by Doy Moyer<\/p>\n
All things were created by, through, and for Jesus, including all “thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities<\/em>” (Colossians 1:16).<\/p>\n Paul elsewhere calls these not only rulers and authorities but “cosmic powers over this present darkness<\/em>” and “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places<\/em>.” These are the ones against whom we battle, as opposed to flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12).<\/p>\n At some point, these spiritual powers and forces, created by and for the Lord, turned against Him and His creation. This is one of the reasons Jesus came into this world to die. By dying and being raised again, He not only offered forgiveness but also “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him<\/em>” (Colossians 2:15).<\/p>\n This is why, by trusting in God, we can be victorious. By His grace, He gives us victory over sin and death, including the spiritual forces of wickedness, and assures us of our salvation. Christ died to defeat death. By dying with Him, death is defeated for us, too. This is why we can be born again to a living hope (I Peter 1:3-5).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Doy Moyer All things were created by, through, and for Jesus, including all “thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities” (Colossians 1:16). Paul elsewhere calls these not only rulers and authorities but “cosmic powers over this present darkness” and “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” These are the ones against whom we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[109,735],"class_list":["post-66926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-death","tag-sovereignty"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13782,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-satan-created\/","url_meta":{"origin":66926,"position":0},"title":"Was Satan Created?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Years ago I was asked to teach a class on I Timothy 6 for a congregation that I was visiting. We read of Jesus Christ, \u201cthe King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18940,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-are-the-principalities-and-powers-in-heavenly-places\/","url_meta":{"origin":66926,"position":1},"title":"Who are the principalities and powers in heavenly places?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Who are the principalities and powers in heavenly places that the church can make known certain things? Answer: \"To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":97298,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/triumphant-entry\/","url_meta":{"origin":66926,"position":2},"title":"Triumphant Entry","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong As we come to the ending of Matthew's telling of the good news about the Messiah - Jesus, we come to the paragraph labeled in most English Bibles as 'The Triumphant Entry'. In some ways this has always seemed a misnomer, for he enters Jerusalem to end\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95456,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gods-son-the-king\/","url_meta":{"origin":66926,"position":3},"title":"God’s Son, the King","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 6, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier I hope you are into memorizing Scripture. If not, I encourage you to get started. And a great place to start is Colossians 1:15-20. This passage answers the question, \"Who is Jesus?\" The description of Jesus falls naturally into two sections. Both sections explain Jesus as the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":98546,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-visible-and-invisible-refer-to\/","url_meta":{"origin":66926,"position":4},"title":"What does “visible and invisible” refer to?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I thank you and your congregation for the wonderful explanations you provided. I also offer my heartfelt thanks to God for your ministry. Please help me grow in my knowledge of God; your lessons are proving immensely useful to my congregation, to me, and in my preachers' classes. Please\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29117,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-holy-spirit-doing-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":66926,"position":5},"title":"What is the Holy Spirit doing today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, I know The Holy Spirit has brought about the Word of God but is the Holy Spirit now inactive? Is its work finish? Answer: Just because Jesus' task of bringing salvation to the world through his death, I don't assume that He is no longer involved in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}