Featured Satan Murdered Jesus - The Scripture and Theology

There is much confusion on this board about the clear witness of Scripture and Theological tradition to the fact that Satan murdered Jesus on the cross.

Yes, Jesus' death was ordained by God. God is sovereign, and can ordain events in which sins and injustices take place without himself being the agent of sin or unjust. Yes, Jesus went to his death voluntarily. Yes, Jesus' death was also the work of sinful humans both Jew and Gentile, including you and me. But Satan also was there, committing murder against Jesus on the cross.

SCRIPTURE

-Jesus is explicit that the devil is a murderer who seeks to kill him. He says in John 8:

"You are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. 41 You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. 43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

-John 13:2 is a helpful verse for understanding how the devil orchestrated the crucifixion, and yet it was an event ordained by God, and Jesus went to his death voluntarily:

"During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, 4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself."

-In both Luke 22:3 and John 13:27, the gospel writers describe how "Satan entered into Judas" to betray Jesus into the hands of his enemies.

-In John 14:30, Jesus describes his crucifixion as "the coming of the ruler of this world."

-These data points from the gospels fit into the larger Scriptural narrative that begins with Genesis 3:15, which says that the child of the woman would strike the head of the serpent, but the serpent would strike the heal of the son. The Son and the serpent simultaneously deliver fatal wounds to one another - and this is precisely what we see happen on the cross.

-Revelation 12 also says

"Behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. 4 And his tail *swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child."

-There are other narratives that also re-inforce the crucifixion narrative being the work of Satan. Jesus is the new Abel, and the NT explicitly connects Jesus' shed blood to that of Abel's. Abel was murdered by Cain who was mastered by "the beast crouching at his door," a clear allusion to the serpent.

-Acts 28 also gives us a narrative of a cruciform shape:

• Just as Paul was bitten by the serpent, so also Jesus was murdered by the devil.
• Just as onlookers mistakenly believed that justice killed Paul for being guilty, so also onlookers mistakenly believed that Jesus was justly killed by God.
• Just as Paul’s immunity to the serpent revealed his innocence, so also Jesus’ resurrection from death revealed his innocence.
• Just as Paul lives after suffering what should be a fatal wound, so also Jesus rises after suffering a fatal wound.
• Just as Paul shakes the serpent off into the fire, so also Jesus throws the devil into hell.

-Scripture is explicit that the death of Christ resulted in Satan losing the power of death he once had, and that his death brought judgment upon the devil. See Hebrews 2:14-15

Therefore, since the children share in blood and flesh, [Jesus] Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Who had the power of death? The devil. How was the devil rendered powerless? The death of Jesus. This is also why 1 John says directly and succinctly, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Notice as well that Jesus also says that his death is an act of judgment, but Jesus says it is judgment upon the devil. See John 12:31-33:

Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.” 33 Now He was saying this to indicate what kind of death He was going to die.

A good question that naturally arises is why, then, the devil would continually tempt Jesus to save himself from the cross. The answer is that Satan wanted Jesus to fail, to sin against God, to forsake God before he killed him. We have seen torturers throughout history try to force their victims to give up their loyalties before killing them.

THEOLOGY

That Satan killed Jesus has been the understanding of major theologians throughout history.

Augustine:

What then is the justice that overpowered the devil? The justice of Jesus Christ—what else? And how was he overpowered? The devil found nothing in Christ deserving of death and yet he killed him. It is therefore perfectly just that the devil should let the debtors he held go free, who believe in the one whom he killed without his being in his debt. This is how we are said to be justified in the blood of Christ. This is how that innocent blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

John Chrysostom:

“It is as if Christ said, ‘Now shall a trial be held, and a judgment be pronounced. How and in what manner? He (the devil) smote the first man (Adam), because he found him guilty of sin; for it was through sin that death entered in. But he did not find any sin in Me; wherefore then did he fall on Me and give Me up to the power of death? . . . How is the world now judged in Me?’ It is as if it were said to the devil at a seat of judgment: ‘Thou didst smite them all, because thou didst find them guilty of sin; wherefore then didst thou smite Christ? Is it not evident that thou didst this wrongfully? Therefore the whole world shall become righteous through Him.’”

Caesarius of Arles:

Therefore with the Devil hurrying about working through Judas, through the kings of the earth and through the princes of the Jews, who “came together as one” to Pilate “against the Lord and against his Christ,” Christ was condemned to death; an innocent man was condemned just as the prophet says in the Psalm: “But the righteous man, what has he done?” And again, “They will seek against the spirit of the righteous and will condemn innocent blood;” the man guilty of not even a trivial sin is condemned, since the serpent was able to leave no trace in this rock...The innocent man is crucified without sin. The Devil is made guilty by the death of an innocent man; the Devil is made guilty by bringing the cross upon a righteous man who owed nothing . . . “You are no longer able to hold man in endless death, for he conquered, overcame and crushed you through me. You were not truly conquered through power, but by justice; not by domination, by rather by equity.” Thus the Enemy vomited up what he had gulped down and justly there was taken away from him what he used to hold, since unjustly he dared to infringe upon that which under no arrangement was his concern.

Thomas Aquinas:

“Christ's Passion delivered us from the devil, inasmuch as in Christ's Passion [the devil] exceeded the limit of power assigned him by God, by conspiring to bring about Christ's death, Who, being sinless, did not deserve to die. Hence Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, cap. xiv): "The devil was vanquished by Christ's justice: because, while discovering in Him nothing deserving of death, nevertheless he slew Him. And it is certainly just that the debtors whom he held captive should be set at liberty since they believed in Him whom the devil slew, though He was no debtor."

CS Lewis:

“when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”

In conclusion: on the cross, Satan murdered Jesus.

 

CS Lewis got his ideas for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from The Bible, Augustine, John Chrysostom, Aquinas, etc.

 

So, are you disagreeing with the Bible, or what? You just quoted a verse that says people sinned in an event that was predetermined in the foreknowledge of God, so I think your problem is with the Bible on this one.

 

I am not following you at all. Sorry. What are you arguing?

 

Are you saying that because God predestined Jesus' death, that therefore sinners (humans and Satan) did NOT put Jesus to death?

Would you also say, for example, that because God predestined Joseph would go down to Egypt, that Joseph's brothers did NOT sinfully and unjustly betray him into the hands of traders?

 

Looking forward to it. But in our last exchange, your central argument was one of interpretation, not of what the Bible actually said. You were basically saying "I can't reconcile these verses that say Satan murdered Jesus with these verse that say Satan was tempting Jesus to fail in his mission on the cross, so I am just going to ignore the verses that say Satan murdered Jesus."

In other words, you were using your interpretation to determine Scripture, rather than Scripture to determine your interpretation.

 

On my side, I have Jesus explicitly saying that the devil is a murderer seeking to kill him. As well as all the other data I posted. So...yeah.

If your argument is "But I don't see how it would make sense for Satan to seek to kill Jesus" then that is something you are going to have to take up with Jesus himself. He is the one who said it.

 

Yes, although "bruise" is a bad translation. @Martin Marprelate and I actually agree "strike" is a better translation.

The point is that the serpent causes a fatal wound to the Son at the same time he suffers a fatal wound from the Son. As Hebrews 2:14 makes explicit, the death of Christ disarms the devil of his power of death.