Psalms 18:16-42 “He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. (17) He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me. (18) They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. (19) He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me. (20) The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. (21) For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. (22) For all His judgments were before me, and I did not put away His statutes from me. (23) I was also blameless before Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. (24) Therefore, the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight. (25) With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; (26) With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. (27) For You will save the humble people but will bring down haughty looks. (28) For You will light my lamp; The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. (29) For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall. (30) As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him. (31) For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? (32) It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. (33) He makes my feet like the feet of deer and sets me on my high places. (34) He teaches my hands to make war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. (35) You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great. (36) You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip. (37) 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.”
The above quoted passage of scripture is a vivid account of what transpired when God made Jesus alive on the third day. This was an event which took Satan and his angels by complete surprise, because in their minds such an action was impossible, for God Himself had decreed that all who were spiritually dead were placed under the dominion of the one who had the power of death, i.e. the devil. So how could God override Satan’s authority by making Jesus alive in spirit once again? God could do this because, as our Lord stated in this passage, God recompensed Jesus according to His righteousness. So what does that statement mean? It means that because Jesus had never committed any sin Himself, spiritual death had no legal dominion over Him. And so God could legally make Jesus spiritually alive once again, i.e. God recompensed Jesus according to His righteousness. You will recall that we have stated that because Jesus had no legal way of accessing Satan’s domain to strip him of his authority, God had to persuade Satan of his own accord to kill the Lord Jesus and take Him down into the region of death, which is exactly what happened. Of God’s creations, there is none more devious than the devil; nevertheless the shrewdness of God far surpasses the devil’s deviousness. And so we see that Satan the deceiver was completely deceived, which is why the Lord Jesus tells us in this passage that with the devious God shows Himself shrewd. For although Satan and his angels thought they had defeated God’s purpose through the killing of His Son, they were in fact acting as God had always intended they should; so that His purpose of eternal redemption could be accomplished. And so the moment Jesus was once again made alive in spirit He was no longer subject to Satan’s dominion. In other words He was no longer lower than the devil and his angels, which meant that Jesus could once again use His power to deal with them. This passage reveals to us that Satan and his angels fled when they saw what was happening and that Jesus pursued them and overtook them. Jesus then proceeded to beat them until they lay wounded and helpless on the ground before Him. As a sign of His total dominance over them, Jesus then proceeded to place His foot on the back of the necks of Satan and his angels, which is the same thing that Joshua and his generals did to the kings of the nations which they defeated in battle (Joshua 10:24). Because Satan and his angels had been completely deceived, they honestly believed that Jesus was acting illegally, for this passage declares that they even cried out to God for help but God did not answer them. The reason that God did not answer them was because Jesus was fulfilling that which God the Father had always predestined would take place.
Colossians 2:13-15 “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, (14) 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. (15) Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul confirms to us what to took place on the third day, for Paul tells us that not only did Jesus disarm principalities and powers, but He also made a public spectacle of them as He triumphed over them. In other words not only did Jesus completely destroy Satan along with his ruling angels, He also did it in full view of Satan’s entire realm, thus completely humiliating them. The word translated “disarm” in this passage can also be translated “spoil”. To despoil someone means to forcefully strip that person of something of value. And so we see that after Jesus destroyed the devil and his angels He then proceeded to strip them of their God given authority. Jesus could legally do that now, because the devil and his angels had abused their authority when they killed Him and took Him down into the lower parts of Hell.
Revelation 1:18 “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”
So what item or items of value did Jesus strip from the devil after He destroyed him? Jesus answers that question for us in the above quoted passage of scripture, for He tells us in this passage that He now holds the keys of Hades and of Death. Before the Lord’s crucifixion, the devil had held the keys of Hades and of Death, for God had placed those realms under Satan’s authority. And so we see that Jesus took the keys of Hades and of Death from Satan thus striping him of his authority over those realms. It is for this reason that Jesus is now Lord of both the living and the dead (Romans 14:9). It is important to note that all which we have discussed in this section took place in the heart of the earth. In other words it took place before the Lord Jesus ascended to the tomb, entered His physical body and was physically raised from the dead.
Michael E.B. Maher
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