"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world -our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1 John 5:4-5

At some point before God made man the earth was inhabited by Lucifer and a third of God’s angels. Lucifer had been the anointed cherub at the very throne of God in heaven until he was entrusted with managing the earth. When he became corrupted he slandered the Creator turning the angels under him against God. He convinced them to join him in making war against God in an attempt to take the throne.

But he was defeated by the mighty Archangel Michael and was cast back down to the earth. God changed his name to Satan the devil, meaning enemy or adversary. Satan hated God but lost the battle.

What must have went through his wicked mind when he saw God create man in His own image and give him dominion over the earth? He couldn’t get to God but he could get to man. He wanted to destroy man but first he planned to inflict pain upon God by tempting man to join the rebellion.

Peter John Kreeft posed, -"Supposed you’re the devil. You’re the enemy of God and you want to kill Him, but you can’t. However, He has this ridiculous weakness of creating and loving human beings, whom you can get at. Aha! Now you’ve got hostages! So you simply come down into the world, corrupt humankind, and drag some of them to hell. When God sends prophets to enlighten them, you kill the prophets. Then God does the most foolish thing of all - He sends His own Son and He plays by the rules of the world. You say to yourself, ‘I can’t believe He’s that stupid! Love has addled his brains! All I have to do is inspire some of my agents -Herod, Pilate, Caiaphas, the Roman soldiers - and get Him crucified.’ And that’s what you do. So there He hangs on the cross - forsaken by man and seemingly by God, bleeding to death and crying, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?’ What do you feel now as the devil? You feel triumph and vindication! But of course you couldn’t be more wrong."

The devil’s party was about to begin when he heard Jesus say -"Father forgive them for they don’t understand what they are doing." Then Jesus said, -"Father, receive My spirit - it is finished."

The devil must have wondered, "I thought God had forsaken Him" - "They killed Him, how can He forgive them?" - "What does He mean it is finished?"

Jesus turned tragedy into triumph and was saying to the devil, "You are finished!"