Delegated Authority - Part 1

        God created mankind in His image with the intent that we would be His legal representatives on the earth. Our job description included having dominion over every living thing. We know that one of the results of the fall of mankind was to forfeit this authority to Satan and his evil hierarchy, setting up the cosmic conflict of the ages. Instead of protecting life, we brought death, disease, and every kind of corruption into the earth by yielding to Satan. The spiritual DNA of every human being would henceforth be “fallen,” contaminated by the prideful desire to please ourselves and yield to sin. That is, until the Seed would be manifested.
     There are several truths we need to establish in our hearts concerning this conflict, and they all have to do with understanding the times. We’ve already looked at the first truth from 2 Cor. 4:4—that Satan became the god of this world [age] and is working overtime to put spiritual blinders over the minds of everyone on the earth. This is why Paul prayed that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened.
       The second truth has to do with our new position in Christ as a result of His crucifixion. When we accept our inability to overcome sin through our own will power and works, and receive Jesus as our Savior, our spirit is made new. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). We are literally a new kind of being—a blood-bought, forgiven, justified, and sanctified human being with new spiritual DNA. While our spirit is immediately changed, our soul and body await our full redemption at the rapture.
       In short, we are no longer under the authority of the god of this age. If you don’t believe me, believe God’s Word. “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:13-15).
     The Chronos Lesson: Have you ever wondered what was happening during the time between Christ’s death on the cross and the stone being rolled away from the tomb on the Sabbath? Well, here’s one item. Jesus went to Hades. His descent served two purposes. The first was to preach salvation to the Old Testament saints who were taken to Abraham’s Bosom when they died. It was a secure and separate place within Hades. They could not be saved until the Seed had been manifested on the earth and had died for the sins of mankind. When Jesus preached the New Covenant to these Old Covenant people, they believed and were taken to Heaven to await the end of the Days.
        The second purpose was to serve notice to Satan’s kingdom that a major shift had taken place in the cosmic conflict. Satan no longer has power over believers because Jesus crushed his head as Genesis 3 records in the first prophecy of the Bible. Satan didn’t realize that the cross would only bruise the Seed’s heal.
       Through His resurrection, Jesus now has the keys of Hades and Death (Rev. 1:18).  As the perfect Son of Man, Jesus had justly paid the price for sin and could thereby legally release His authority in the earth through His Body. In a sense, Satan was judged and sentenced, but not yet incarcerated. Why not? Because fallen mankind could still choose to follow Him. The mystery of lawlessness is still very much at work.
       Did you catch the all-important adjective there? Fallen. As born-again believers, our spirit is no longer fallen. We can be confident in this, even when we sin in our flesh (body and mind), because the Holy Spirit lives within our spirit. This is what Paul is talking about in the Colossians passage quoted above. That guilty verdict against us was wiped clean away. The result is that the evil forces working against us, including Satan, have no power over us. That is, unless we let them.
      Our situation is similar to the aftermath of World War II. Even though the peace treaty had been signed, the war continued in the isolated islands of the Pacific. The combatants hadn’t gotten the word yet. The allied forces were victorious. Those fighting on the islands just didn’t know it yet. But when they received the word, they overcame the enemy in the authority that they had received from the Commander.