Reading from Colossians 2:11-15, I understand that when I came to Christ He set me free from evil desires. My old self was removed, taken away (as the foreskin is cut off and removed in circumcision); it died with Christ; I was buried with Him, and I now have a new life with Him. He forgave all my sins and blotted out all the charges against me. He nailed them all to the cross, where they were destroyed. Therefore, at the cross God took away Satan’s power to accuse me of sin. And so all the evil powers, all the demons became powerless against me.

In fact, when Jesus died on the Cross, this act became a public display of triumph over evil—over Satan and his demons. This word display may also be rendered spectacle (NIV). Thayer’s Greek Lexicon indicates that the word means “to make an example of.” Hence, the meaning here is that at the cross God made a public example of Satan, putting him to shame, revealing his evil, and showing the world that He had defeated him.

According to MacArthur, “The picture [in Col. 2:15] is that of a victorious Roman general parading his defeated enemies through the streets of Rome.”