“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13, NIV).

One of my patients walked in with a t-shirt I had never seen. I asked him what the words meant. He told me the story that took place in Brevard County, Florida, where a man jumped out of a car with an AR 15 and fired at sheriff deputies, hitting one. One of the deputy’s partners reloaded his own gun, came around the car, shot the criminal and then emptied his gun into the criminal. When asked why he fired so many bullets into the man who had shot his partner, he said the words written on my patient’s shirt, “Evil can never be dead enough.”

I’ve been raised with the deep truth that Christ’s work on the cross, the atonement, rectified my relationship with God by Christ taking the weight of my sins onto Himself. Because of that sacrifice, I have a new relationship with God and a transformed life, able to follow Him in a life that lasts forever.

What I have also known but am only recently beginning to comprehend is the second great work that Christ accomplished on the cross. He defeated the evil one.

In this world, there is true evil, planned and orchestrated by Satan, whom few talk about. I have seen it in young people dead from drug addiction. I have seen it in the slaughter of innocents for distorted religions or political ideology. I have seen it in the sexual exploitation of children. I have seen it in the abuse of the poor for personal gain. I have seen it in my heart at times.

As the Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it: “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.”

On the cross, Christ defeated Satan and restored hearts, but Satan still lashes out in his death agony.

Until Christ comes again, a defeated Satan will continue to wrap his evil around people God loves. As followers of the Christ who will one day come in victory, we have been recruited to stand against Satan’s grip on God’s beloved. We are to stand firm, break chains, relieve suffering and attack evil where we see it, even though it will surely cost us time, money and the sacrifice of personal dreams.

We are part of God’s solution to evil in this world, and “evil can never be dead enough.”

Dear Father,

Please deliver us each day from the evil one and keep us from cooperating with his plan.

Amen