We have already said that Christ became flesh (John 1:14), and in the flesh (not Christ’s flesh) was Satan. If we said that Satan was in the flesh of Christ, this would be heretical. However, some of us may still have a problem regarding the statement that Christ became flesh and in the flesh was Satan. The diagram on page 44 showing the sphere of the flesh with Satan as personified Sin in it according to Romans 7 may help us.
Based upon Romans 7, we say that Satan and sin are in the flesh. Romans 7 tells us that sin is in our flesh, and in Romans 7 sin is personified. This chapter shows us that sin can deceive and kill people (v. 11), and that it can dwell in people and do things against their will (vv. 17, 20). It is quite alive (v. 9) and exceedingly active; so it must be the evil nature of Satan, the evil one, dwelling, acting, and working in fallen mankind. Sin in Romans 7 is a person. This person is the source of sin, the origin of sin. This Sin who is Satan still remains in our flesh where he lives, works, and moves, even after we have been saved. The sin in our flesh is a person, just as the divine life in our spirit is a Person. This Person who is our life is Christ (Col. 3:4), the embodiment of the Triune God. The Triune God as life is in our spirit, and Satan as sin is in our flesh. If we saved ones are not on the alert, and do not watch and pray, this evil one can instigate us to do sinful things. In our flesh there is lust (Gal. 5:16), and this lust is related to Satan in our flesh.
One day the Word became flesh. Remember that Jesus was not born of a human father, but of a human mother (Matt. 1:18). His humanity is flesh; however, His humanity is not of the male, but of the female. Our flesh is a sinful flesh because it is of the male with the female. But the flesh of Jesus is only of the female, not of the male; therefore, His flesh is not sinful. Our flesh is not only flesh but sinful flesh, but the flesh of Christ, having nothing to do with the male, is not sinful flesh. Jesus’ flesh is surely joined to the sinful flesh as the diagram on page 42 indicates. However, the element of sin is in the sphere of the flesh below the dotted line, but not in the spot above the dotted line. Within the part above the dotted line is God! In the sphere of the flesh below the dotted line is Satan, but in the sphere of the flesh above the dotted line is God!
The diagram shows that these two spheres are joined together with a dotted line separating them. Since God was in the sphere of the flesh above the dotted line, sin could not penetrate through this line because God is too strong for His enemy, Satan. Satan was restricted within the realm, the sphere, of the flesh below the dotted line. Satan tried again and again to enter into the flesh of Jesus, but he could not get through. The Spirit even led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. After having fasted forty days and forty nights, He was tempted by the Devil three times (Matt. 4:1-11). Satan tried three times to enter into the flesh of Jesus, but he could not get through.
The diagram on page 44 illustrates the two parts of the flesh. The main part is sinful, and the small part is not sinful. In the main part is Satan; in the small part is God. During the thirty-three and a half years of the life of Jesus, Satan was fighting to get through the border line into the flesh of Jesus. However, he could never get through because God was always resisting him, and God is stronger than he is. When the Word became flesh, He joined Himself to the flesh. Then when Christ went to the cross, He put the entire sphere of the flesh to death, which included Satan and sin, by injecting death into it. When Jesus brought His flesh to the cross, He brought Satan and sin which are in the flesh to the cross also, and He injected death into the flesh which included Satan and sin, the flesh to which He had been joined. Satan had no way to reject this death. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that the death of Jesus on the cross destroyed the Devil who had the might of death. This marvelous, wonderful, all-inclusive, victorious death killed the flesh in which Satan and sin were residing.
Christ died on the cross not only as the Lamb of God to take away our sin, but also as a grain of wheat to release the divine life from within Him (John 12:24). He also died as the serpent to destroy the old serpent, the Devil (Heb. 2:14). He destroyed Satan by dying in the flesh. Within the flesh was Satan, so when He died in the flesh His death destroyed Satan. His death is all-inclusive.
Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “Him (Christ) who did not know sin He (God) made sin on our behalf.” It should have been in the last three hours, from twelve noon to three o’clock in the afternoon (Matt. 27:45), while He was dying the vicarious death for us sinners who are flesh, that God made Christ sin on our behalf, and through His death in His flesh condemned sin (Rom. 8:3) which is in man’s flesh. When God condemned Christ on the cross in His flesh, God condemned sin in the flesh. When His flesh was condemned, Satan who was in man’s flesh was also destroyed.