Page 72 - The Divine Unfolding of God's Plan of Redemption

The question came from a bright-eyed, keen-witted young Chinese Christian: “Since,
as you say, the world had become Satan‟s legal property, by what authority did God
affix the redemption price?” (We were never asked that question by a Westerner!)

Whereupon we reminded him that God was always the sovereign power. Then we
asked him if it was possible for the sovereign power in a native province to decree that
a road should be widened in a certain city, and to that end to order private homes to be
vacated and pulled down, paying the house owners a little sum for reparation at the

government‟s discretion. Such a sight was all too familiar in the city in which he lived,
and he smiled assent. I then explained to him what we know as the law of eminent
domain, in which the right of the sovereign power is recognized, for the sake of the
public weal, to seize upon private property, reimbursing the owners according to its

own scale of values and not according to the owner‟s demand. For Satan to own and
operate the government of this earth is an offense against the unity of the universe.

With the death-price paid by the Son of God the earth was redeemed and Satan‟s

legal ownership terminated. His power was destroyed at the resurrection for every
believer and the ground for his final ejection and incarceration provided. What was
decreed at the cross and in the resurrection will be executed at the coming. “Now is
the judgment of this world system, now shall the Prince of this world be cast out!”

Note the difference in tense.

“I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more
abundantly…I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”

That we might have, the Good shepherd gave!

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