As believers, as members of the body of Christ, we are, “the church.” As such we have an obligation to fully understand the age-old war between God and Satan and where we are in the historical context (timeline) of this epic struggle between two powerful supernatural beings. This is ultimately a struggle between good and evil. We watched this war play out in the pages of the Old and New Testaments. God gave us his Word to make sure man, his special creation, knew what was going on in the spiritual world; what had already happened, and what was to come.
Genesis 3:15 – (God speaking to Satan) – And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.
God created all the millions of angels in heaven to serve him. God created the angels as powerful eternal beings and Lucifer, as the top angel in heaven, was the most powerful of all. Lucifer became full of pride and enamored of his beauty, power and wisdom and thought he should replace God; that he could be God. Lucifer convinced a third of the angels in heaven to join his rebellion against God. The ensuing war between God and Lucifer began with that battle in heaven. Lucifer and his fallen angels were defeated and thrown to the earth where we know them down here as demons. Lucifer became Satan; who we also call the devil.
Luke 10:18 – (Jesus speaking) – I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
Satan was shut out of heaven so the struggle between God and Satan shifted to earth, which God had given to Adam. Satan tempted Adam to sin against God and when Adam fell for the trap and sinned against the God who made him the title to earth was given to Satan, who became the god of this world. Because of Adam’s sin he fell from grace and was expelled from the Garden of Eden and became a mortal being as were all men who came after him. The sin of Adam was imputed to all men and so all men became destined for eternal death apart from the mercy and grace of God. Since the time of Adam, Satan has bitterly opposed both the work and workers of God. Satan’s goal is to utterly destroy man whereas God’s goal is to utterly save man unto eternal life through faith in his Son Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 4:L8 – Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.
In God’s Word we see the deciding battle between God and Satan occur at Calvary. This was the spiritual equivalent of D-Day in World War II. Just imagine all the millions of angels of heaven and the millions of demons on the earth duking it out in the spiritual realm in and around Jerusalem on that fateful Passover weekend in 33AD. It was a replay of the angelic battle in heaven between God and Lucifer. If we could’ve seen this struggle from our physical world it would’ve made the best war movie ever. Let your mind imagine the three days Jesus was in the earth while the spiritual war between good and evil raged on. In the spiritual world every demon was in hand to hand combat with the angels of God trying to stop the resurrection of Jesus from happening because they knew it would defeat them, defeat death, and defeat the works of Satan.
Romans 5:12 – Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
Romans 5:17 – For if by one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Why do you suppose God stationed two angels in the tomb of Jesus, one at his head and one at his feet, both facing the body of Jesus and never taking their eye off Jesus’ body for three days? God put those angels in place to protect Jesus’ body from demons wanting to desecrate it while the war raged on around them in the spiritual realm. The resurrection of Christ was the most important day in human history because it set us free from the ravages of sin; free from bondage to Satan and free from the curse of eternal death and separation from God. It’s fitting that world history is divided in BC and AD based on the life and death of Jesus Christ. God regained title to the earth with the resurrection of Christ.
Romans 5:18 – Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.
1 Corinthians 15:54-55 – So when this corruption has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
Before the resurrection of Jesus man was lost to eternal death by their imputed sin from Adam and after the resurrection of Jesus man was saved unto eternal life by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, through the mercy and grace of God by our faith in his Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We know this from Scripture by the fact Jesus went down to Paradise within the earth and personally escorted the Old Testament saints to heaven. God doesn’t allow sin in heaven. The saints couldn’t enter heaven until Jesus Christ came to earth and shed his blood on the cross at Calvary for the forgiveness of their sins as well as for the sins for all men, past, present and future.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead assured the righteous that they would have eternal life in heaven by the mercy and grace of God. Paradise contained Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Noah, all the prophets of God and those who were deemed righteous by God. For further proof of Paradise within the earth look at the book of Samuel. In 1 Samuel 28:11-19, we learn about King Saul going to the witch of En Dor to pull up the eternal spirit of Samuel from within the earth so Saul could consult with him about the impending battle with the Philistines. Samuel was in Paradise along with all the other Old Testament saints waiting for the Lord to come and take them all to heaven.