MARTIN CAREY
Every night Sharon and I take our little old dog Cashew for a 20-minute walk. Even though we live in a mostly peaceful neighborhood, we have seen the wild creatures who come down from the wild hills to play, hunt, and eat after dark. Some nights we are amused by the wild donkeys wandering into our yards to munch on our plants.
One night a few weeks ago we were sharply reminded of the dangers of the night. We were walking Cashew down our street when Sharon heard a little noise behind us, and before I knew what was happening, she whirled around and screamed with all her might. Suddenly I saw them, two big coyotes running towards our little dog, just a few feet away. When Sharon yelled, they veered off into the nearby yards. We chased them as they ran off into the darkness. That was a very close call, their sharp teeth almost grabbing Cashew—and we had no weapons to fight them. We gave thanks to God for deliverance and for letting Sharon hear coyote claws on the pavement, just in time. Cashew went back to marking his territory, never having any idea of his danger.
We walk in a dark world with many spiritual dangers lurking in the shadows, waiting for their chances to grab and devour. Jesus called our spiritual enemies the powers of darkness for good reason. Satan’s minions live in darkness because they rely on concealment, deception, and confusion to gain advantage. They avoid the light of exposure and truth.
The night when Jesus was being arrested in Gethsemane, he told the priests and temple officers, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:52-53). Jesus knew His enemies well, and exactly how the domain of darkness controls its subjects. He also knew what He was about to accomplish in the next hours. He would be tortured and killed, and in dying and rising, He would defeat and expose the dark domain forever. No power could stop Him.
Before we are rescued by Jesus, we are helpless, oblivious, and utterly subject to the domain of darkness. Someone with greater power has to rescue us. We all followed the “prince of the power of the air” and lived for ourselves, “carrying out the desires of the body and the mind” (Ephesians 2:2-3), unaware of our mortal danger. We were unable to deliver ourselves from our hopeless condition, especially because we enjoyed living for those desires. Then came the rescue from that hopeless state. Paul describes that rescue with vivid language:
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:12-14).
The word used for “delivered” is derived from the Greek “rhuomai” (https://biblehub.com/greek/4506.htm), which means to drag out, draw, or snatch away from extreme danger. We had to be dragged out of the dark domain, for we were helpless to pull ourselves away. That rescue from darkness is really good news because of what came next. We were “transferred” to the kingdom of the “Son of His love”— transferred to stay. The Greek word for transferred was used to describe the movement of a people out of a conquered land to a new land where they would now live as new subjects.
What a powerful picture of what God does for us, through Christ, when we trust in Him! We are completely uprooted and moved out of the kingdom of Satan’s darkness and transplanted into the Son’s kingdom. Our citizenship and identities are radically changed into something new and better.
As Adventists who were raised on Great Controversy theology, we believed God’s ability to control and limit Satan was very limited because God’s character was on trial. God had decided that “for the good of the entire universe through ceaseless ages, Satan must more fully develop his principles” (The Great Controversy, p. 489). God, we believed, risked the safety and lives of many, only because He had to first be vindicated before a watching universe. In this paradigm, Satan was allowed to have the power to snatch us away from Christ and drag us back to his dark domain—where we would be lost. The cosmic tug-of-war between Satan and Christ was a very personal, present danger for any of us.
Now, however, we have the confidence of God’s sure word, that although Satan is a powerful foe, much stronger than us, we who belong to Jesus can never be snatched away (Jn. 10:28-30). The language of rescue and belonging in these passages is strong and undeniable. We are transferred to a kingdom where the Son rules perfectly, even though we are not perfect. What’s more, we belong there! How do we know? Look at again at Colossians 1, verses 11 and 12:
“Being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanksto the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”
He has qualified all those who trust in Him, all those who are justified by His blood. The word used here for “qualified” is applied to those who are sufficient, able, and fit for that inheritance. In fact, the same word is used in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6:
“…our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
Indeed, our fitness and sufficiency aren’t based on our obedience but on the blood and merits of Jesus. He has already qualified us in a new covenant of His blood and His Spirit. Jesus is sufficient, and in Him, so are we. That is the best protection against Satan and all his minions of darkness who try to snatch us away. There are two domains, and there is deliverance for all those who look to Jesus. He is not entangled in any “great controversy” with Satan, a defeated enemy. So, we don’t fear the darkness, physical or spiritual. Christians are in a new and better realm, and so let us remind ourselves and each other of who we are:
“At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:8-11). †
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