(Second in a Series on Satan)
We live in two worlds, two realms, God’s and Satan’s. Because of this we are daily confronted with two mysteries, the mystery of God in Christ and the mystery of iniquity. Out of these mysteries proceed truths of which every Christian should be aware. They lie at the heart of our problems, hopes, joys, fears—at the heart of victory or defeat.
We sing, “This Is My Father’s World,” and such it is, by creation. All around us we see the evidences of God’s glory, power, and wisdom. But at the moment this is also Satan’s world, by fraud, deceit, and usurpation.
The mystery of iniquity stems from the fact that Satan—spoken of in the Bible as “the prince of this world,” “the prince of the power of the air,” “the deceiver of the world,” and “the god of this world”—is unceasingly at work deceiving, lying, accusing, and tempting.
The mystery of God in Christ rests upon the fact that God has provided for all who believe in and accept his Son, victory over Satan, deliverance from sin, and a glorious eternity with him.
These two worlds, each operating within the realm of the other while at the same time the two are completely separate as to origin, work, and future, account for the mysteries by which we are constantly confronted.
They explain the antithesis between righteousness and sin, the former an attribute of God, the latter an attribute of Satan. Around us we see evidences of good and of evil, of spiritual light and spiritual darkness, and of the two realms of existence—spiritual life or spiritual death.
Our Lord’s parable of the sower speaks of the gospel message as the good seed, and tells how Satan either plucks the message from the hearer’s heart or deceives all whom he can by sowing tares in the midst of the wheat, thereby confusing an unbelieving world. Unconverted church members are an unending source of weakness to the visible Church and of strength to the enemy of souls.
Only as we recognize the existence of two worlds can we understand the difference between truth and error. God is truth and the source of all truth. Satan is the instigator of error and therefore of all evil that proceeds from error. Where-ever truth is preached and taught, the Devil immediately presents his counterfeit, error—and error can produce a thousand bypaths that lead to death and destruction.
How explain the antithesis of love and hate without admitting these two realms—that of God and that of Satan? God is love. This love is so perfect and complete that it takes in the whole world and goes to the utmost length in the gift of his Son. But Satan hates God and man, and whenever he can he implants in men’s hearts hate—hate for mankind and hate for what is good. Just as God is the epitome of love, Satan is the epitome of hate. This malignant power screams forth from the headlines of every newspaper.
The worlds of faith and unbelief are a part of the picture: God requires faith and the Devil inspires unbelief. The drama of Eden has never ceased, for as long as Satan’s realm exists he will foster unbelief. So, too, while God demands obedence, we find disobedience the accepted way of life for millions.
These two worlds are characterized by wisdom and foolishness. Christ, the power of God unto salvation, is the source of all true wisdom; but this wisdom is challenged at every turn by the satanic insinuation that the beginning of wisdom is not in the fear of the Lord but in man-devised philosophies, so much desired to make men wise but so deadly in their ultimate effect.
The heavens are spiritual and eternal; this world is material and temporary. God is the sovereign ruler of heaven while, for the time being, Satan dominates this world. The Apostle John tells us, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of [or, “nests in the hand of”] the evil one” (1 John 5:19). Ignorance of this fact is man’s greatest danger.
Freedom and bondage are also characteristics of these two worlds. The Christian is free, for Christ has set him free. The unbeliever is bound by the countless chains of the enemy. Passions of the flesh, blindness of the mind, stubbornness of the heart are all links in the chains of Satan, and nothing less than divine intervention can set the prisoner free. Only those who have experienced the saving and freeing grace of God understand what this means: one moment bound, the next set free. One moment a prisoner of Satan’s realm, the next a citizen of the Kingdom.
Eternal destinies are involved. To believe otherwise is to deny the multiplied statements of Scripture. The Christian has eternal life; the unbeliever faces eternal separation from God. The Christian immediately acquires eternal life when he receives Christ; the unbeliever is already spiritually dead, and only a miracle (regeneration) can bring him to life. One of Satan’s most popular delusions is that there is no hell, but our Lord’s affirmations on the subject should be sufficient. Let no man deceive: hell is a place of eternal separation from God, so awful in its reality that fire and flames are used to describe it.
The two realms of which we speak involve forgiveness and judgment—forgiveness of sins for all who will accept God’s offer, certain judgment for all who refuse. Many emphasize God’s love while overlooking his judgment of sin. The Cross was more than a demonstration of God’s love: it was also overwhelming evidence of the awfulness of sin. One may attempt to take advantage of the grace of God only to find the necessity and certainty of God’s judgment—too late.
These two realms are peopled by two kinds of people, children of God and children of the Devil. The Apostle John writes: “By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil; whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10). Startling? It should be, for this is a far cry from much that is taught today.
One of these co-existing worlds is peopled by the redeemed, the other by the lost. That Satan denies this truth and camouflages his children no more changes the fact than do his other lies. He who is the father of lies would have you and me take refuge in his delusions. But God has not left himself without a witness: for you and me, for all who will believe, the Gospel is still the power of God unto salvation.
With eyes wide open to the nature of things—that there are two worlds, two realms, and that there is no excuse to stay in Satan’s world, Christians have the obligation to live as children of light, aware of the One who has redeemed and of the enemy who would damn. To do this is to be wise unto salvation.
