When it comes to technology and the future, the dominant theme occupying conversations is artificial intelligence (AI). While AI holds great promise in fields like medicine, other possible applications are being discussed which seem dubious at best. One of these is the notion of “digital resurrection.”

One of the powers of AI is its ability to compile all known information about a subject and present it in written or voice-generated forms. The idea behind “digital resurrection” is that after a person is deceased, AI could gather and compile all known information about that person from sources like books, articles, videos, news, social media, and any other form available. From pictures of the deceased, a digital avatar would be constructed that would have access to all of the gathered data. The avatar could then interact with living persons who wanted to ask questions or dialogue with the avatar about the deceased person’s life. In other words, the deceased person would be “digitally resurrected” based on all known information gathered from the person’s past life.

That is obviously not what we understand resurrection to be: the bringing back to life of a deceased person in a glorified or eternal condition. Ancient cultures are filled with mythologies about resurrected, resuscitated, or reincarnated people. But none stand the test of historical evidence and proof except for the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ nearly two thousand years ago. His resurrection represents the victory over sin and death that gives hope to all who trust in Him.

But Satan did all he could to prevent Christ’s victory over sin and death. We remember that Satan attacked Adam, the first “son of God,” in the Garden of Eden. But God told Satan that a descendant of Adam and Eve would one day crush him (Genesis 3:15). When that descendant appeared—the “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45), Jesus Christ—it became Satan’s mission to destroy this true Son of God to prevent Him from implementing God’s plan of salvation for humanity. Likewise, it became Christ’s mission to make it to the Cross and be raised from the dead to defeat Satan’s plan—which He did.

Satan attempted to stop God’s salvation plan by using King Herod to kill all the male infants in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. That plan failed, and we see the next attempt at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry when the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted (Matthew 4:1-11). This event was Satan’s attempt to replay his victory over the first Adam in the Garden of Eden. Satan tempted the first Adam in a paradise filled with food by counterfeiting the words of God and tempting Adam to become like God with the knowledge of good and evil. Given that victory over the first Adam, Satan attempted to do the same with the last Adam under harsher circumstances: a wilderness with no food. Satan again counterfeited the Word of God in an attempt to get Jesus to sin, but Jesus resisted the temptations and won the victory at the beginning of His ministry.

Satan’s final battle against Jesus took place at the Cross. By marshaling the political and religious leaders against Jesus and having Him crucified, Satan thought that the ministry of the Son of God was over. But on the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead, demonstrating that God was not only victorious over sin at the Cross but victorious over death as well. When Jesus won the battle against Satan for Himself, He also won the battle for us: “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

Battle Tried

The Bible is clear: Jesus lived a sinless, undefiled life, never yielding to “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, [or] the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). The apostle Paul wrote, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). And in Philippians, Paul wrote that Christ being born “in the likeness of men ... humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (2:7-8). Jesus felt the fullest extent of any temptation that we could imagine and did not sin.

Because Jesus won the battle over temptation, He can help us win our battles with temptation as well. “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus was tempted “as we are,” yet He never yielded to those temptations.

Even when facing His own horrific death, Jesus resisted the temptation to avoid the Cross and remained obedient to the Father (Luke 22:41-44). Because He won every attack of Satan and because He came out of the grave, Christ can help us win every spiritual attack as well.

Battle Tested

Military planners draw a clear distinction between strategies and tactics. Strategies answer the “What” question, while tactics answer the “How” question. Strategies identify a goal, while tactics identify the means for achieving that goal.

An interpretation of a quote from Sun Tzu, the famous sixth-century B.C. Chinese general who wrote the classic text The Art of War, says, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory, but tactics without strategy are merely the noise before defeat.”

Satan has both a strategy (goal) and tactics (schemes). His goal is to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus by causing us to doubt God’s Word and God’s love. His tactics are to create temptations and circumstances that cause us to doubt God’s promises and provision and go our own way instead of His way. Paul wrote that the purpose of God providing spiritual armor for the Christian is so we can “take [our] stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:11, NIV).

Satan’s strategy against Jesus would have been first, to kill Him and second, to get Him to sin and negate His qualifications to be the sinless Lamb of God (John 1:29). Satan’s tactics included inciting a group of Jews in Nazareth to throw Him to His death from a clifftop—a tactic Jesus evaded (Luke 4:28-30).

Are you aware that Satan has schemes (tactics) that he will use against you? I cited 1 Peter 5:8 in an earlier article which says that Satan, like a lion, is constantly searching for “whom he may devour.” Jesus used the same spiritual armor we are provided with to defeat the schemes of the devil: truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer (Ephesians 6:10-18). Because He defeated the strategy and tactics of Satan, He can help us do the same.

Battle Triumphed

God left no stone unturned when it came to opening the tomb that held the body of Jesus. When God rolled away the stone, it was a sign that victory over death was certain. And as the apostle Paul would later explain, Jesus’ victory over death was our victory over death as well. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, so we will be raised from the dead too. “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:4-5).

Since God left no stone unturned and guaranteed our victory over death in Christ, let us leave no stone unturned in sharing the Good News with others!