And the unclean spirit, shaking him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.
This verse describes the forced retreat of an evil spirit before the authority of Christ. The demon’s final outburst shows that evil does not easily release the victim it has seized, but the final word belongs not to it, but to the Lord. A person’s deliverance is often accompanied by struggle, yet if Christ is the one acting, the deliverance is certainly real and complete. This episode comforts the believer that no matter how heavy the bonds of sin and darkness may be, the power of Christ is sufficient to break them.