John 19:30 “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

When Jesus uttered these words, Satan should have said, “I am finished.” With Easter only three weeks away, we need to remind ourselves that the enemy was destroyed, defeated, and finished on the cross. In another sense, it was the day that death died and Satan’s days are numbered. Satan knows this and is working overtime to keep mankind from accepting it. Jesus won this victory for us; but we must claim and live it out despite Satan’s attacks on us. He has two prevalent tools to hit us with: temptation and condemnation. He minimizes sin by using temptation and saying to us that God is holding something back that could make us happy, or that it’s no big deal, or that everyone is doing it. He plants these false ideas in our minds to doubt God and has done so since the temptation in the Garden with Adam and Eve.”

Once we fall for the temptation and sin, Satan then changes his tactics and maximizes (not minimizes) the sin with guilt, condemnation and doubt of God’s forgiveness. Look at Adam and Eve in the Garden and how they tried to hide from God and cover their sin of guilt and condemnation. Easter confirms to us that Jesus defeated both temptation and condemnation. He nailed them and all our sins to the cross and took them for us. Don’t let the enemy play with your mind in either temptation or condemnation. They are both his lies and deceptions. Tell him he is finished and has been forever because of what Jesus finished on the cross. Tell him that you trust Jesus and what he did on the cross settles it in your heart that “It is finished now and forevermore.” Praise God that Easter confirms that “It is finished.”