Luke 4:5-7 “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. (6) And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. (7) Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
Regarding the spirit of man, we need to understand exactly what happened when Adam and Eve committed sin in the Garden of Eden. For in understanding the consequences of their action, we are then able to more clearly understand the work that the Lord Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. One of the consequences that occurred when Adam and Eve committed their act of sin was that they legally became a part of Satan’s kingdom, and they therefore became subject to his reign. Of their own free will they had decided to reject the reign of God by listening to the devil, and thus tacitly submitting themselves to his reign. And so it was at that time that Satan became the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), for God had given dominion over the world to Adam (Genesis 1:26), who in turn delivered that dominion to Satan when he chose to listen to him and disobey God. One of the temptations that Satan offered to Jesus in the wilderness was to give Him authority over all the kingdoms of the world. And so the reason Satan could offer that to Jesus was because it had become legally his. Notice in the above quoted passage of scripture that Satan makes the statement that the authority of the kingdoms of the world had been delivered to him. And so Jesus did not dispute his statement because Jesus knew it to be true, for Adam had delivered that authority to the devil in the Garden of Eden.
Isaiah 14:4-17 “that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: "How the oppressor has ceased, the golden city ceased! (5) The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the ruler; (6) He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke, He who ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted and no one hinders. … (12) "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! … (16) "Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you, saying: 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, (17) Who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?”
So what is the implication for the world having Satan as the god of this world? We can understand the implication by looking at Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve became part of Satan’s kingdom when they left God’s kingdom as an act of their free will. Adam and Eve could do that because God allows His subjects to exercise their free will. Once Adam and Eve entered Satan’s kingdom however, they could not just leave his kingdom as an act of their free will and go back into God’s kingdom again. So why couldn’t they do that? The reason is because Satan does not allow the exercise of free will in his kingdom, and as the ruler of his kingdom that is his legal right. In other words Adam and Eve had now become captives in the kingdom of darkness and they had no way out. This same truth applies to all who sin as an act of their free wills and thus die spiritually, i.e. they all enter into Satan’s kingdom and ultimately become his captives. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit describes how Satan rules the earth today and it is not a pretty picture, for it describes Satan as ruling in anger. This same passage also reveals to us that his rule will come to an end one day. But I want you to notice that this passage reveals to us that under his reign, Satan does not open the house of his prisoners. In other words once someone enters his kingdom through spiritual death, they become his prisoners and they cannot leave.
Michael E.B. Maher
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