Reflections
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Heb. 2:14-15)
The victory of Jesus Christ over death, and over Satan, was not merely a legal victory. It was a living victory – accomplished through death and resurrection.
When Adam sinned he put the entire Adam race under the sentence of death. Jesus did not come to provide a way for God to lift this sentence of death from the Adam race. Rather, Jesus came to satisfy that sentence of death – in Christ the Adam race died – not just legally, but actually. Jesus actually bore the body of sin – the Adam race – on the Cross. (Rom. 6:6) And when Jesus died, the Adam race died. The justice of God and the sentence of death was satisfied.
Because of Adam’s sin, the Adam race was spiritually dead – no longer one with God in spirit. This meant that the fallen Adam race, with all of it’s aspects – the flesh, the psychic, and the natural –was then the ground of Satan. Satan had access to man through his natural makeup.
When Jesus Christ died, the Adam race died in Him. What was raised up out from the old race was a new race – a new man in Christ Jesus. Thus, through the death and resurrection of Christ, the ground of Satan is undercut – and there was then a new man born of resurrection life. This is the key to victory over all sin and death: The resurrection life of Jesus Christ. If we are in Christ, we are a new creation.