Eric held him down until the police could get the gun out of his hand.” My friend, Beth, told me this story about her husband, a firefighter who helped wrestle a person to the ground during an emergency call yesterday.
This troubled man reached and successfully grabbed an officer’s gun from her belt, but was immediately subdued when four people, including Eric, pounced upon him. They restrained him until they had retrieved the gun and could carefully stand up again.
The culprit was disarmed.
Everyone was safe.
I love a story of valor.
Just a day before, I’d been reading through Colossians and came to chapter 2, verse 15, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, triumphing over them…”
My eyes veered back to “disarmed.” The Holy Spirit seemed to be highlighting that word in my heart, giving it an intense weight. I studied it. Originating in the late 14th century, it meant to “deprive of power to injure or terrify, render harmless.”
Unable to cause harm.
When Jesus triumphed over sin on the cross, the enemy’s weapons were taken. Their arsenal was lost. Their heinous artilleries were deactivated. They were demobilized, demilitarized, disabled, and decommissioned. They’d lost. Their darkness had been obliterated.
In the past I’ve thought of the cross as a hallowed piece of my salvation, and it is that. I’ve thought of it as a place where God redeemed me, and it is complete redemption. I’ve thought of it as a place where my costly sin was paid for, and yes, it was paid in full. I’ve thought of it as the beginning of my restoration, and indeed, it is that too.
But as I read Colossians 2:15, I saw the cross afresh, inside a new, unattackable word: disarmament.
The enemy has been immobilized in the fight. The evil realm now only has power if we choose to let them. If we don’t give them a foothold, they cannot reach us. We have all power over them, for they have been disarmed in the life of every believer. They have been defused. When we stand firm in the Lord, they have no arsenal against us. They have been deactivated and subdued through our trust in Jesus and our steadfastness to the promises of His word.
Satan is real. The enemy forces are real. Evil is real. But the disarmament is also real. The Lord rendered those evil forces defenseless. His body on the cross disarmed every vile weapon from the enemy. That is great news!