The Believer's Present Standing

by T.M. Hyland, Birkenhead | Category: Satan And His Kingdom | Nov 1981

Throughout the centuries of man's history a mysterious evil power has wielded a profound influence in his affairs. Of this the evidence is irrefutable, and present world trends amply verify man's inability to free himself from it. This evil power is identified in Scripture as the awesome celestial being whose career and aspirations have been reviewed here month by month during the present year. Former contributors to the series have explored in some detail the biblical treatment of this momentous subject. Thoughtful readers, no doubt, have been impressed afresh with its gravity and its practical bearing on Christian life and service.

With this, as with all other facets of divine revelation, it is necessary to discipline our minds to accept with unquestioning faith what is written. And where Scripture is silent we must not resort to speculation. The careful expositor strives to hold the balance of revealed truth. Keeping this in mind it is apparent that any survey of the history of redemption which underrates or distorts Satan's crucial role in the great conflict of the ages will be found wanting.

The scope of Satanic aspirations

For the administration of His universe the Most High delegates certain

powers to an order of celestial beings created for this purpose. They are named in Scripture "principalities and powers", their activities being controlled and harmonized according to the Creator's will. The Biblical record indicates that among these exalted beings a foremost place was assigned to Satan who was endowed with the highest intelligence and all the necessary powers befitting such high office.

In the counsels of Deity the Son of God is the appointed Heir of all things (Heb. 1:2). As such He is the Head of all principality and power (Col. 2:10). In Him the entire universe subsists. The ineffable glory of His Person and office was answered by the adoration of the entire heavenly host until an insidious rebellion inspired by Satan took shape. The scale and consequences of that rebellion were catastrophic. It led those who conceived it to cast off the restraints prescribed by the Creator and to aspire to forbidden heights. Satan's ultimate ambition is the dethronement of the Son of God so that he can capture for himself the allegiance and disposition of the entire creation. Such are the cosmic proportions of the conflict between God and His inveterate adversary. The issue can never be in doubt, but the course of the conflict is master-minded through its various stages by the triune God.

The Tragedy of Eden

Satan's traitorous ambitions brought swift and overwhelming judgement. The incarnate Christ portrayed that fateful event with one brief yet potent comment: "I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18). This did not imply that he was deprived of all his powers. Although expelled from high office among the heavenly hierarchy Satan and the vast host of spirits who joined in his rebellion were permitted to inhabit the earth and the air. From that vantage point he directs his kingdom of darkness in opposition to God's kingdom of light, still nursing the delusion that he can eventually outwit his Creator.

As we have already observed, the Satanic rebellion had cosmic consequences. But it transpired that the planet earth was to be the arena for the battle to be joined. The stage was set when the first man was installed as head of his earthly domain. Satan calculated that if he could capture Adam's allegiance and gain a foothold in his territory then mankind would fall under his sway. This daring and wicked enterprise was conceived and executed with characteristic cunning. The details of the Serpent's tactics in Eden need not detain us here. They have been carefully scrutinized in an earlier article in this series. Suffice it to say that what Satan imagined was his masterstroke proved to be his fatal blunder. There would be another Man another day. From the ruin of Eden God surveyed the centuries of human history and looked on to Bethlehem, to Gethsemane, to Gabbatha, to Golgotha, and to new heavens and a new earth purged from every trace of the Serpent's trail.

The guilty pair, crestfallen, were driven from the divine presence. But not without assurance of eventual deliverance; their adversary would one day meet his Conqueror:

Soon as the reign of sin began

The light of mercy dawned on man,

When God announced the early news,

"The woman's Seed thy head shall bruise".

It was as though the Son of God, the eternal Word and Heir of all things, with compassionate love said, I will go after them and provide the way by which the banished ones may be brought back to My Father.

The Triumph of Golgotha

One glorious day it happened! Rising from His throne in unapproachable light, the Son of God laid aside the garments of imperial majesty and, by

birth from a human mother, entered His own world. This was the Event of the ages. Creation waited for it, wise men and prophets longed to see it, angels desired to look into it. At the time, in the place, and in the manner prescribed in the prophetic word the Redeemer had come "that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). Every step of His pathway was dogged by the evil one. But the tempter could gain no advantage over the second Man. As Satan deployed all his forces, spiritual and human, for the decisive battle, the sinless undefiled Son of Man announced to His apostles, "The prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me" (John 14:30).

Satan's victory over the first man exposed all mankind to the Creator's righteous wrath. There was, however, a means by which that wrath could be averted - by the sacrifice of a sinless victim who could "bear the wrath to sinners due". Thus only could God's claims be vindicated and man retrieved from the bondage of sin and Satan. This was the crux of the Redeemer's mission, and Satan's strategy was to divert Him from it at that critical late hour.

At Golgotha the battle-lines were drawn. On the one side stood Satan, the author of evil; on the other, the Lord's Anointed, the Heir of all things:

"Earth trembles in the scale,

Yet knows not of the fight,

And if her fearful foe prevail,

It will be always night".

Glorious victory! Battle-scarred, yet completely in command, the lonely Sufferer vanquished His adversary and paid the ransom price. All Satan's ambitions received their death blow. "When the Man on the centre cross suddenly raised His resolute eyes to the sky, and cried, 'It is finished' the whole kingdom of darkness must have trembled to its foundations".

Although Satan's defeat took place on Golgotha's hill the Saviour's cry of victory resounded in the far distances of the universe. The apostle Paul described the extent of the finished work of Christ with the words, "having made peace through the blood of His cross" (Col. 1:20). The context of that phrase indicates that through the Saviour's sacrificial death harmony will be restored to the entire creation. Every discordant note introduced by Satan will be eliminated for ever and the old serpent banished to the lake of fire. Such will be the far-reaching consequences of the Redeemer's reconciling work. It is the divine purpose "to sum up all things in Christ" (Eph. 1:10). Then at long last, and for eternity, God will "be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28).

"In Christ" - A new Creation

From New Testament revelation we learn that the Redeemer's victory had retrospective consequences for mankind of former ages (see e.g. Rom. 3:25;

Heb. 2:14,15). And the future of the nation of Israel, as well as much else arising from God's dealings with mankind in past ages, comes within the framework of the total triumph at Golgotha. In studying Scripture treatment of our subject this telescopic view should always be given its place. But in closing this article we look specifically at the bearing of the Second Man's victory in terms of divine-human relationships in the present age.

Adam's fall into sin was not something affecting him alone. He was federal head of the human race from whom we all inherit a sinful status. The sins we commit as individuals arise from, and are proof of our state of alienation from God transmitted to us from Adam. This solidarity of mankind with its federal head lies at the base of the apostle Paul's reasoning in Romans 5:12-21. There he compares man's standing in Adam with the believer's standing in Christ. Adam was a figure (type) of Him that was to come. Both Adam and Christ transmitted to their posterity the consequences of a single decisive act. Adam's one trespass brought all his offspring under the dominion of sin and death. The Second Man by one act of obedience transmits His perfect righteousness' to all united to Him as their federal Head. When a child of Adam comes to Christ in repentance and faith he is delivered out of the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God's love (Col. 1:13).

This glorious concept captivated the mind and heart of Paul during his first Roman imprisonment. To summarize all that has been secured for the believer through his identification with his Saviour the apostle brings into service the term "in Christ". In the opening verses of Ephesians I the stream of divine grace is traced back to its source: we were chosen "in Christ" before the foundation of the world. Then the apostle follows the revitalizing stream as it flows down to Adam's sinful posterity through the triumph of Golgotha: "we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace". Finally, he identifies the moment when the virtue of the covenant Sacrifice is credited to each believer: "in whom (Christ) ... having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, - in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance".

Satan is powerless to touch our new standing "in Christ": "your life is hid with Christ in God", wrote Paul to the Colossians (3:3). "In Christ" the believer is endowed with a new quality of manhood which will be fully manifested in due course: "we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is" (1 John 3:2),

"Like Him in all those lovely traits,

Which in His lowly, earthly days

So beautiful we see".

This moral transformation will coincide with the bodily change which is the crown of our new standing "in Christ": "we wait for a Saviour... who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory" (Phil. 3:20,21).

"What then shall we say to these things?"

At the conclusion of this brief study of a captivating theme Paul's challenge has a particular relevance. The dimension of the Redeemer's victory over our infamous foe, in its conception and execution, brings us face to face with the nobility of our calling. We belong to a new age which the world takes no account of. Yet we are required in our present lives to transmit the characteristics of our new status "in Christ" in terms of human conduct. "I therefore . . . beseech you" pleaded Paul, "to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and meekness" (E ph. 4:1,2). The exhortation touches us all. Laxity in Christian conduct is all too obvious in this superficial age. The corrective is assimilation, by faith and holy contemplation, of the true nature of our calling. As the Spirit of God enlightens and animates our minds there will be a shining through in our manner of life: "Every one that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure" (1 John 3:3).

T.M. Hyland, Birkenhead | Nov 1981
Satan And His Kingdom