Waltke: the Bible rejects a doctrine of an eternal dualism between good and evil.

The New Testament makes clear that this anti-kingdom host is organized, not disorganized. Satan gives them direction and empowers them (Mark 3:22). In Mark, Satan is “the prince of demons” (3:22); in John, “the prince of this world” (12:31), and in Paul, the spirit infecting the “principalities” and “powers of this dark world”: “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:11–12). These evil, immortal spirits are more powerful than the human spirit, and Jesus does not challenge Satan’s claim that he could have offered Jesus all the kingdoms of this world (Gr. kosmos, in the sense of an organized system opposed to God; Matt. 4:8–10). Satan’s activity is evil: to destroy the kingdom of God (Matt 13:38; Mark 4:15; Luke 22:3, 31).

Jesus invaded Satan’s realm, and the demons recognized his superiority and the supernatural power that crushes them (Mark 1:24). Christ routed Satan and his demonic horde (Mark 1:24; 3:22). As a result, Satan lost his ascendancy over the world, and Christ’s disciples can tread upon him (Luke 10:18; cf. Gen. 3:15; Rom. 16:20). The human spirit, fortified by the Holy Spirit, is greater (1 John 4:4). Nevertheless, Satan still prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour and at the end of the time of his binding will be set free for a short time (Rev. 20:3). Powerful though he and his minions may be, they cannot separate the people of God from God’s love for them (Rom 8:38). In other words, the Bible rejects a doctrine of an eternal dualism between good and evil. Good prevails over evil.

Waltke, B. K., & Yu, C. (2007). An Old Testament theology: an exegetical, canonical, and thematic approach (p. 231). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Comments

John Stott on the "old man" and the "body ruled by sin" in Rom 6 v 6

There are, in fact, two quite distinct ways in which the New Testament speaks of crucifixion in relation to holiness. The first is our death to sin through identification with Christ; the second is our death to self through imitation of Christ. On the one hand, we have been crucified with Christ. But on the other we have crucified (decisively repudiated) our sinful nature with all its desires, so that every day we renew this attitude by taking up our cross and following Christ to crucifixion. The first is a legal death, a death to the penalty of sin; the second is a moral death, a death to the power of sin. The first belongs to the past, and is unique and unrepeatable; the second belongs to the present, and is repeatable, even continuous. I died to sin (in Christ) once; I die to self (like Christ) daily. It is with the first of these two deaths that Romans 6 is chiefly concerned, although the first is with a view to the second, and the second cannot take place w...

Berkoff: "The law was not substituted for the promise; neither was faith supplanted by works. "

The giving of the law did not effect a fundamental change in the religion of Israel, but merely introduced a change in its external form. The law was not substituted for the promise; neither was faith supplanted by works. Many of the Israelites, indeed, looked upon the law in a purely legalistic spirit and sought to base their claim to salvation on a scrupulous fulfillment of it as a body of external precepts. But in the case of those who understood its real nature, who felt the inwardness and spirituality of the law, it served to deepen the sense of sin and to sharpen the conviction that salvation could be expected only from the grace of God . L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 498–499.

F.F. Bruce: ...know their father's will...

The NT does not contain a detailed code of rules for the Christian. Codes of rules, as Paul explains elsewhere, are suited to the period of immaturity when the children of God are still under guardians; but children who have come to years of responsibility know their father’s will without having to be provided with a long list of “Do’s” and “Don’t’s.” What the NT does provide is those basic principles of Christian living which may be applied to varying situations of life as they arise. So, after answering the Corinthian Christians’ question about the eating of food that has been offered to idols, Paul sums up his advice in the words: “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Phrases current in worship, like “to the glory of God” or (as here) “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” were given a practical relevance by being applied to the concerns of ordinary life. Bruce, F. F. (1984). The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the...

Search This Blog