As believers in Christ, we have also been transferred out of darkness into light. Acts 26:18 speaks of being turned from darkness to light, and 1 Peter 2:9, of being called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light. Darkness is the expression and sphere of Satan in death. Light is the expression and sphere of God in life. God has transferred us out of Satan’s death-realm of darkness into His life-realm of light. Just as Satan and darkness are one, so God and light are one. Light is God Himself (1 John 1:5). When we are in the light, we are in God. Therefore, it is a great matter to be transferred out of darkness into light.
Acts 26:18 also speaks of being turned from “the authority of Satan to God.” To be turned from the authority of Satan to God is to be transferred out of the authority of Satan into God.
The authority of Satan is Satan’s kingdom (Matt. 12:26), which belongs to darkness. Satan is the ruler of this world (John 12:31) and the ruler of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2). He has his authority and his angels (Matt. 25:41), who are his subordinates as principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph. 6:12). Hence, Satan has his kingdom, the authority of darkness (Col. 1:13). According to Acts 26:18, we have been transferred out of the authority of Satan to God. Actually, to be transferred to God is to be transferred to the authority of God, which is God’s kingdom belonging to light. Formerly we were in darkness under the authority of Satan, but we have been transferred out of darkness and the authority of Satan into light and God.
Colossians 1:13 tells us that the Father has “delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” The authority of darkness denotes Satan. God is light, and Satan is darkness. Satan’s authority of darkness is the authority of evil in the heavenlies, in the air (Eph. 6:12). This evil refers to something that is in rebellion against God. The authority of evil, of rebellion, in the heavenlies is the kingdom of Satan, the authority of darkness (Matt. 12:26).
Darkness is related to death. Where darkness is, there death is also. This darkness is opposed to light, which is related to life. Satan, darkness, and death stand in opposition to God, light, and life.
To be delivered out of the authority of darkness is to be delivered from the Devil, who has the might of death (Heb. 2:14; John 17:15). We have been delivered from the Devil, Satan, by the death of Christ (Col. 2:15) and by the life of Christ in resurrection (John 5:24).
We have been not only delivered out of the authority of darkness but also transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. The kingdom of the Son is the authority of Christ (Rev. 11:15; 12:10).
The Son of the Father is the expression of the Father as the source of life (John 1:18, 4; 1 John 1:2). The Father as the source of life is expressed in the Son. The Son of the Father’s love is the object of the Father’s love to be the embodiment of life to us in the divine love with the authority in resurrection. The Son, as the embodiment of the divine life, is the object of the Father’s love. The divine life embodied in the Son is given to us in the divine love. Therefore, the object of the divine love becomes to us the embodiment of life in the divine love with the authority in resurrection. This is the kingdom of the Son of His love.
To be transferred into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love is to be transferred into the Son who is life to us (1 John 5:12). The Son in resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 6:4-5) is now the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). He rules us in His resurrection life with love. This is the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. When we live by the Son as our life in resurrection, we are living in His kingdom, enjoying Him in the Father’s love.
We have been transferred into a realm where we are ruled in love with life. Here, under the heavenly ruling and restriction, we have genuine freedom, the proper freedom in love, with life, and under light. This is what it means to be delivered out of the authority of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. Here in this kingdom we enjoy Christ and have the church life.