In the vast expanses of GOD’s creation, it pleased HIM to create principalities, powers, and domains. In order to make HIS power known, HE set up thrones and rulers over these kingdoms that would operate exactly according to HIS sovereign will and purpose. The moralists and dualists are aghast at such a thought because they take great comfort in a supposed battle of good versus evil, with men being major players in the yet to be determined (as they would view it) outcome of this epic struggle.
Yet the LORD testifies that HE is the originator of all things and without HIS directive nothing can take place in the earth, the heavens, or regions unknown to us. “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth? Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Isa 45:5-13)
HE will do all of HIS pleasure and none can stay HIS hand or even question HIS doing. HE raises up the wicked and destroys them for HIS own purpose and who can reply against HIM? Even Satan whose sure destruction awaits him in the lake of fire, must fulfill the LORD’s purpose, whether it be to bring trials upon the LORD’s servant Job or to sift Peter as wheat, so that the LORD’s prayer of deliverance for him might be made manifest. Or to fill the heart of Judas that he might betray the LORD into the hands of the Chief Priest in order that the determined purpose of redemption might be carried out at the exact moment it was ordained to occur.
The LORD hath made all things ready in HIS own time. (see Ecc.3:11; Isa.60:22; II Thes.2:6) HE has even made the wicked for the day of evil. (see Prov.16:4) Therefore it must come as no surprise to us that the dominion of sin as well as its destruction is ordained by the hand of HIM who does all things well. When the LORD spoke to Adam in the garden and said, “in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen 2:17), HE was not offering a proposition to Adam but was rather speaking prophetically and declaratively.
All of this was done to fulfill HIS purpose for the creation of the earth which I believe was to set a stage for the manifestation of HIS grace in the Redemption of a people which HE gave to HIS son before the foundation of the world. HIS purpose to redeem those whom HE loved with an everlasting love was declared and carried out that HE might be glorified in the ages to come, world without end. (see Eph.2:6,7; 3:21; Isa.45:17)
What is the dominion of sin? The dominion of sin is primarily spiritual darkness and its power to bring condemnation. Every son of Adam has been born into this world in this condition. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)
The moralists and perfectionists would have us to believe that the dominion of sin is simply the breaking of the law. No doubt this is the definition of sin. Yet it is quite clear in the scripture that there is more to the dominion of sin than simple acts of disobedience. This is illustrated by the fact that even when the LORD’s children are set free from sin’s dominion they still commit sin. Paul (speaking as a born again child of GOD) said, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Rom 7:21-23)
So sin’s dominion is essentially its ability to completely blind the minds of those that are ordained unto destruction (see Jude 4) and to prevent them from having a love of the truth. It also has the power to minister condemnation to them in conscience.
How is the freedom from this dominion of sin manifested? Those who are ordained unto eternal life, are (in the LORD’s own time) given faith to believe HIS promise. (see Acts 13:48) This faith is not that which sets them free from the dominion, but this faith is that which manifests them as the sons of GOD since HE is the giver and sustainer of faith. While the faith that they are given cannot make them free from its dominion, yet this is that which turns the eye towards the OBJECT of that faith, even JESUS CHRIST the RIGHTEOUS who alone is their deliverer from this dominion.
Who is the ONE who delivers from sin’s dominion? “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Mat 1:21) The “salvation” of the LORD’s people has one purpose which is the glory of GOD but the benefits to those for whom CHRIST died are twofold since the dominion of sin has a twofold reign. CHRIST came to totally deliver HIS people from it.
First of all, those who are under its dominion are condemned by the law. “For the wages of sin is death;(Rom 6:23) “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Eze 18:20) There is no escape for those who are sinners both by choice and birth. Second of all, sin carries with it the sentence of darkness so that a man can find no way of extricating himself from it, and even worse has no knowledge of the lost and ruined state that he is in by nature. He is a total captive of sin’s domain and a willing participant in his own destruction.
The glorious good news of the gospel is that JESUS CHRIST the RIGHTEOUS REDEEMER has brought deliverance to the captives. HE has not simply delivered HIS people from the condemnation of the law but has undertaken to set them free from that which has bound them since Adam was cast from the garden. “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Col 2:14-15)
HE has demonstrated HIS power in spoiling sin’s dominion. HE has forever stripped its army of all of its instruments of war, slain its king, and delivered the spoils of victory into the hands of those for whom HE went into battle. For HE is presently calling those for whom HE died. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” (Isa 9:2)
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