Vintage Clip: Does the Cross Change Satan's Authority?

0:00Here's the question. Does the cross and resurrection alter Satan's authority? Okay, so we wanna walk faithfully through scripture and say something happens when Jesus dies on a cross and raises from the dead, there's some sort of alteration that takes place there. And I don't think that there's too much debate about this because the texts are just very clear on this matter, right? So on the one hand, you have Colossians 2, Colossians 215, speaks of Christ, disarming rulers and authorities. And of course, that's referring to spiritual forces of evil. And it says that that's through his death and resurrection. So he's disarmed the rulers and authorities. Hebrews 2.14 proclaims that Christ came in flesh and blood. And this is what Hebrews 2.14 says through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death. That is the devil, all right? And then first John 3.8, which is similar, says the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil, all right?

1:01So again, this is Christ's overall work and ministry there. And then John 1231 says, now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler be, or the ruler of this world be cast out? So if you look at how these verses play out, and there are probably other ones we could, we could add to this. One of the key themes that arises here is that Christ's death and resurrection, you know, through these actions, Christ's death and resurrection, Satan has effectively been sentenced through Christ's work, okay? Now, again, as we say this though, you know, I think, again, there's a bit of attention because we see that even though the decision has been made and judgment has been cast as it were, the victory of the Messiah is assured, Satan still retains authority and power. And we know that because post-resurrection

2:04and post-cross, obviously, resurrection comes after cross, cross and resurrection after the fact, we have plenty of New Testament writings which affirm the authority and power of Satan still, all right? So examples of this, which is the kind of funny thing. On the one hand, you have the same author, John, who earlier in John 1231, said the ruler of this world will be cast out, okay? Well, in his other writings, he says, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, first John 5.19. That's, you know, pretty exhausted, right? The whole world lies in the power of the evil one, first John 5.19. Similarly, the same author that said, Christ's death and resurrection disarmed, the rulers and authorities, that's Paul, right? Colossians 2.15. He also calls Satan the God of this world in 2 Corinthians 4.4. And he blinds the minds of the unbelievers, deceiving them, right? Paul again refers to Satan as the prince of the power of the air, Ephesians 2.2,

3:06which is a reference to Satan's power and authority. You know, again, the author, you know, these are the same authors, John and Paul, on the one hand, they say, you know, Jesus through his death and resurrection has assured the defeat of Satan, and yet they say, you know, but Satan is still alive, active and very powerful, right? And, you know, you think of some of the other texts in scripture just, you know, giving a broad survey, you see that Satan is very active and very, very powerful in the church. I mean, you think about Acts 5, you have the filling of Ananias's art by Satan himself. So Satan has filled the heart of Ananias. We see Satan directly opposing Paul's mission in 2 Corinthians 12.7 related to the Paul's thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan. Again, in 1 Thessalonians 2.18, Satan hinders Paul from going to the Thessalonians. That was Paul's own testimony. So Satan is actively opposing the mission of the church and doing it very powerfully and effectively in many ways. In fact, Paul even says in 2 Thessalonians 2,

4:08that there'll be in the future a lawless one who comes and will work in the power and activity of Satan. Okay, and I know some people say 2 Thessalonians is not in the future, but I think a lot of people would acknowledge even in all mill and post mill, there are people who say, yeah, that has to be future because it hasn't happened yet. The coming lawless one works these great signs and wonders by the power of Satan and that never happened up to this point. So most likely we're looking at that in the future, right? And I guess maybe the greatest warning in all of this would be 1 Peter 5, 8, right? In 1 Peter 5, 8, we're told to be sober mind. It'd be watchful because your adversary, the devil, rouse around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. So all these texts kind of start to add up. And like I said, we have all these references to Satan and the devil in the New Testament. It's very clear he's a main player and post resurrection and post cross. We have these texts which tell us

5:10Satan's power is real, it's active, it's authoritative. And so again, how do we solve these tensions? Because again, on the one hand, you had some of the same authors say, Satan is assuredly defeated. And then we have now be careful because Satan is your most powerful adversary. So what in the world? So it's attention, right? Satan is said to be disarmed due to the cross in resurrection, but Satan retains authority according to the New Testament. He's, I guess the way I would describe it is he's an imposter awaiting the true king. Now, there's a couple ways to illustrate this, I think. I'll give kind of one theoretical example and then maybe a biblical example for how this works because I know it's really helpful to have an illustration for this concept. All concepts are helpful to have illustrations. But how is it that Satan can said to be disarmed, destroyed, but then also have such power that the New Testament talks about? Well, I think maybe on a practical level,

6:14the idea of an eviction notice could help. So if you've ever rented or engaged in renting a house to somebody or renting a house from somebody, hopefully you've never received an eviction notice, but it actually happens. In fact, as I was talking about this with somebody recently, they said, oh yeah, let me tell you, like this is a perfect illustration because this happened to me and it was terrible. So what ends up happening is if your renter doesn't pay rent or whatever and you need to evict them, you send them an eviction notice. And so legally, they are cast out from the premises and you've given them that eviction notice. Legally, they are not allowed to stay there anymore, but sometimes they stay there. Sometimes they destroy the house on their way out. Actually, lawfully, if you do that, you are not allowed to remove them physically. You can't use the force to do that. That's the authorities that need to do that. And so that's the issues that legally and bindingly,

7:18their power to reside there or be there has been done away with. And yet, they are able to remain there. They're able to have control of the environment to mess it up as much as they can, destroying the walls, destroying the windows, all those things. And when the authority comes, when the authority comes, to enforce the eviction notice, then the renters will be cast out. And the same kind of idea applies to Satan, right? He is legally defeated at the cross. His eviction has been assured. And yet, we are awaiting for Christ to come back to officially cast him out and remove him from his pout. Okay, I think that that makes sense of the New Testament texts. And it also makes sense, just given the theological ramifications of Christ's return and all those things. Now, biblically speaking, there are actually examples of this for precedence as well. On the one hand, you know, Saul and David think of that example.

8:18Now, a lot of times, Saul and David are, you know, given as examples of a king that can be anointed as king, David is anointed as king, but it's a later until he actually ascends to the throne to rule, okay? And I think that that's true. But on the other hand too, think about it from Saul's perspective, he is deposed as king in 1 Samuel 15. So, 1 Samuel 13, his dynasty is dethroned. God says, you know, your kingdom will not survive. Like, you're the last, you're the last one. Your family won't rule anymore. And then in 1 Samuel 15, because he refuses to hack Ag Ag to pieces, then, you know, God says, I have rejected you as king now, individually. So 13 is the dynasty of Saul 15 is the actual individually rejected king that Saul is. And so what that means is that Saul

9:19has been rejected formally and officially by God as king. But you'll notice that he keeps raining and he fights against the next king. That's coming, David. Even though David has been anointed, Saul has been rejected. Everyone knows who the king is supposed to be and who is coming, Saul fights as much as he can, not just fighting against David, but also fighting against anybody who associates with David. I mean, the allegory there is just, you know, thick. You know, I love it. But the reality is it's just an illustration, right? It's just an illustration of the fact that when Satan's authority has been dealt this legal blow at the cross and through the resurrection, showing that he's ultimately defeated, he still remains in power because Christ has not returned to cast him out finally. Okay. And so I think if we look at this comprehensive review of scripture and just look at how these things are being put together, I think that this is the best and easiest way to make sense of all these passages. Is that Satan has been dealt the death blow.

10:21His works have been destroyed, but that, you know, effectual destroying of what Satan has done has not occurred yet. You know, it's just, it's just in part, right? We see it just barely in part. But the reality is that there's going to come a time when Christ returns, where Satan will be completely de-throened at that point.