An unregenerate world is under Satan’s rule. This devotional reading looks at how that is and what it means.
Nuggets
- An unregenerated world has Satan as its ruler.
- An unregenerated world recognizes Satan as the prince of darkness.
- An unregenerated world does not recognize the authority of God’s law, which lead to it being cursed.
- An unregenerated world wants salvation to be of their own merit.
- An unregenerated world refuses God’s righteousness and mocks those who hunger for it.
Once a year, the President of the United States gives a State of the Union address. Part of what he does is identify where we are at as a nation at that point of time.
What is the state of the unregenerated world? What are its characteristics?
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the On the Day of the Lord theme, click the button below.
Devotions in the A World without God series
The foundation of this series is Boston’s sermon The Unregenerate World Described.
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Satan Is Its God
“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (II Cor. 4: 4 ESV)
An unregenerated world has Satan as its ruler.
When Adam and Eve committed the original sin, they allowed sin to enter this world. Since God has nothing to do with sin, it needed a new ruler.
That ruler is Satan, who masqueraded as a serpent to trick Adam and Eve into sinning. He twisted God’s words around to make them appear to be restrictive and flat out lied about what God meant. “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out” (Jn. 12: 31 ESV).
God, prince, ruler – same thing.
Don’t gloss over the fact that Satan is in this world, not just ruling over it. “The Lord said to Satan, ‘From where have you come?’ Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it’” (Job 1: 5 ESV).
Ephesians 2: 2 identified him as the ruler of the air. “in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2: 2 ESV). It was Jewish opinion that Satan and those who followed him fell from Heaven to the air.
Satan tries to blind mankind to the truth of the gospel. He is trying to pull the curtains between Heaven and earth to hide Heaven from our view.
Think about it.
The gospel tells us point blank what sin is and what we need to do to have faith. The Word of God tells us that.
Jesus shed the light on sin, because He is Light. That light illuminates the truthfulness of the gospel and the lies of sin. “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’” (Jn. 8: 12 ESV).
If Jesus is the Light, God’s Word and the gospel are the lighthouse.
Satan does everything to hinder the progress of the gospel. “But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ” (II Cor. 3: 14 ESV).
Whatever he has in his arsenal, Satan will use. He uses pride, prejudice, and passions to do that along with worldly wisdom. He skews our value system and perception of what things are actually worth.
Satan does everything he can to keep God’s Word away from us. He tries to keep us from hearing, but he especially tries to keep us from listening. He works to keep us from accepting and, especially, obeying. He doesn’t want us to get it to the heart level.
Satan is very intent on the path on which he has set himself.
Worldview people think that sin is nice and shiny. Therefore, nothing is wrong with it.
The worst part of sin is that it leads to spiritual death. We were condemned to this death the microsecond Adam and Eve bit. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (Jn. 3: 18 ESV).
Sinners cut themselves off from God’s mercy. “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy” (Jnh. 2: 8 ESV).
Only the gospel can save them.
Spiritual Darkness
“Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph. 5: 7-8 ESV)
An unregenerated world recognizes Satan as the prince of darkness.
I think we sometime think that spiritual darkness and sin are the same thing. But they aren’t.
Sin is the work of darkness. It is the acts of doing evil.
Spiritual darkness is the squalor, filth, deprivation, and disgrace from which it flows. Boston explained it this way. He wrote, “… The sun went down on all mankind in Adam’s transgressing the covenant; the light of God’s countenance was then withdrawn.”
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Darkness is the absence of light. Spiritual darkness is the absence of the Light we just discussed in the last section. Jesus’ presence is not with us because we are ignorant of His ways and disobey His laws and commandments.
Darkness is associated with unregeneration. If a regenerated heart is one that has received the internal new birth and requickening that God brings upon salvation, an unregenerated heart has not had that rebirth.
Eventually, this darkness will lead those following Satan’s path to spend eternity in hell. Keep reading the devotions in this theme in the coming months. We’ll get there.
Look at the gate passage. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt. 7: 13-14 ESV).
We read the words wide and easy, and we think piece of cake. Instead, a sinful pathway is filled with discomfort, snares, and pits.
Don’t expect that, do we?
Think about it. Satan is a liar. If he says easy, in reality, it will be very, very painful.
Don’t be led astray by those lies.
Under the Curse
“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God” (Rom. 3: 19 ESV)
An unregenerated world does not recognize the authority of God’s law, which lead to it being cursed.
Way back in Genesis, we were put under a curse. That curse is sin. Laws were instituted to show us what that curse is.
We are born under the curse of the law because, since the original sin, we are not only born in God’s image, but we are also born in Adam’s image. “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth” (Gen. 5: 3 ESV).
Let’s try it this way. What law are we talking about? God’s laws and commandments.
Those are the laws under which we will be judged on the Day of the Lord. Everyone will be judged – not just children of God.
We are cursed because we disobeyed those laws. We break the laws and commandments God gave Moses.
It all begins with obedience.
We have to remember. “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (Jas. 2: 10 ESV).
Boston made a great point. When we are under Satan’s curse, that is all inclusive. It means our reputations, our careers, anything we own, and in our relationships to name a few. He was talking our whole being.
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None of them should be our end goal. We shouldn’t want to abdicate even a fraction of ourselves to Satan’s control.
God does not take this disobedience lightly. It may look like it now because today’s equivalent of Sodom and Gomorrah are not being destroyed let alone the whole earth experiencing the equivalent of the flood.
But that doesn’t mean God isn’t all threat and no follow through.
A Covenant of Works
“For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them’” (Gal. 3: 10 ESV)
An unregenerated world wants salvation to be of their own merit.
We want to make it a law of works, but it isn’t. It isn’t about doing the do’s and not doing the don’ts.
Let’s work this through. What are Gods laws, and what are some of them?
God’s laws are like worldly laws in that they regulate our lives and moral behavior. The big difference is that the standard is based on God’s character, not worldly opinions.
So, what are some of God’s laws?
- Submit to God and keep his laws (Deut. 6: 4; Deut. 6: 12-13, 25).
- Love God with all our hearts, souls, mind, and strength (Deut. 6: 5).
- Serve God. (Ex. 23: 25).
- Don’t make image of gods (Deut. 18: 20) to worship them (Deut. 12: 2-4).
- Don’t sin because others are (Ex. 23: 2).
- Expect punishment for sin (Lev. 19: 17).
- Love everyone (Lev. 19: 18).
- Help the poor (Deut. 15: 7).
- Don’t mistreat strangers, widows, and orphans (Ex. 22: 21-22).
Don’t expect keeping seven, eight, and nine will negate keeping one through six.
It isn’t about the acts we perform; it is for Whom we do the service.
This is why Heaven cannot be earned through being a good person.
Believing exactly that — believing wrong — is what we get when we think it is all about the works. Hopkins gave us a good definition of what works of the law are. He wrote, “To be of the works of the law signifies no other than to expect justification and eternal happiness by legal works; to depend wholly on our obedience unto and observation of the law, to render us acceptable to God and worthy of eternal life.”
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Salvation is only about recognizing God is Sovereign and committing to have our character become more like His.
I know. We go all through the Old Testament and think those laws bring us salvation.
That was never God’s intention. He used the laws to educate us that we couldn’t use it to gain eternal life. “But the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them’” (Gal. 3: 12 ESV).
The whole purpose of the law is to show us we don’t have God’s character and that nothing we do can get us to it. We need more.
The more is Jesus.
Absence of Righteousness
“They said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit” (Jude 1: 18-19 ESV)
An unregenerated world refuses God’s righteousness and mocks those who hunger for it.
Boston’s point focused on the “… devoid of the Spirit” (Jude 1: 19 ESV) part of verse 19. I think we shouldn’t lose the instructions of verse 18.
What does being devoid of the Spirit actually look like? The short answer is we don’t have God’s righteousness.
It can sometimes be confusing as to what righteousness really means. I thought Boston’s explanation was spot on. He wrote, “They are all destitute of every principle of holiness, and there cannot be an effect without a cause of it; there can be no acts of holiness without a principle to proceed from.”
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In a nutshell, that means God isn’t in them.
The continuum is that we are either in the flesh or in the Spirit. The flesh is our human, sinful nature.
“For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Gal. 5: 17 ESV).
Worldview people who fall on the flesh side of the continuum try to rely on their own knowledge and understanding. They see things as they think they are or as they want them to be.
Those that fall on the Spirit side of the continuum look to God instead of ourselves. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Prov. 3: 5-6 ESV).
When we are people of the flesh, we ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We focus on our earthly pleasures and desires. The more our focus is put there, the more we quench Him.
God’s Word tells us exactly how He expects us to live. This is the same standard on which we will be judged on the Day of the Lord.
Does that mean we shake in our boots between now and then? No.
It means we ABCD. We live our lives submitting to God and trying to have more of His character.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
That will put us at odds with the world. Jesus’ teachings have always been counterculture to the world.
Worldview people will mock disciples. We can’t let that get to us. We must remain faithful to God.
It may not matter in the moment. God is allowing that sin to continue — and thrive.
That won’t always be the case. The Day of the Lord is coming.
Making the Connections #1
Vaughan gave a typical definition of sin. He described it as missing the mark.
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I can sort of see that. But that sounds like it wasn’t really what we aimed at.
It makes it sound like we were aiming for good. We just missed.
That isn’t what sin is. Sin is a conscious choice to aim at evil.
This is an obedience/disobedience issue.
Making the Connections #2
We sometimes give Satan too much credit. We think he is all-knowing as God is. He isn’t.
We think Satan is all-powerful. He is powerful, but not all-powerful. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6: 12 ESV).
God is above Satan. He is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is also all-seeing.
Satan is no match for God.
How Do We Apply This?
Follow God’s laws instead of only know about them.
Recognize when God says everyone must obey, He means no exceptions.
Recognize we can’t pick and choose which laws to follow.
Strive to obey.
Study the laws to determine what our sins are.
Study the laws for spiritual knowledge.
Realize we can only be justified through Jesus.
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Father God. Right now, Satan may be the ruler of this world. He won’t be for eternity. We look forward to the Day of the Lord, when he will be defeated and Your children will be fully restored. Amen.
What do you think?
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