When Did Love Win?

 

Love Wins! 

What an awesome slogan. But there is a problem with it--it comes a little late. It's as if today's headline declared victory over Nazi Germany. The battle for the supremacy of love took place over 2000 years ago, but not at the moment you may think. 
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For love to win, it must have an opponent. Since God IS love, then his ultimate opponent is Satan. The showdown came on a lonely desert hillside when the Son of God was at his weakest. We read about it in Luke 4. Satan came at Love from a dozen angles, but they all had the same theme: Forget God's will and satisfy your flesh. Satan's goal was to forever enslave the people God loves, but he cloaked it as a simple compromise. The temptation sounded much like this:"You have a need. I can satisfy it. Maybe God's way isn't the only way." 
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His theme hasn't changed much. He still promises that his alternative to obedience will satisfy our need and God won't mind. He still insists that sin is no big deal and that love wins if we say it did. 
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But on that day of the ultimate showdown, true Love won with the words:"It is written..." 
Love refused to compromise the plan of God for His own fleshly desires. 
Love had a bigger goal in mind. He was going to offer His victory to anyone who would join Him in declaring it. 
Love won when He allowed men He'd created to nail him to a cross. And it shouted final victory when He kicked the stone away from the tomb and sent the demons running for cover. Love won when He broke the chains of slavery from the very sins that many now celebrate. 
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Love always wins when we defy Satan's compromise with the words, "It is written..."
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Love did not win with the Supreme court decision. Love has already won for any person who is willing to stand beside Him on a lonely hillside and declare to our Enemy: "No, Satan! I will not be enslaved by you any more. You have no power over me because love already won!"

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