God Will Crush Satan

July 1st, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Romans 16:19-20 For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Paul had many friends in Rome (noted in the greetings in 16:3-15) in spite of the fact that he had never been to Rome. These friends and acquaintances had obviously spoken well of the church there, for Paul was confident of their salvation and their obedience related to saving faith. In v. 19 he tells them that their “obedience has reached to all…” This may be why so many had flocked to Rome, for it appears to have been a great place to minister and be ministered to.

Clearly Paul did not consider the Roman Christians to be naïve, but he knew all too well, as his 13 NT epistles suggest, that even reputable Christians are susceptible to divisive, false teachers. Though Paul rejoiced over the Christians in Rome, like a parent to a child, he loved them enough to warn them about potential dangers. He not only admonished them to remember the doctrines they had been taught, he also exhorted them to stay away from trouble and troublemakers (16:17-18). Moreover, in v. 19, he followed their progress as they matured—“the report of your obedience,” rejoicing in that they not only received right doctrine, they obeyed it.

Also in v. 19, Paul is like a proud father sending his accomplished son back to college for his sophomore year. Whereas the son did well as a freshman and was faithful to all that his parents taught him, his father gives further advice knowing that his son is not completely immune from the temptations to do evil. First, Paul says, “be wise as to what is good…” To be “wise” is to have an educated understanding of “what is good,” for what is “good” is subjective to some who are prone to call evil “good.” Paul wanted the Christians in Rome, like parents want for their children, to have a thorough comprehension of that which is truly good in God’s eyes.

Second, Paul wanted them to be “innocent to what is evil”—unmixed and purified from evil. In secular Greek “innocent” (Gr. akeraios) was used for wine that was not diluted and of metal that was not weakened by impurities. The term originally referred to walls that had endured a siege. They were “innocent” in that they were intact, or unharmed. Paul used the term in Philippians 2:15 to denote Christians who refuse to be tainted with grumbling over their tasks and are thus “pure.” Jesus used the term when He sent His disciples out as sheep among wolves, saying, “Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). In other words, Christians first need the serpent’s wisdom to distinguish between obvious truth and believable errors, and second, they need to believe the truths of God so fervently that when attacks on the truth come upon them, they are unharmed, unscathed, and intact when the dust settles. Certainly there are many attacks on the Bible and Jesus in the modern day. Followers of Christ should know enough about their faith to identify the attack and withstand it boldly with the truth.

In v. 20 Paul frankly reminds and encourages his brothers in Christ that the God of peace will indeed win the battle over good and evil in that He will “soon crush Satan under your feet.” On the surface, a God of “peace” crushing another seems awkward. But since there can be no enduring peace as long as evil lurks, the God of peace is called such because He will make peace by crushing Satan—the evil one. This has been the promise since the beginning when God told Eve that her seed (Jesus) would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). Although Christ inflicted the fatal blow at the cross, Satan’s ultimate doom is yet future when Christ returns to destroy all false teachers and establish everlasting peace (cf. Rev. 19-20). This is the Christian hope, and it encompasses all the grace that Christians have in “our Lord Jesus.”

Food For Thought
Since the mission field for Christians is always a location where unbelievers gather or live, then the mission field for Satan is the Church, where Christians gather for worship. We should never be surprised to identify one of Satan’s emissaries in our churches. He sends them to our churches to grumble and disagree, whisper about people behind their backs, start rumors about pastors and elders, cast doubt on the pastor’s sermons, and outright accuse God’s people of things for which they are innocent. How will we respond when they rear their ugly heads in our churches, when they accuse us? How we respond will reflect our wisdom or lack thereof. Beware of them, and always be on the alert for them.