Understanding Satan and the Power of Death

God is sovereign over every being and everything in the universe.  He is eternally good and righteous.  He created angels and all things and they exist with his permission.  He has the power of life and death (Deuteronomy 32:39).  According to the Bible, it appears that Satan is an angel who rebelled against God before the creation of the earth.  He leads a cadre of angels and spiritual forces against God.  God allows these evil forces to exist until he will destroy their power in the end time.  Whatever the devil does he does with God’s permission (as seen in the dialogue of God with Satan, Job 1:9; 2:6).  In the end, God will eternally banish Satan and all other evil personalities.   

In the beginning, the devil lied in the Garden of Eden when he tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.  He encouraged them to disobey God.  He contradicted God’s warning of certain death by saying, “You shall not surely die” (Genesis 3).     

When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, death entered into the world.  This death passed on to all their descendants.  Satan is said to have “the power of death” because he is the author of sin.  Sin uses death as a cruel, universal weapon that always wins in this world.   

The power of sin was broken when Jesus died as a sacrifice for our sins and offered forgiveness of sins to everyone who would place their trust in him.  Jesus defeated death in his resurrection.  He says, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17-18).  He said to Martha at the tomb of her brother, Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).  Jesus brings life, hope and the resurrection of the body for those who follow him.  The Apostle Paul wrote,  

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. (I Corinthians 15:21-23)   

At the coming of Jesus “every rule and every authority and power” will be destroyed.  Jesus will reign as Lord of the universe “until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (15:24-26).   Death and Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire where Satan will be (Revelation 20:7-10, 13-14).   The saved will enter into eternal life with God (21:1-7; Matthew 25:21, 34, 46).