All of our enemies are subject to Christ

“All the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. 14 And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. 15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. 16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. 17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts” (Mark 5:12-17).

When the man possessed with a legion of devils was under the bondage of satan and when the pig herders watched their pigs feeding contentedly, those pig overseers were at peace. But when the devils entered the pigs, causing them to run and choke themselves in the sea, and the man who had been possessed sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed, in his right mind, peacefully resting in the presence of the Son of God, the pig herders were afraid and begged Jesus to leave them.

The pig farmers were content when the man was possessed. But they were afraid of Jesus and begged Him to leave them when the man was freed from satan and the pigs perished. They valued pigs more than men. They were concerned when pigs perished but were unperturbed when a man was captive to satan. They were afraid of Jesus. They begged Him to leave them.

What can we learn from this?
- First, devils are stronger than men. They took possession of the man. They controlled him. They tormented him. The dwelling place of the possessed man was with the dead. Night and day he cried and cut himself with stones in the mountains and among the tombs. Though men had often bound him with chains and fetters, he had plucked the chains off and broken the fetters in pieces. No man could tame him. Men gave him up as hopeless. His was an impossible case for man. He is a picture of every man by nature.
All men are captive to satan by nature. Captivity to satan is the result of sin. Satan kept his goods (the man possessed of devils) in peace in his castle until a stronger than he came (Christ, Luke 11:20-22). Until Christ overcame the strong man, the man was in bondage, fearful, uncontrollable and out of his mind. But when Christ came, he ran and worshipped Him. When Christ commanded the devils to depart, he sat in his right mind. This is a perfect picture of an uncontrollable sinner subdued by grace.
- Only Christ can deliver men who are bound by satan. Though no man could tame the man, the devils obeyed Christ. Christ has power over the unseen powers of darkness and evil (1 Pet. 3:22; Matt. 28:18). Devils are subject to His word (Luke 10:17; 1 John 4:4; Rev. 12:11; 1 Pet. 5:9-9).
- The Lord Jesus gave the devils leave to enter pigs. Pigs are unclean animals. They represent reprobate man. Sheep cannot live on what pigs eat. Believers cannot live on works religion. Believers can only live on Christ. But pigs return to their wallowing in the mire of their own works.
- That Jesus gave leave to the devils to enter pigs shows that He is the Judge. He gives life to men at His will, and brings judgment on others because of their sins (John 5:22-23). If we are subject to satan’s control, it is because Christ allowed that control to satan. The devil takes men captive at his will because of God’s judgment against us for our sin. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are, to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you" (Rom. 6:16-17). It is just for God to judge us at the hand of our enemy. But our Judge must be our Savior! He who afflicts us for our foolishness, must save us by His grace (Ps. 107). May God grant us repentance unto life (2 Tim. 2:24-26)! We obey the Gospel of Christ from the heart, and so obey and worship Christ from the heart, by God-given faith, when we rely on God's grace to us in Christ, that by His obedience in death, we are cleansed, freed and made righteous before God (Rom. 1:5; 10:16-17; 16:25-26; 1 Pet. 1:21-22; Rom. 3:24-26; 5:9-10).
- Those Christ frees from satan sit in His presence, clothed, in their right mind, at rest and in quiet submission at the feet and in the presence of the Son of God! Salvation is deliverance from captivity to satan (Col. 1:13; Heb. 2:14). Salvation always puts us in our right mind, at peace and in rest before the Son of God, worshipping Christ. A right mind is faith in Christ: faith that sees the truth of salvation in Christ, faith that lives upon Christ, depending on His saving grace and work, and hoping in His promises of eternal life that we will appear before Him in His own righteousness (Ps. 17:15; 1 John 3:2; Gal. 5:5).
- Those who love unclean pigs more than Christ’s sheep are afraid of Christ. Fear of Christ is the only reasonable response of a sinner in the presence of the almighty Judge of men and angels, to whom the darkness and the light are both alike (Ps. 139:12). Christ sees the darkness inside of us as the noonday sun. Sin produces terror before the all-seeing eye of the One who loves righteousness and hates iniquity. Only grace can give us a sight of Christ to see that though we are sinners, He is the almighty Savior of sinners! We are saved by His grace (Mark 5:33-34; Eph. 2:8-9).
- ​With a God-given sight of Christ as our just God and Savior, we hear His life-giving, soul-calming words to come to Him, to look, to call, to take, to eat and drink, to draw from the wells of His salvation (Isa. 12:3; Ps. 116:13). Seeing Christ as the One who honored God in His law and justice, and who made known His grace to sinners-- forgiving our sins for Christ’s sake (Eph. 4:32) and giving to us His justifying righteousness by grace (Rom. 5:17-19)--we are irresistibly drawn to Him (John 1:17; 6:44-45; Matt. 11:28-30; Acts 13:39).

Sinners are afraid of an almighty, all-seeing God. But fear of the Savior is the fear of unbelief. Sinners ought to fear God the Judge. He will not clear the guilty. But grace gives faith in Christ as the Savior of our souls from all of our enemies, especially the root enemy: our sin against God. Grace enables us to see that though satan is stronger than we, that though we are by nature the children of wrath even as others, yet by God’s word, though hell-deserving and helpless and hopeless in ourselves, we can and must look to Christ and find Him to be all of our salvation, to the glory of God.

Rick Warta