Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy." And in John 12:31: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." And in John 19:30: "It is finished."
That a last judgment was an object of his coming into the world is shown by the passage in Matthew 12:18—20, where the prophecy in Isaiah 42:1 is said to be fulfilled: "Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. . . . A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgmmt unto victory." And in John 9:39: "And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world."
It became possible, because of the judgment effected, because of the Lord's victory over the forces of evil, for men once again to act freely as of themselves in the rejection of evil. At the time he came the devils had taken almost full possession of the human race. It was one of his chief works to cast them out, and we can understand that he did, not merely in the individual
