Day 2: Let God open your eyes

Colossians 1:12-14 tells us, that once we receive forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, Satan has no more legal claim over us. We are set free from his domain, and we are made capable to enter into our eternal inheritance.

However, we first of all need to understand something about our condition in the kingdom of darkness. Remember, when people are in the dark, they can't see their real condition. And that is true of the people who are under Satan's domain; they are in the dark and they cannot see their true condition. We need a light to come into the darkness and reveal to us our true condition.

That light is provided by the gospel, by the Word of God. This is what the Word of God tells us about our condition before Christ came to us and forgave us and redeemed us while we were still in Satan's domain in the kingdom of darkness. Paul uses these words in Ephesians 2:1-3:

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”

Paul says we were dead when we were in the kingdom of darkness. Of course, he does not mean that we were physically dead, but that we were spiritually dead, alienated and cut off from the life that is in God.

Furthermore, in the kingdom of darkness, in our trespasses and sin, we were under the dominion of a spiritual power called the ‘prince of the power of the air’, and he has defined it as the spirit who works in the sons of disobedience. In other words, our disobedience to God automatically exposes us to the influence and domination of Satan.

Paul goes on to say that this was the universal condition of all of us.

“... among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

This is true of all of us. In our natural condition we are at enmity with God; we are alienated from God; we are in the dark and we are captivated by the desires of our flesh and our mind. And through those evil, ungodly desires we are held in bondage by Satan, the prince of darkness.

Now God's purpose through the gospel is to deliver us from that bondage of darkness and of Satan and to bring us into our inheritance in the kingdom of light. This is very clearly stated in Acts 26:18, where Paul repeats the call that he received from Jesus Christ to carry the gospel to the Gentile world. And this is what Christ commissioned Paul to do through the gospel:

“... to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”

Again, you see God's end purpose is that we may receive forgiveness of sins and thus be qualified for our inheritance in the kingdom of light. But in order that this may happen, first of all, God has to open our eyes as to our true condition and turn us from darkness to light, and from the dominion of Satan to God.