¹ We do not deny that Jesus has set us free from Satan’s power, but what is the basis of that deliverance?

² Jesus obviously made a mistake when He said, “It is finished” at the time of His death on the cross! Cf. John 19:28, 30; Acts 13:29.

⁴ The word used here is the present participle of the verb echo: “to have or to hold.”

⁵ Satan was defeated with respect to man and not with respect to God, who has never had to defeat the devil for Himself.

¹⁵ If it weren’t a limited dominion, the devil and his angels, who are supernatural spirit beings, could destroy all things in a very short space of time indeed!

¹⁶ Contrary to the teaching that Job deserved the attacks of the devil because of his own unbelief or fear or whatever, God says in Job 2:3 that there was no cause in Job himself to merit or deserve the devil’s attacks. Moreover, God would hardly call a sinful, unbelieving person “perfect and upright” (Job 1:8; 2:3)!

²⁵ In the same way, David is said, in 2 Samuel 12:9, to have killed Uriah with the sword of the Ammonites. David didn’t personally kill Uriah, but he was in such complete control of it all that it could be said that he himself did it. Cf. 2 Sam. 4:10 with 1:15; 24:10 with v. 2; 8:1-2; 1 Sam. 13:4 with v. 3; 22:17-21; John 4:1-2. All these Scriptures give examples of when someone is said to have personally done something, and yet it was not him but an agent of his who performed the actual deed.

⁵¹ I.e., judicial punishment (Rom. 8:1; Gal. 3:13). God will still chastise His children when they need it. See p. 38ff.

⁵³ Satan has no automatic power over sinners except by the righteous judgment of God and God’s choice to give him that power. 1 Kings 22:19 23 and Zechariah 3:1 4 teach that even though men have sinned, the devil still has to await God’s permission before he can afflict and punish the sinners.

⁵⁶ Cf. Lev. 16:8-9, the sin offering was for the Lord. See p. 150f.

⁶⁷ Matt. 1:21; John 1:29; Rom. 8:3; Gal. 1:4; Heb. 9:26; Ps. 130:7 8; 1 John 4:10, 14; 3:5; the “works of the devil” of 1 John 3:8 that Jesus came to destroy, refers to sin. This fact is obvious when you read 1 John 3:4 12, the context in which v. 8 is written.