Pastor Nick Gatzke

You may never set foot on an actual battlefield. But you are standing on one right now, whether you feel it or not. From the Garden of Eden to the return of Christ, the Bible tells one long story of war—God against Satan, light against darkness, life against death. From beginning to end, that story moves toward a single, settled outcome: victory. Not a possible victory. Not a hoped-for victory. A promised one.

A Promise Made in a Curse

The war began the moment the serpent convinced Eve to doubt God, and Adam followed her into sin. In an instant, the harmony of Eden broke, and it looked as though creation itself might belong to Satan. But even as God pronounced judgment on the serpent, He tucked a promise inside the curse.

God said, to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). The serpent would only ever manage to strike a heel. One day, his head would be crushed for good. From that moment on, every page of Scripture has been walking toward the fulfillment of that promise—and so is your life.

Faith Looks Like a Shepherd Boy and a Broken Altar

The Old Testament is full of moments when defeat looked certain and God delivered victory anyway—almost always through people who had nothing to offer but trust. Take the shepherd boy who stood in front of a nine-foot-tall giant named Goliath while the entire army of Israel shook with fear. David did not run toward Goliath because he trusted his sling. He said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37). His confidence was never in himself. It was in the God whose armies Goliath had mocked.

Or take Elijah, standing alone against 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. He rebuilt a broken altar, soaked it with water three times over, and prayed a single sentence: “Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God” (1 Kings 18:37). Fire fell from heaven and consumed everything—the offering, the wood, even the water in the trench. The lesson in both stories is the same. It was never about the size of the giant or the number of prophets. It was about whose name was on the line. Every time God’s people trusted Him instead of themselves, they saw His victory. Every time they trusted their own strength, they lost.

That truth hasn’t changed. The faith you live by today will be the faith you die by. If your confidence rests in your own competence, your circumstances, or the people around you, you will eventually be disappointed. But God alone never fails those who place their trust in Him—even when His victory doesn’t arrive on your schedule.

Jesus Crushes the Serpent’s Head

By the time Jesus arrived, God’s people had wandered so far from Him that the temple rituals continued while His presence seemed absent. It felt, once again, like Satan had won. Then came the light.

Every demon Jesus cast out, every disease He healed, every sinner He forgave was a counterattack in the ancient war. He said it Himself: “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20). He described Himself as one stronger than the strong man, entering Satan’s house and taking back what belonged to him.

But it was the cross where victory was finally secured. Paul writes, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 2:15). Your sin and its debt were nailed to that cross and canceled. And through His resurrection, Jesus broke the power of death itself, so that He might “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). The serpent’s head has been crushed. The war is not undecided. It is only unfinished.

You Are Still at War—But You Already Know Who Wins

Here is what this means for you. First, you can have new life in Jesus, no matter how burdened you feel by your sin or your past. Second, you can be victorious over sin itself, because you are no longer a slave to it—you belong to Christ. As Martin Luther once said of the devil: When he comes knocking and asks who lives in your heart, Jesus answers the door: the old tenant moved out, and He moved in.

Third, understand that you are genuinely at war. Scripture doesn’t soften this. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Every temptation you resist, every prayer you pray, every act of worship is a small skirmish in a war whose ending has already been written. This is the fourth truth: the victory has been won on the cross, even though its full expression is still coming. Revelation pictures the day when Christ returns as the rider on the white horse, when Satan is finally and permanently thrown into the lake of fire, and God’s people reign with Him forever.

So take heart. The outcome was never in doubt. Live today with the confidence of someone who already knows how the story ends—not in yourself, not in your circumstances, but in the God who promised victory in a garden and delivered it on a cross. Surrender yourself to Him today, and stand on the side that has already won.

“A Word From Pastor Nick” is based on Pastor Nick Gatzke’s teaching series: Beyond Repair, message: Certain Death