Sins Paid, Satan Defeated

Dannah Gresh: If you’re a believer, your sin debt has been paid and you serve a new master. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is amazed by that fact! 

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: In Christ we have been set free from the devil’s tyranny—set free! We can resist sin; we have the power to say “no” to sin. That’s reason to celebrate, don’t you think?

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Choosing Gratitude, for August 23, 2022. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Nancy is continuing in the series “Christ Our Comfort in Life and Death.”If you missed yesterday’s episode, you’ll find it in the Revive Our Hearts app or at ReviveOurHearts.com. Here’s Nancy.

Nancy: What comes to mind when you think of the word “comfort”? Maybe you think about comfort food (I shouldn’t mention that right now!), or maybe you picture yourself leaning back in a La-Z-Boy recliner (that’s comfort), or a luxury car with a great ride! Or maybe you think of staying in a luxury hotel with a-a-all the amenities. Maybe you think of having a comfortable salary, all your bills paid, a nice nest-egg for retirement. 

I looked up online this week some synonyms for comfort, and here’s what I came across: enjoyment, luxury, pleasure, relaxation, relief, abundance, coziness, exhilaration, plenty, well-being, cheerfulness, opulence.

I mean, who doesn’t want comfort when you describe it that way? But the problem is, there are so many things in this world that can take away and steal our comfort: unexpected bills, illness, loss of a job, a stock market crash, an unwanted divorce, death of a loved one, a terminal diagnosis. What do you do then? Does that mean that you can’t have comfort anymore?

Is there a way to find the kind of comfort and hope that can never be taken from us? We’re talking about that this week in a series on a document that was written 460 years ago: the Heidelberg Catechism.

This is a short book, but it’s one of the most widely circulated books in the history of the world, in addition to the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress and books like that. This is ancient, but timeless, truth that is rooted in the Word of God.

It’s written from a theologically Reformed perspective, so there are a few secondary points in this catechism that non-Reformed readers may disagree with, but with those very few exceptions, the beliefs in this catechism are shared by all true believers, because they come right from the Word of God.

A catechism like this is a way of discipling and training young believers in the faith, discipling and training children. It was written with the hope of training children and young people. Now, if you read it today, you’re thinking, I don’t think my third-grader can quite understand this. But you’d be surprised!

We have linked on the transcript today to a couple of resources that will help you with catechisms for your children. This is a way of training our children, our churches, and ourselves and reminding us of what is true.

As I mentioned in the last episode, if you want to learn more about this catechism I’m recommending a book we’ve linked to on the transcript. It’s by Pastor Kevin DeYoung. It’s very readable. It’s called, The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism. 

This week we’re looking just at the first of 129 questions in this catechism. It’s an introductory question. The question is this: 

“What is your only comfort in life and death?” 

And the answer offers us something way better than fragile, fleeting creature comforts. It points us to our only true comfort.

So I’m going to ask the question, and I want you to read with me the entire response to this question. So, friends, “What is [your] only comfort in life and in death?” 

That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. 

That is our only comfort in life and in death.

Now the first part we looked at in the last session. It says, “I belong to my faithful Savior.” A Savior is someone who saves, so Jesus is our faithful Savior. But what has He saved us from? If you don't know what you’re being saved from, then you’re not going to love having a Savior.

You’re not going to love it if an ambulance shows up to your house this afternoon, sirens going and whatever, and you’re saying, “I don’t need you! I don’t have a problem; I didn’t call you. I’m doing fine!” If you think you’re doing fine, you’re not going to rejoice in having a faithful “Save”-ior.

So what does Jesus save us from?

Well, we have two mortal enemies: one is sin, the other is Satan, and both steal our comfort. And Jesus saves us from both of those enemies!

So today we’re looking at this section in the Heidelberg Catechism that says, “He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.”

We’re released from the debt that we owed for our sin, plus delivered from Satan’s tyranny. All our sins paid for, plus we’re set free from slavery to Satan. You put those two together: delivered from sin, delivered from Satan and that equals our only comfort and hope in life and in death. 

So I want to look at those two aspects in our time today: He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and then we’ll take a few moments and look at what it means to be set free from the tyranny of Satan.

Christ has fully paid for all my sins. This is a silly example and it really falls short, but I kept thinking about it while I was preparing. It reminded me of when I was growing up in Villanova, Pennsylvania. We had a little neighborhood grocery store, it was called Soloff’s, and it was walking distance from our home.

So after we got home from school, with our parents’ permission, we would walk down there and we would get candy and fudgsicles, whatever we wanted. Let me just tell you, we were little kids and we could not afford the items we picked up at that grocery store . . . but our parents could. 

They had an account there. So we would say, “Charge it to the DeMoss’s.” And our parents paid the bill for what we owed. Now, as I said, this example falls short. For starters, we did have our parents’ permission (laughter). We were not in there stealing; there was no sin involved in this. 

But I can hear us as little kids say, “Charge it to the DeMoss’s account.” The Scripture tells us that the payment, the price tag, for sin is death. Scripture also tells us that the only way that debt can be paid is for someone to die. It’s through the shedding of blood.

So we read in Leviticus 17:11 for example: 

“The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.” (NASB)

God said this when He was setting up the system of sacrificing lambs and goats and bulls; “You have to kill this animal. You put your hand on it. It’s dying in your place.”

You’re the one who is supposed to die for your sin, but it is being identified with your sin and that animal is going to die. Its blood will be shed upon the altar to make “atonement.” What is atonement? It’s making us at one with God! “. . . for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul.”

So we have this Old Testament picture of these sacrificial animals being offered day after day after day after day for these guilty sinners who deserve to die; but instead, there are animals dying everywhere.

But then we come to the new covenant, the New Testament. Praise God we’re not still living under that old covenant! Jesus came to this earth, the sinless, spotless, without-blemish Lamb of God. He had no debt to pay, but He gave His life—He shed His blood—to pay the price for our sins!

And He says to the Father as He looks at you and me, “Charge their sin to my account.” And we say as we look at Him, “Father, charge my sin to His account.” He paid the price that we could not pay. You read this all through the New Testament.

In Matthew 26:28, remember there in the upper room as Jesus was giving the disciples in the Last Supper, that Passover feast, He said, 

“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many [why?] for the forgiveness of sins.”

Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7: 

In him [in Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. 

Do you know what that means? There is enough to go around! There is enough for your sins, there’s enough for my sins—past, present and future.

In 1 Peter 1:18–19: 

For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold . . .

You don’t just put money in the offering, give to a ministry like Revive Our Hearts and now you’re going to be in heaven. No, it doesn’t work that way, that can’t redeem you. How were you redeemed?

. . . with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.

First John 1:7: “. . . the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” First John 2:2: “He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Remember that old hymn written in the 1800s: 

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood.
Hallelujah! What a Savior! 

Guilty, vile, and helpless we;
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
“Full atonement!” can it be?”
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

(“Hallelujah! What a Savior!” by Phillip P. Bliss)

Friends, I don’t know what you’ve done, but I know you’re a sinner. I know I’m a sinner, and I want to say to you today, whether you’re listening in this room or you’re listening some months later when this podcast comes out, in your car or your workplace, or as you’re on the treadmill, or running errands with your kids in the backseat of the van. I want to say to you, “Believe the good news of the gospel! He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood!” 

How many sins? [Ladies respond: All my sins.”] How much of the debt has He paid? He has fully paid for all my sins! Not some, but all. Your sin, my sin has been charged to Jesus’ account. And when you confess your sins, when you repent of those sins, you are forgiven! 

And so the good news of the gospel is that you must receive His forgiveness, His comfort, and His mercy. 

You say, “But I’ve sinned so much!” You think how much you sinned is too much for His blood to cover?

Maybe you think you haven’t sinned that much at all, because you grew up in the church, and you’re a good person and you never did all those bad things that other people do. You, too, need a Savior, because the penalty for even one sin is death. The life is in the blood, and through His death—through His shed blood—Jesus fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood.

By the way, when you really meditate on this and you start counting the cost and figuring out what your sin cost Him, you can’t sit in a communion service, be talking about the death of Christ during the passion week of Christ or other times when we particularly focus on His death, His cross, His blood, and be glib about it.

It’s precious blood, precious blood that paid the price for all our sins! That’s a source of comfort and hope in this life and in death.

But here’s the second part that’s mentioned in this part of the catechism: it also says that, “He has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.” This is our second enemy, our second mortal enemy, Satan. It says that Jesus has delivered me! He has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

A tyrant, well, that’s just not a good person, right? I mean, you just hear that word and you think, Ugh! You don’t want to be under a tyrant. A tyrant is a powerful, bad ruler who uses his power in cruel and ruthless ways. The devil is a tyrant. He lies to us; he promises freedom as He did to Eve in the Garden of Eden.

He tempts us; he makes us slaves. He rules by fear; he accuses us; he seeks to destroy us; he reminds us constantly of our sin. He is a slave master. In the Old Testament we see a powerful picture and a type of Satan’s tyranny. Remember how the Israelites lived for generations as slaves in Egypt under the tyranny of Pharaoh—a type of Satan.

God said to Moses in Exodus 6:5, “I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are forcing to work as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.” 

Praise God, He remembers His promises! And so God sent Moses into Egypt saying, “Let my people go!” 

And Pharaoh said, “No way!” He refused.

And then God sent a series of plagues to force Pharaoh’s hand, to prove Himself more powerful than Pharaoh—who was thought to be God, the most powerful man in the world. And God said, “No. You’re not the most powerful man on this earth. I am.” And God miraculously delivered His people.

Then turn, if you have your Bible, for just a moment to the book of Exodus, chapter 15. I want you to read with me. I want you to see as I read the praise, the song that the Israelites sang after being redeemed from the tyranny of Pharaoh. 

Let me just read a portion of this passage, Exodus 15:

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD. They said:
“I will sing to the LORD,
for he is highly exalted;
he has thrown the horse
and its rider into the sea.

The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
This is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
The LORD is a warrior;
the LORD is his name.” 

Now, what you’re going to see in this psalm of praise, this hymn of praise, is the contest—the battle between the Lord who is a mighty warrior, and Pharaoh and his hosts. 

There was a battle between them and you see this celebrated. Verses 4–5: 

He threw Pharaoh’s chariots
and his army into the sea;
the elite of his officers
were drowned in the Red Sea.
The floods covered them;
they sank to the depths like a stone.

LORD, your right hand is glorious in power.
LORD, your right hand shattered the enemy.
You overthrew your adversaries
by your great majesty.
You unleashed your burning wrath;
it consumed them like stubble.

The water heaped up at the blast from your nostrils;
the currents stood firm like a dam.
The watery depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy said:
“I will pursue, I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil.
My desire will be gratified at their expense.
I will draw my sword;
my hand will destroy them. 

Can’t you just picture Satan saying that about us?! “I will pursue. I will overtake. I will draw my sword, my hand will destroy them!” But . . . here’s the praise: 

"But you blew with your breath,
and the sea covered them.
They [the enemy] sank like lead
in the mighty waters.

“LORD, who is like you among the gods?
[Who is like Him? No one!]
Who is like you, glorious in holiness,
revered with praises, performing wonders?” 

Salvation is a wonder! Redemption is a wonder—God setting us free from the tyranny of Satan!

“You stretched out your right hand,
and the earth swallowed them.
With your faithful love,
you will lead the people
you have redeemed;
you will guide them to your holy dwelling
with your strength.” (Ex. 15:1–13)

That’s an Old Testament psalm, or hymn, celebrating the power of salvation! How much more do we have to sing about? We’re talking not just about some mortal Pharaoh, but about our mortal foe, the devil himself.

Satan’s tyranny: he makes us slaves to sin, slaves to guilt, slaves to despair, slaves to hopelessness, slaves to the fear of death. He controls the will of those who are under his tyranny. He makes us feel powerless to resist sin. He makes us feel we can’t say “no.”

But then comes Jesus, a mighty warrior. In Christ we have been set free from the devil’s tyranny—set free! We can resist sin. We have the power to say “no” to sin! That’s reason to celebrate, don’t you think?! 

Listen to some of these New Testament verses that tell us about the freedom we have in Christ: 

John 8:34–36: 

Jesus responded, "Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.”

Hebrews 2:14–15: 

Since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.

Romans 6:6–7: 

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin.” We died with Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. . . . For sin will not rule over you. (Rom. 6:12, 14)

These are words of hope, these are words of comfort in life and in death!

Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?

But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.” (Rom. 6:16–18)

You see, we’re still slaves, but we’re slaves to God, slaves to righteousness, and what a liberating slavery is that!

You’ve heard, I’m sure, that nineteenth century hymn that’s been set to music many times in more recent days: 

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free,
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

We need to remind each other of these truths; we need to remind ourselves of these truths. Does Satan ever tempt you to despair over your sin? What do you do? You say, “Charge that to Jesus’ account. It’s been paid for.” We need to tell others about the comfort, the hope found in the gospel.

You remember, by the way, that we’re making available this week a set of cards that has this section of the Heidelberg Catechism printed on it, so you can have it as a reminder. We’ll send you a set of twelve of those when you send a gift of any amount to help support the ministry of Revive Our Hearts. 

This is what we’re doing: telling this good news to people who are in despair, who need comfort, who need help. So, you can take a few of these cards and put, maybe, one in your Bible, one in your purse, one on your fridge to remind you. But then you can have a few available that you can hand out and share with others to remind them.

See, we need regularly to affirm what we know in our heads is true, what we’ve been told is true . . . but what we so easily forget is true. I’ve found that by saying these words over and over again, the biblical truths represented in this portion of the catechism, I’m preaching the gospel to myself.

I’m reminding myself, I’m stirring myself up to find comfort and strength and hope in life and—one day—in death through the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Dannah: That’s the host of Revive Our Hearts, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. She’ll be right back to pray. I want you to know the cards she mentioned are our thank-you gift to you for your donation of any amount to support the work of Revive Our Hearts.

Be sure to indicate you’d like to receive them when you contact us with your donation. To do so online, head on over to ReviveOurHearts.com, or just call us at 1-800-569-5959. Tomorrow, we’ll receive comfort with the knowledge that God is watching carefully over every detail of our lives. I hope you’ll be back for Revive Our Hearts. Now, let’s pray with Nancy: 

Nancy: Oh Lord, would You comfort us with the comfort of the gospel? And would You save us from looking anywhere else for comfort other than to Christ, and Christ alone? In Him is all our hope, all our comfort in life and in death, and for that we give You thanks. We celebrate for we are free, our debt of sin has been paid and we’ve been set free, delivered, from the tyranny of Satan!

Maybe you say, “I haven’t been set free. I’m still in bondage to my sin, in bondage to Satan.” Listen, today lift your eyes up to Christ and say, “Lord, I believe You died for my sin. You died to set me free from Satan’s power. And I receive Your sacrifice; I receive Your debt as payment for my sin. I’m not going to keep trying to pay for this myself. I never could. I’m going to stop trying and trust You. Would You come into my life, be my faithful Savior? I repent of my sin. I trust You for forgiveness, for deliverance from the tyranny of sin and Satan.”

If you just prayed something like that to the Lord from your heart—not just with your lips, but with your heart—in these moments, then I would say to you, “Believe the promise of God. Believe that He has heard you, that He has forgiven you and that you are free!” Thank You Lord, in Jesus’ Name, amen.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is reminding you of your freedom from Satan’s tyranny and the fullness and fruitfulness found in Christ!

All Scripture is taken from the CSB unless otherwise noted.

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