Overcome Evil with Good

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Colossians 2:13-15 "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

Think

Growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, we lived on a dirt road. Behind our house was a stretch of woods that led down to a lake. I was in the fifth grade when my dad said one evening, "Come on, son. Let’s walk down to the water." So we headed out through the trees, just the two of us, with nothing but a tiny flashlight to cut through the dark.

We got about halfway to the lake when my dad stopped. He pointed the flashlight toward the ground and said, "Look." There it was. A water moccasin. About five feet long, thick as my forearm, coiled up on the trail. I froze. And then my dad moved the light a little further, and my stomach dropped. There were not one or two of them. There were dozens. Fifty or more. It was a mating frenzy. Water moccasins were writhing and sliding all around our feet, across the trail, through the underbrush. We were standing in the middle of it.

I have never been more terrified in my life. I could not move. I could not think. I just stood there, paralyzed, staring at the ground. And then my dad crouched down and said four words that I have never forgotten. "Son, jump on my back." I did not hesitate. I jumped on. I wrapped my arms around his neck, buried my face in the back of his shirt, and held on with everything I had. And my dad, with that tiny flashlight in one hand, navigated through those snakes step by step until we were clear.

I did not see most of the journey. My face was pressed into his shirt. I could feel him stepping carefully, shifting his weight, choosing each footfall. I could hear the rustling around us. But I did not look. I did not need to. Because I was on my father's back. And if he said he could get us through, I believed him.

That is the picture I want you to carry with you as we close out this week. Everything we have walked through—the forgetting, the evil, the furnace, the mist, the sacrifice, the choice of what to build on, all of it comes together in one place. The cross. "When you were dead in your sins," Paul writes, "God made you alive with Christ." Dead. Not struggling. Not underperforming. Dead. Without any ability to save yourself, heal yourself, or free yourself. And God stepped in. He did not send a program. He did not hand you a manual. He sent his Son.

Paul says God "canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness." Think about that language. There was a record of every wrong you have ever committed. Every lie, every betrayal, every selfish decision. That record was real, and it stood against you. You could not erase it. You could not pay it off. The debt was infinite, and your resources were zero. And God took that record and nailed it to the cross. Not to punish you. To free you. The very instrument of death became the instrument of your liberation.

Here is the image that I believe captures the heart of the gospel as powerfully as anything I have ever said. My dad did not stand at a safe distance that night on the dirt road and shout instructions. He did not shine the flashlight from twenty yards away and say, "Good luck, son. Step carefully." He crouched down right there in the middle of the snakes and said, "Get on my back." He put himself between me and the danger. He took every risk of being bitten so that I did not have to. That is what God did. When we were paralyzed by sin, surrounded by evil on every side, unable to take a single step without being struck, God did not stay at a safe distance. He put on flesh. He stepped into the venom of a broken world. And on the cross, he took the strike that was meant for us. That is the gospel. That is Colossians 2. While we stood frozen in the darkness, unable to move, unable to save ourselves, God stepped into the middle of our mess, crouched down, and said, "Jump on my back. I am carrying you out of this."

And Paul does not stop at the cross. He says that God "disarmed the powers and authorities" and "made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." Three things defeated Satan. The incarnation of Christ, when God put on flesh and entered the battlefield. The crucifixion of Jesus, when the price was paid in full. And the resurrection, when death itself lost its grip. The tank has fired. He is done. Satan was defeated in AD 33, and everything he does now is the flailing of a conquered enemy who knows his time is running out.

All week long we have been circling one verse. Romans 12:21. "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." That is not just a command. It is a description of what God already did. Evil did its absolute worst on a Friday afternoon two thousand years ago. It took the sinless Son of God and nailed him to a Roman cross. And three days later, good overcame it. The tomb was empty. The stone was rolled away. And the one who had been dead was alive, forever. Evil had its moment. But good got the last word.

All week long we have been building a case for remembering. Remember that God is faithful and prosperity makes us forget. Remember that evil is covert and patient. Remember that courage is forged in the furnace. Remember that life is a mist. Remember that freedom has a price and love lays itself down. Remember that your blessings come from God, not from the strength of your own hands. But every one of those memories points to one: the cross. That is the memorial that holds all the others together.

I think about that night on the dirt road in Columbia. The snakes everywhere. The darkness pressing in. My face buried in my dad's shirt. And my dad, calm and steady, carrying me through it one step at a time. God is saying the same thing to you right now. "Jump on my back. I am in control." You do not have to navigate the snakes on your own. You do not have to see every step of the path ahead. You just have to hold on to the one who has already walked through the worst the enemy can throw at him and come out the other side. What we remember determines how we respond, and how we respond reveals what we remember. If you remember the cross, your only possible response is to jump on his back and hold on for the rest of your life. The cross is not just an event in history. It is the moment when God said to all of creation, "I have got you. And nothing, not evil, not death, not the powers of hell, will ever pry you from my back."

Apply

Jump on his back – Whatever you are facing today, stop trying to navigate it alone. Surrender it to God. Say out loud, "I am jumping on your back, Father. Carry me through this." Then trust him with the journey, even when you cannot see the path.

Pray

Father, thank you for stepping into the darkness when you could have stayed in the light. Thank you for crouching down in the middle of our mess and saying, "Jump on my back." Thank you for the cross that canceled every charge against me. Thank you for the empty tomb that proved evil does not get the last word. I am done trying to navigate the darkness on my own. I am jumping on your back. Carry me through, Lord. I trust you with every step. In Jesus' name. Amen.