Overcoming the Devil by Holly D. Sands
In Ephesians 2:1–3, Paul names three enemies that once held us captive: the world, the flesh, and the devil. We’ve already looked at what it means to overcome the world, the pressure from outside, and the flesh, the battle inside. Now we turn to the enemy who works through both.
A Defeated Enemy
So where does Scripture put the devil? Paul tells us exactly where he stands after the cross:
“Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).
Now that picture might go right over our heads today, but Paul's readers would have known exactly what he meant. For us to understand, let's take a little stroll down history lane.
When a Roman general won a major victory, Rome honored him with a triumph, a grand parade through the city streets. The spoils of war went first, then the captured enemy leaders, stripped of their weapons and paraded in chains for the whole city to see. Behind them rode the victorious general in his chariot. It was obvious to all who the victor was.
This is the picture Paul paints of the cross. The devil wasn’t just beaten. He was disarmed and put on display.
And Colossians isn’t the only place Scripture says so. John tells us,
“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
The word for destroy is luō, which means to loosen, untie, or undo. Everything the devil built, Jesus came to take apart. I love that - oh, but there's more!
Hebrews puts it even more strongly. Jesus took on flesh and blood “that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14–15).
Here the word for destroy is different. It’s katargeō, which means to render powerless, to put out of commission. And notice how He did it: through death. The very weapon the devil held over us, Jesus took and turned against him. [insert praise dance here!]
Defeated, but Still Prowling
But if the devil is defeated, why does it still feel like he’s on the loose? Peter answers that:
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Defeated doesn’t mean harmless. The verdict was handed down at the cross, but the sentence hasn’t been carried out yet. Until the day he’s thrown into the lake of fire for good (Revelation 20:10), he’s still prowling, and he’s still dangerous to anyone who wanders off unguarded.
Notice that Peter says like a roaring lion. The devil isn’t the real thing. There’s only one true Lion - the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5)! And the real Lion has already overcome.
You see, the devil is an imitation, and a limited, cheap knockoff at that. He’s a created being, not God’s equal opposite. He can’t be everywhere at once, and he doesn’t know everything. He can’t even touch God’s people without permission. He had to ask before he laid a finger on Job (Job 1:12), and he had to ask before he sifted Peter (Luke 22:31-32).
So why all the roaring? Because intimidation is one of his best weapons. If he can get us to cower, he never has to fight. He’s loud, he’s threatening, and he knows how to make a lot of noise, but much of his power lies in convincing us he has more than he does. I remember a minister years ago saying, “The devil is nothing but a mouse with a microphone.” I don’t completely agree with that, because Peter still tells us to stay alert. But when it comes to all that roaring, he wasn’t far off.
How Faith Resists
So what do we do with a roaring imitation? James gives us the answer in two short commands:
“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
Notice the order. Submit first, then resist. We don’t stand against the devil in our own strength or authority. We stand under God’s. A believer who isn’t submitted to God has nothing to resist with, but a believer who is, has the whole weight of heaven behind him!
And look at the promise attached: he will flee. The word is pheugō, which means to run away, to escape like a fugitive. James isn’t describing a standoff. He’s describing a retreat, and an enemy in retreat is an enemy already beaten.
And let me go on record by stating that resisting the devil doesn’t mean shouting at him in other tongues or cussing at him, or taking the elevator to the tallest building and commanding him from there (oh believe me...I've seen it all). Look at how Jesus did it in the wilderness. Three temptations, three answers, and every one rested on the same three words: “It is written” (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10). He didn’t argue, and He didn’t negotiate. He answered with the Word, and the devil left (Matthew 4:11). That's how we fight too - with the Word of God.
The Word isn’t the only thing God gives us for the fight. Paul writes,
“above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Ephesians 6:16).
Notice what the shield quenches: not some of the darts, but all of them!
The word Paul uses for shield is thureos, from the word for door. It wasn’t a little round shield. It was the Roman scutum, a large, curved shield roughly four feet tall, made of layered wood and covered in leather. A soldier could crouch behind it completely. Enemy archers would dip their arrows in pitch, set them on fire, and launch them at the lines, hoping to set men and gear ablaze. The shield caught them, and the fire went out.
Roman soldiers didn’t fight alone, either. They could lock their shields together, side by side and overhead, into a formation called the testudo, or tortoise, so a whole unit moved forward under one solid wall. Faith isn’t a solo sport. We stand together, shield to shield, and that’s a beautiful picture of the Body of Christ.
Think back to Peter’s roaring lion. A lion on the hunt doesn’t charge into the middle of the herd. It watches for the one that has wandered off, the straggler that’s fallen behind or drifted away from the others. The isolated believer is the easiest target the devil has, and that’s why Scripture never pictures the Christian life as a lone journey. “Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
It’s also why the writer of Hebrews warns us against “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). Church is the shield wall. It’s where someone notices when your faith is flagging, where someone prays for you when you can’t pray for yourself, and where someone speaks truth to you when the accuser is whispering lies.
How the Saints Overcame
Revelation pulls back the curtain and shows us exactly how the saints will defeat the accuser:
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death” (Revelation 12:11).
There’s that victory word one more time, nikaō. And John gives us three weapons the devil has no answer for.
The blood of the Lamb. This is our standing, and it’s the first line of defense. The devil can throw every charge he has at us, but the blood has already answered every one of them. “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:33–34). We don’t overcome by pointing to our record. We overcome by pointing to His blood!
The word of their testimony. This is our confession. Our testimony isn’t a feel-good story. It’s a witness on the stand, declaring what is true about Jesus Christ and what He has done for us!
They did not love their lives to the death. This is our surrender, and it’s the one that takes away the devil’s last weapon. Remember Hebrews 2:15: he held people in bondage through the fear of death. But what do you threaten someone with when they aren’t afraid to die? Paul said it best: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). When death no longer scares us, the devil has nothing left.
Our Victory
So let’s bring it all together. The world presses on us from the outside. The flesh fights us from the inside. And the devil works through both, roaring as loud as he can. Three enemies on three fronts. But there’s only one victory, and it was won at the cross.
There’s no neutral ground. We either overcome, or we’re overcome.
Always remember that we fight from a victory that’s already ours. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. The accuser has been cast down. And the promise that started it all still stands:
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).
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Holly D. Sands has walked with Christ since 1983. She writes at He is My Song, helping fellow believers walk faithfully through every season with biblical encouragement, sound doctrine, and honest reflection. She lives in South Carolina, where she and her husband, Shane Sands, are members of a local Baptist church. Shane's been called by God as an evangelist and leads United in Christ Jesus ministry. At home, they're joined by their idiot cat, Mister Bojangles, whose main contribution to the household is sleeping and eating treats.
© 2026 He is My Song. All rights reserved.
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