REDEMPTION – DOMINION RESTORED

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel – Genesis 3:15

Redemption can be defined as “Dominion Restored”! Let’s recap the old, old story. The story of creation reveals the supreme counsel of God in creating humanity to be in charge on earth (Gen. 1: 26-31; Psa.115:16). God’s Man – created in His image and likeness, and inherently male and female – received dominion to superintend over the rest of what the Lord had created. Psalm 8:6 described this, using similar possessive language of Genesis 1:26-28, “You made him to HAVE DOMINION over the works of Your hands…”! God created the world and then appointed Man to exercise the right of possession: to dress, cultivate, tend, keep, preserve, and protect what He had created, starting from Eden (Gen.2:15).

Unfortunately, humanity soon lost the original dominion through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, and inadvertently had that dominion taken over by the devil. The title of authority over the earth was deceptively transferred to a wicked overlord – Satan. But, God be praised for His intervention through Redemption. Right in the midst of judgement, God announced the plan of salvation in Genesis 3:15. Jesus ultimately came to fulfil that agenda. All the authority that the first Adam lost was restored and confirmed on the last Adam – Jesus (1 Cor.15:45).  The entire ministry and focal point of Jesus’ message in His earth-walk was to enlighten His audiences about the Kingdom. Jesus was Kingdom-focused because that was what humanity had lost when Adam sold his birth-right to the devil.

The Lord came to restore and re-establish on earth the Kingdom of God which Satan had attempted to destroy. John 10:10 underscore the enemy’s entire game plan: to steal by subtlety, to kill by poisoning and to destroy by polluting what is good, and turn it bad. As it was in Eden, the devil came again with his vicious strategy, and attempted to perpetuate the possession of his stolen authority, claiming: “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish” (Lk.4: 6). No wonder Jesus said in John 14:30: “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” Satan must find nothing, absolutely no foothold in me!

In Eden, humanity fell to the trinity of temptation: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1Jh.2:15). In the wilderness of temptation, the Seed of the woman was set to bruise the head of the serpent. He overcame the lust of the flesh: “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread” (v.3). He overcame the lust of the eyes: “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time” (v.5). He overcame the pride of life: “If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here” (v.9). Up on Calvary, Jesus won the battle, and finally at His resurrection, He obtained the Victory for our eternal Redemption – Satan defeated; Dominion Restored!