We have seen that God has given us His armor and His
weapons to wage spiritual warfare. Why has He done this? So
we can win!
Included in this arsenal is the authority given to the Body of
Christ. When you know why you have authority over Satan, you
will be confident to use that authority. It covers the whole rank
and file of Satan’s operation: from the lowest principalities to the
highest wicked spirits in heavenly places. Not one area of human
existence is left uncovered by the blood of Jesus. Here’s why:
God gave the earth to man. He made Adam in His image
and gave him dominion (Genesis 1:28). God said, “Be fruitful,
and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and
have dominion….” Adam was God’s under ruler, with authority
over all creation. In reflecting on this awesome reality, the
psalmist David wrote:
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son
of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a
little lower than the angels, [The Hebrew word for angels
is elohiym, meaning “God”—Adam was made in the
exact likeness of God] and hast crowned him with glory
and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the
works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his
feet (Psalm 8:4-6).
God gave man His Word and His authority. Adam was a
free moral agent who determined his own destiny. He chose
to disobey God’s Word, committed high treason and turned
his authority over to Satan. He willfully bowed his knee to a
fallen angel. God was obligated by His own Word to Adam
and had to honor Adam’s choice. Against God’s will, Satan
became the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4).
The consequences of Adam’s choice affected the entire
human race. Man lost the life and nature of God and his
authority over Satan. The nature of Satan—spiritual death—
was lodged in his spirit (Romans 5:12), and has passed on
to every member of the human race since then. Man was no
longer in the family of God. Satan became the illegitimate
stepfather of mankind.
To redeem mankind, God had to destroy the union
between man and the devil. In Genesis 3:15, God prophesied
the coming of the Messiah who would annihilate the devil.
Jesus came to the earth for that very reason: to destroy the
works of the devil and recapture man’s authority (1 John 3:8).
Before the Redeemer came, God dealt with man through the
Abrahamic covenant, a contract that enabled Abraham and his
descendants to live in the blessings until Jesus, the Messiah,
the spotless Son of God, poured out His blood (Genesis 17;
Galatians 3:16-17). (Without the shedding of blood there is
no remission of sin, Hebrews 9:22.) Abraham’s responsibility
was to live perfect and upright before God. He was not able to
do so because of spiritual death, so God made provision for
his failures with the blood of bulls and goats. But the blood of
these old covenant sacrifices only covered sin (read Hebrews
9-10). It could not do away with the sin nature.
Then Jesus was born into the earth of a virgin. The Word
that God had spoken (Genesis 3:15) became flesh and dwelt
among men (John 1:14). Since God was His Father, Jesus had
the nature of God in His spirit. He fulfilled the Abrahamic
covenant and walked perfect and upright in the sight of
God—as a man. Man had been the key figure in the Fall and
therefore had to be the key to redemption. The man, Jesus,
passed the test Adam failed!
Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he [God] hath made
him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him.” Jesus never committed
sin. He became sin for us.
Since Jesus was made to be our sin, He had to pay its
penalty. He died both spiritually and physically. This took
Him into the regions of the damned where He went in our
place. Isaiah 53:6, 10 says it pleased God to lay upon Him all
our punishment—sin, sickness, poverty and the entire curse
described in Deuteronomy 28:16-68.
The Cross was a mystery to Satan. The Word tells us had
Satan known what was happening, he would not have crucified
the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:7-8).
