The Domain of Darkness
“For He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,” Colossians 1:13
God delivers. That says more than most of us will ever truly comprehend. It also says more about the domain of darkness than most of us will ever acknowledge. God chooses to deliver. It is His character to rescue. Deliverance from darkness is not possible on the human side of the equation. It takes light to dispel the dark and only God is the creator of light.
Do you need to be delivered from the domain of darkness? Do you long to live in the bright daylight, free of shadows and secret corners where the cold hand of the accuser still clutches at you? Do you know that there are eclipses in your sunlight? Most of us struggle with these dark domains. From our perspective, we have not yet been delivered. But we have tried.
We sought counsel. We prayed. We bolstered our defenses. We fasted. We lamented. We swore oaths. We prayed some more. We confessed. We started over. We wept. But the dark domain held us captive. Our spiritual lives were stunted, sporadic, subject to emotional highs and lows. We vacillated between the flush of victory and the terror of defeat. We cried out with David, “My sin is ever before me”.
Lord, we need deliverance.
Paul carefully chooses his words. Knowing them intimately will help us. So, we will look deeply into these words, but words alone will not suffice. Unless we meet the God who delivers while we learn these words, we will soon discover that knowledge is not power. Words alone are lifeless representations of a reality beyond the grammar and syntax. We must encounter the living God in the process of understanding His words to us. It is God who delivers, not the words that deliver. So, we will look, but we will tunnel beneath the words themselves for we must find God our deliverer if we are to be well.
He delivered us from. Paul chooses the verb rhuomai, a word that means “to snatch from danger” but with the overtone of dragging the person in danger to oneself as a means of rescue. The root word actually means “to drag along the ground”. Here’s the picture: God grips you by the neck and pulls you out of the way. He drags you from the flaming building. He pulls you from the surf. He yanks you from the train tracks. His rescue is sudden, immediate, powerful and complete – and it is accomplished by snatching you to Himself. God does not deliver you by simply opening the door of the prison. He delivers you by pulling you from the cell into His arms. His deliverance is accomplished only when you are safely under His control.
The point needs to be reiterated. We think that deliverance means freedom. It does. But it is not the kind of freedom we usually imagine. God’s deliverance is freedom from the dark domain but it is not freedom from every domain. God’s deliverance means we are captured by Him. We are only free of the dark as long as we clutch His protective arms. We are free only as long as we are slaves to our deliverer. As soon as we let go of the one who snatches us from danger, the dark domain returns with full force and evil intent. There is no protection except in His grasp.
The grammar helps. This verb, rhuomai, is in the aorist tense. In Greek, this means it describes a completed action in the past. God delivered – finished, past tense, complete. Nothing more needs to be done on God’s side of the equation. All that was necessary for you and I to be saved from the dark domain has already been done. How did this happen? The Bible answers: Jesus died, was buried and rose again. The dark domain has been (past tense) defeated. The battle is over. Deliverance is accomplished. I don’t have to quake in fear that somehow my hoped-for rescue might fail or that I will not be able to find the solution to my inner terror. I don’t have to worry that I won’t be found worthy of deliverance or that my sin is too much for God to handle. “It is finished”, said Jesus. He meant that all of it is finished. The grip of the dark domain has been shattered, destroyed, erased. You and I stand on the edge of full and complete deliverance. It waits for us as a fete accompli.
Then why don’t I experience this uncompromised victory? Why do I have sun spots and dark days? What is wrong with me that I still feel that hideous strength slithering in my soul?
“Deliver us from evil”, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray. The same Greek verb. The same image. Drag us out of the way. Snatch us from danger. But here the context is a daily plea. Deliver us from evil today. The war is over but the battle goes on. The only place of safety, of full deliverance, is in the arms of the Savior, and resting in the Savior’s arms is a daily (sometimes minute-by-minute) experience. God has delivered, past tense, complete. But I must let Him deliver, present tense, on-going action.
Have you ever tried to rescue a person who is drowning? The panic of death surrounds the drowning victim. Every life guard knows that there is a real danger of being killed by the one you are trying to save. The drowning person will pull the rescuer under in an effort to get to the surface. That’s why you must first get the victim to relax and let go before you can drag them to safety. “I’ve got you. Stop fighting. Relax. I’ll save you.” If I am going to be saved, I must stop flailing at the water and let the life guard take over. I must let myself be saved or I will kill both of us.
“He delivered us out of the authority” says the Greek. The English translation, “from the domain” might not capture all that we need to know. Exousia means quite a bit more than “domain”. It describes the right to exercise power. It speaks about permission. Accordingly, exousia describes the power to decide and to exercise authority over something.
The dark domain is not merely the residence of the evil empire. It is the evil empire exercising power over its subjects, making decisions for their lives, subjecting them to its will toward destruction. The dark domain is power; power that robs me of life, corrupts my will and binds me to defeat. When God delivers me from the authority of this domain, He breaks the bondage that holds me by transferring me to another authority. I am not rescued to liberty without boundaries. I am transferred from one authority to another. I am dragged from the clutches of the evil empire into the arms of the God of grace, but I am still under authority.
Jesus made it quite clear. Liberty without authority is not a human option. “No man can serve two masters. He will either serve the god of this world or he will serve the God of heaven.” There is no third choice.
We are seduced by an imaginary concept of freedom. This too is the work of the dark domain. Nothing is more insidious than a belief that I should be free. Man was not designed for freedom. Man was designed for service to a master. The idea of liberty devoid of authority is a spiritual darkness that prevents deliverance. It holds up the false kingdom of human control. None of us, not a single one, has any authority that was not granted to us by another. Bob Dylan saw the truth: “You gotta’ serve somebody”. The Bible is pointedly clear: in the end you will either serve God or you will serve the dark authority.
God delivers us out of the dark domain in order to deliver us into the kingdom of light. He does not deliver us into independence. We are never free of all authority. Man without a master is a lie and a myth.
Have you yearned for freedom, for escape? Perhaps you long for something that does not exist. How would your battle with the dark domain change if you sought submission to God rather than escape from sin? How would you act if you knew that the only action of deliverance is letting Him drag you away? What would your fight look like if your response was not power but surrender? God delivers; I do not deliver myself! The terms of my deliverance are set by the deliverer, not by the captive. My task is to seek unsullied slavery to Him. That’s all. I cannot be free of the dark domain if I seek escape from authority.
And how will I be rescued from the body of this death? By Christ’s finished work and my utter surrender. I am the drowning man, caught in the maelstrom of sin. To be saved, I must let go of my panic, my flailing, my fear and let God snatch me away. He delivers when I stop trying to create my own delivery method, when I take on the attitude and actions of the slave. “Not my will, but Yours be done.” That is the language of deliverance.
