Who's the Devil?: God has granted Satan a measure of authority on earth
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Bad news, parents: Summer is already more than half gone.
In just a little longer than a month, students will head back to school and a special minority will walk into a completely new environment. Former fifth-graders, accustomed to being the oldest, biggest, most mature students with the most freedoms in the school will suddenly become sixth-graders. They will be thrown into a system in which they are not in charge, where they are actually at the bottom of the pecking order.
I hated sixth grade.
Christians are the sixth-graders the world. Someday, we will be the eighth-graders. Someday we'll even be the teachers. But for now, we are at the bottom of the pecking order in this world system. For now, the world system is subject to the authority of a usurper.
In the beginning, God gave authority over all creation to humans when he said, "Fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Genesis 1:28). The same humans turned over that authority to Satan when they succumbed to his temptation and obeyed the devil instead of God in Genesis Chapter 3.
Even in the New Testament, written after Jesus' death and resurrection, the Bible refers to Satan in terms that are surprisingly authoritative. Jesus himself calls Satan the "ruler of this world" in John 16:11. According to Ephesians 2:2, people who fail to trust in and follow Jesus walk "according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience." In 1 Corinthians 4:4, the Bible refers to Satan as "the god of this age."
Even Michael the archangel's authority does not surpass that of Satan. Jude notes in Jude 1:9 that even "Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!'"
Satan has clearly been given a measure of authority on this earth. The world system as we know it runs according to his design (again, see Ephesians 2:2). Therefore the wisdom believers receive from God looks like foolishness to the world because it is so fundamentally different from the world's wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:21-25). Satan's rule over the world system is why the Bible asks, "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4). And 1 John 2:15 commands, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him," precisely because the enemy of God controls "the world."
Disturbing as Satan's authority may be, it is not absolute any more than the perceived authority of an eighth-grader in middle school is. In fact, it is severely limited.
Recall how Satan's every attack on Job was reviewed by God in advance and specifically limited by God. Moreover, in Revelation 20:1-3, Satan is thrown into a pit without mention of a protest or fight. It happens without any significant resistance.
For now, believers find themselves in the middle of a system over which they have no direct control whatsoever. That system regards everything we know to be right and good as nothing but foolishness. We're the sixth-graders of this world.
After a particularly severe beating in sixth grade, my mom assured me that someday, I would be much better off than my aggressors. Their torture would come to an end and I would eventually become the man God planned for me to be.
The same can be said for us as believers. Eventually, the tide will shift. Our once and future king will come back, and our enemy's torture will end. We will be complete since we know "that He who has begun a good work in (us) will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). The bully now in charge will be subject to followers of Jesus since Scripture assures us we will judge the angels (1 Corinthians 6:3).
Until then, we are called to be holy, distinct and different. We don't have to become like the other kids in the lunchroom. Satan controls the world system. Why would we ever want to be part of it?