scriptures. The Scriptures began with three parties, but the ultimate consummation will be the New Jerusalem with only the first tree at the center of the city and the resurrected man as the expression of the Triune God. The second tree will be cast into the lake of fire. All things and all people related to the second tree will have the same destiny as Satan—the lake of fire.
In conclusion, the meaning of this picture to us today is that the normal Christian life does not consist of doing good. The normal Christian life is simply to take Christ and live by Christ and put the flesh with Satan to death all the time. It is to follow Christ in our spirit and to put our flesh to death. Through our living such a life, the day will come when the Triune God and the resurrected man will be one expression—the New Jerusalem, with the tree of life as its center.