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Chaining the Dragon
What does that mean when we see that the dragon, the devil, has been chained?
Revelation 20:1, Revelation 1:18, Job 1:6-12, Romans 16:20
I want to spend the next couple of weeks with you looking at some of the most controversial verses in the Bible, which for me is always fun. If you open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 20, verse one, you see this moment where God describes this great dragon, the devil. And John, the author of Revelation, sees this angel come down from heaven who has these keys to the abyss. And the angel takes the dragon, and he chains up the dragon. And this picture is a picture that is meant to comfort God’s people.
What does that mean when we see that the dragon, the devil, has been chained? Well, this chaining of Satan is a limiting of his authority, a limiting of his power. You might picture a prisoner in a cage. Or a dog chained up on a leash. It limits his sphere of influence. We have examples of this in Scripture. In the book of Job, (Job 1:6-12) the devil has to go to God and ask for God’s permission in order to reach out his hand and cause any harm to one of God’s children. God very carefully sets the limits on the devil’s power and tells him, this far you may go and no further. Because ultimately God ensures that though the devil might attack believers, God ensures that you and I will not be overthrown by his power. He lets us be tempted and tested just enough, but no further and never past our breaking point.
The second question, though, is, as we think of that image of the angel chaining the dragon, just who is that angel? Well, we have to go back to Revelation chapter one, (verse 18) where we first meet Jesus. He appears and says to John, I am he who was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I hold the keys of death and Hades. This angel that John sees with the keys is none other than Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven to bind the dragon. And this binding of the dragon, of Satan, by Jesus, it happened on Easter morning. When Jesus rose from the dead as your victorious Savior, the first thing he did is he descended into hell. Into the very kingdom of the devil. And he bound the devil.
Now, as I mentioned before. God has always had authority over the devil. The devil has always been bound in a certain sense. So what makes Jesus on Easter morning, what makes his binding of the devil so important? Well, what makes it so important is that this is a man. It is the God man who has now bound the devil and made the devil captive to his power and his authority. This is your brother in human flesh, Jesus Christ, who holds the leash on that powerful dragon and keeps him at bay. And why that’s so important for you is because one of the devil’s worst lies is he wants us as Christians to think we’re the captives. He wants us to think that we’re the ones bound in a prison of obedience to God, or that we’re bound in this prison of sin, or that we’re on his leash. And nothing could be further from the truth.
The forgiveness of sins through Jesus shatters that chain and breaks every single prison wall, just as it broke Jesus free from the tomb. You are truly free in Christ Jesus. You are truly free of the devil and free of his power, and free to not have to listen to him anymore. Through your Savior, Jesus, you exercise powerful authority over the devil. One day the Bible says you too will crush him under your feet. (Romans 16:20) Until that time, we exercise authority by calling him out as a liar and by forgiving sins. Through that forgiveness of sins he is bound and can harm you no more.
