Turning from Satan
“With this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, when at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’ I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
–Acts 26:12-18
A dear friend recently wrote to me regarding one of his close friends who is receiving hospice care and suggesting that his friend’s remaining time on earth may be short. My immediate reaction was that none of us know how long we have. God has all power in heaven and on earth, and God might choose to reach into our realm and heal his friend, even if doctors label his condition terminal. On the other hand, each of us who have greater life expectancy according to actuarial analysis could stop breathing any moment. I replied writing,
I offer your friend the same message that I offer everyone, regardless of how much time we may believe we have left on earth, because in reality none of us knows how long we have, and our choices have eternal implications. The message is Christ Jesus who was in the beginning, who is God, who is the source of life, who is light, who is love, through whom God’s glory is revealed, and who came to earth offering freedom from bondage to sin, life abundant, joy, satisfaction and spiritual wholeness. The message is Christ Jesus because all who believe in Him receive the awesome benefits of His love, communion with God and the revelation of God’s glory, now and forever. For starters I offer John’s descriptions of love in his gospel, particularly chapters 3 and 11. I will give this more thought, but I wanted to respond as soon as I saw your note. I pray you are well. Have a good night.
I know. My response was inadequate. I pray that we each fulfill the opportunities God places before each of us to serve Him. As I thought about the situation and my friend, I imagined his friend, who I do not know, and I pondered light and darkness, Satan and God, and the struggles we each face every day to stay in His holy light. I happened upon Paul’s testimony set forth in the passage first quoted above.
Jewish leaders accused Paul of violating Jewish law. They appealed to Roman rulers asking them to prosecute him for crimes carrying a death sentence. Felix, the Roman ruler over the region, held Paul in Caesarea for two years and regularly met with him. When Festus replaced Felix, as soon as he arrived at his new job, Jewish leaders approached him regarding Paul. As a Roman citizen, Paul requested a hearing before the emperor, which was granted.
Festus presented the matter concerning Paul to King Agrippa and the king wanted to hear directly from the accused. As part of his defense before the king, Paul describes meeting Jesus Christ along the road to Damascus and he says that Jesus sent Paul to serve and to testify to everyone “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18).
Jesus sent Paul on a mission so that those who hear about Christ Jesus might turn from darkness to light, might turn from Satan to God, and thereby receive forgiveness of sins and a place among children of God. Jesus calls Paul to help the world turn from Satan and receive Christ Jesus, and His statement to Paul presumes a starting point of living in darkness and living in bondage to Satan’s power and presents Christ Jesus as our only hope of turning towards God’s holy light and our only hope of receiving forgiveness and sanctification by faith.
I imagine many arguments to the concepts. I imagine people thinking that they are good and that the grand cosmic ledger revealing their good deeds and bad deeds results in a net positive, supporting their claim of goodness. But we know that only God is good, human standards merely divide shades of depravity and we are justified by faith alone, not our acts regardless of how moral they may seem. I imagine people thinking that many non-Christians do good deeds and many Christians do bad deeds, suggesting that no one truly dwells in either light or darkness. God creates each human in His image, so each person has God’s fingerprints imbedded within them. Christ’s followers are far from perfect. So long as we live in this world we exist in an in between state, influenced by light and darkness, ideally inching towards holiness. I imagine people objecting to the dualistic notion that apart from Christ Jesus, everyone exists under Satan’s power. But the world is Satan’s realm and he seeks to influence everyone and only through Christ Jesus do we gain His power and the armor of God.
We might wonder why Paul endured beatings, stoning, many arrests, lashings and rejection at place after place, yet he continued preaching the good news of Christ Jesus. What propelled him forward in the face of so many obstacles? His encounter with Christ Jesus gave him eyes to see the world’s condition with absolute clarity. He saw people walking in darkness, living their lives under Satan’s power, and he saw that they did not even realize it. And Paul loved people enough to give his life so that they might hear the message that would give them life, the message of Christ Jesus. Paul gave his life so that others might experience the truth and turn from darkness to light, turn from Satan to God, and receive the amazing new life offered in and through Christ Jesus. God so loved the world that he gave His only Son (see John 3:16). Through Christ Jesus, Paul so loved the world that he gave his life so that each person in the world, then and now, might gain eyes to see.
Jesus’ words to Paul present realms in opposition to one another – the realm of darkness opposes the realm of light, the realm of Satan opposes the realm of God. The words suggest each person has not only has the power to choose but each person makes choices determining the realm in which they reside. Further, the words suggest that many people are confused about where they actually are – many reside in the realm of darkness under the power of Satan and do not realize it.
Consider Jesus’ exchange with religious leaders presented in John 8. Jesus began by saying,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
Later in the conversation Jesus says,
“You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44
Jesus speaks to leaders of a particularly righteous segment of Judaism, Pharisees. They live a regimented, highly disciplined life of piety focusing on maintaining God’s commandments. They truly believe they are God’s people, by ancestry and through their efforts to live righteously, yet Jesus says they are children of the devil living in darkness, they are confused, and they are missing the opportunity to live in the light.
This is one example of people living in darkness under the power of Satan without realizing it. They thought they lived in the light, but they were wrong. And the consequence of making that mistake not only means we miss out on the life, light, love, joy, peace and rest offered by and through Christ Jesus now, it also has eternal implications.
Paul had been similarly situated. He was a Pharisee who studied under the top Pharisee scholars in Jerusalem and he was zealous for God. He zealously opposed followers of Christ who, in his eyes, were attempting to destroy God’s holy church, until he met Jesus and he suddenly realized he had been living in darkness under Satan’s power. From that moment of clarity forward, he lived the remainder of his life dedicated to helping others avoid repeating his mistake. He dedicated his life so that everyone might see Christ Jesus as Lord and choose to live in His light. He loved the world so much that he gave his life so that they might realize the darkness of their realm and the reality of Satan’s power and the truth of Christ Jesus and the reality of God’s love and light.
But as Paul’s trial before King Agrippa reveals, the task is not easy and the war is real. Paul gave his life to explain the truth so others might turn from Satan to God, but religious leaders sought his execution.
John was given the awesome privilege of peering into heaven and given the task of recording what he saw and heard for everyone to read. His heavenly revelation includes the following:
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death. Rejoice then, you heavens and those who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” Revelation 12:9-12
Satan is the accuser of the world and he has “come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” Satan is a strong adversary with lots and lots of experience. He has been tricking generation after generation of humans. As Jesus explains in the conversation quoted above, Satan is a murderer and a liar. In fact, he is the father of lies. In a different conversation Jesus says Satan comes to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10).
How does Satan kill? In the Book of Job we see God grant Satan authority to kill certain people physically, but that is not his usual practice. Much more commonly, Satan kills by keeping people away from life. Jesus is life. Jesus is light. Jesus is love. If Satan merely prevents people from seeing that truth and blocks them from choosing Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior, Satan effectuates their death. So he lies and deceives. He clouds minds and creates distractions, and he has been at this a long time, so he is really good at it.
Apart from Jesus, everyone dwells in darkness. Apart from Jesus, everyone dwells under Satan’s power. Through Jesus, we enter light, gain life, love, power and the armor of God to repel Satan’s attacks. This is truly a matter of life and death with eternal consequences. So we are called to spread the good news of Christ Jesus because what a shame it would be if anyone were to perish apart from Him. The message is Christ Jesus. It does not matter how long we think we might continue breathing here on earth, the message is Christ Jesus.
For those who know Him, who abide in Him, who experience His life abundant, be beacons of His light to world around you. If you have His light then you love others, and if you love others how can you possibly keep the good news, the source of life to yourself? Share the source of light to everyone you encounter. Please do not allow the deceiver, the liar, the murderer to divert you from your task.
And if you have read this far but do not yet know Christ Jesus, please pray to receive Him into your life. Invite Him in, surrender to Him and pledge to follow Him now and forever.
To God be the glory, now and forever, Amen.