Satan is not God's Evil Twin

Christians are not dualists, as if Satan were God’s evil twin. Satan does not have the same powers as God and has none of His perfections. Satan is a created and limited being. God is all-powerful; Satan is not. God is not constrained by time or space; Satan is. God knows everything; Satan doesn't.

God will defeat Satan.

Because of God's superiority in every way, there is no question of whether Satan will eventually overcome Him. Satan exists only because God (for reasons known only to Himself) continues to hold Satan in existence moment by moment. So if God willed it, Satan would simply cease to exist (we'll explore the fact that this is a bit troubling in a later post). There would be no showdown. There would be no fight to the death. There would be no climactic moment when one of them finally got the upper hand. There would only be no more Satan.

The Bible portrays Satan as powerful but having to ask permission from God.

Now, the Bible attributes a high amount of power to Satan, even referring to him as the ruler of the present age who is at work in and through all people who are not believers (Ephesians 2:1-2; John 16:11). Nevertheless, Satan is entirely subject to God’s will and plan, as much as he may hate that such is the case. We see this very clearly in the first two chapters of the Book of Job. Satan is able to afflict Job only because God allows it. Satan comes in front of God’s throne and needs permission to do what he ends up doing to Job, and the limits God puts on Satan (namely, that Job’s life be spared) are obeyed by Satan.

The final victory over Satan (and his works and effects) has already been secured in Christ's death and resurrection, but we won't see the culmination of this victory until Jesus comes back.

Even though Satan continues to rule in this world, Christ’s death on the cross and subsequent resurrection has already secured final victory and put Satan to open shame (cf. Colossians 2:15). In the book of Revelation, we see the final defeat and punishment of Satan whose time of influence is limited. Who will win the battle between God and Satan is not an open question. One is the infinite Creator of all things; the other is a limited creature.

So we learn to trust and work for God because His Son is our true King.

In the meantime, while we still struggle to live in the midst of the kingdom of this defeated dark king, while we wait for the kingdom of light to arrive in its fullness, we need to learn to do that most difficult task--trust God. God is good. God is all powerful. And God loves you, promising to work all things for the ultimate good of those who love Him.

And as we learn to trust God, we declare our allegiance to Him and do everything we can to serve only Him. Christians have renounced citizenship in one kingdom and have been made citizens of a new one. As the author Paul explains in the Book of Colossians, "God has delivered us [those who now have faith in Jesus Christ] from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Most of us rarely explicitly acknowledge this fact, but it was a central feature in the baptism rituals of the early church. At baptism the new converts would stand facing the west, the direction of darkness and the sunset, and renounce their service to Satan and all his works, and then they would stand facing the east, the direction of light and the sunrise, and confess faith in and declare new allegiance to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.)

Praise God that He is so merciful to have done all this for us. Praise God that He is so powerful to be able to triumph over our strongest enemies for us. Praise God that He is perfectly good. And praise God that the darkness is passing away and His true light is already shining for us in Jesus Christ.