Psalms 18:37-42 “I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them; neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed. (38) I have wounded them, So that they could not rise; they have fallen under my feet. (39) For You have armed me with strength for the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. (40) You have also given me the necks of my enemies, So that I destroyed those who hated me. (41) They cried out, but there was none to save; even to the Lord, but He did not answer them. (42) Then I beat them as fine as the dust before the wind; I cast them out like dirt in the streets.”
When Jesus was made alive in spirit once again, He was no longer lower than Satan and his angels and He then proceeded to destroy him who had the power of death, i.e. the devil. It was at that time that Jesus disarmed Satan and his angels, making a public spectacle of them before all the angels, triumphing over them in the victory that He had won (Colossians 2:15). It was also at that time that Jesus took the keys of Hades and of Death from Satan, and the Lord Jesus now holds those keys for all eternity (Revelation 1:18). The above quoted passage of scripture is an account of when the Lord Jesus was made alive in spirit once again in the heart of the earth and how He then proceeded to destroy Satan and his angels, placing His foot on the backs of their necks and casting them out like dirt in the streets. And so unlike men, Satan and his angels do not need to believe that our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, because they know for a fact that it happened, for they were there at the time and not only witnessed His resurrection but also experienced His resurrection power when He destroyed them. In their ignorance, Satan and his angels had illegally held the Prince of Light in the depths of hell, for they had been deceived into thinking that the sin He carried, was His own. Not understanding that Jesus carried the sin of the world and that He Himself was the spotless Lamb of God, for scripture reveals to us that had Satan and his angels understood what was going on they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory (1 Corinthians 2:8). In fact Satan and his angels were so deceived, that as the above passage declares, they cried out to God Himself for help when Jesus was destroying them, because they thought that Jesus was acting illegally. This passage declares to us that God remained silent however, because Jesus was acting as God had always intended. And so because Jesus Himself was sinless, when He had paid the price for our sins, God the Father could raise Him from the dead and once again endue Him with the power that He had before He came to the earth. It was in that resurrected power that Jesus then proceeded to destroy those who moments before had been stronger than Him. And so every demon and fallen angel knows that Satan has been destroyed and that Jesus Christ is now Lord of all, which is the reason why all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to our Lord Jesus (Matthew 28:18).
Michael E.B. Maher
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