When a believer is regenerated, receives the Holy Spirit, obtains God’s eternal life, and is renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is transferred out of the authority of the darkness of Satan into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, out of Adam into Christ, from law to grace, and out of the evil and crooked age into Christ and the church.
Before they received God’s salvation, the believers were in a number of pitiful realms. At that time they were sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death (Luke 1:79). They were under the authority of Satan, being ruled and controlled by him, and they were also lying under his hand, being manipulated and slaughtered by him as he willed (Acts 26:18; 1 John 5:19). Constituted sinners in Adam (Rom. 5:19), they were condemned by God (Rom. 5:18). Being dead (1 Cor. 15:22), they were powerless in doing good and insensitive in committing sins. Under the law they were exposed, condemned (Rom. 3:19; 5:20a), cursed (Gal. 3:10), and enslaved (Gal. 4:7). They were in a crooked and perverted generation (Phil. 2:15) and in an evil religious age (Gal. 1:4; Acts 2:40b), unable to know the grace of the gospel of Christ. Therefore, how much they needed to be transferred out of these pitiful and tragic realms that they might enter into an entirely new sphere.
It is of God who calls them that the believers are transferred out of darkness into light (1 Pet. 2:9). God has called and delivered them out of Satan’s death-realm of darkness into His life-realm of light. It is also of God that the believers are delivered out of the authority of darkness and are transferred into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Col. 1:13). God has delivered them out of the authority of darkness, the kingdom of Satan, and has transferred them into the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of the Son of His love, that they may be qualified to partake of Christ as their portion. It is also of God that the believers are no longer in Adam but in Christ, for it is God who has put them in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30a), transferring them out of Adam into Christ. It is of God’s eternal will that the believers have been rescued out of the present evil age, the religious age (Gal. 1:4). In His eternal economy God has arranged that Christ should give Himself for man’s sins to rescue man out of the present evil age, the religious age, that man may enter into Christ and the church. Therefore, it is of God that the believers have been transferred out of these pitiful and tragic realms.
It is of Christ that the believers have been transferred from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God (Acts 26:17-18). As the light of the world (John 8:12), Christ shined on those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death (Matt. 4:16). He also sent His messengers into the midst of the fallen people, that their eyes might be opened that they might turn from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God. It is also of Christ that the believers have been transferred from law to grace. Grace came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). When Christ came, grace also came. Grace is Christ (compare Gal. 2:20 and 1 Cor. 15:10b), that is, it is God in Christ becoming our life, our life power, and everything for us to enjoy. It is also of Christ that the believers have been delivered out of the religious age, which is evil and crooked, into Christ and the church. Christ gave Himself for man’s sins that He might rescue man from the present evil age, that is, the religious world (Gal. 1:4). Moreover, as the good Shepherd, He led out the sheep that were in the fold (denoting the Jewish believers) with the other sheep (denoting the Gentile believers), forming them into one flock (signifying the one church) under one Shepherd, who is Christ Himself (John 10:11, 16). Therefore, it is of Christ that the believers have been transferred out of darkness, out of the authority of Satan, out of the law, and out of the evil, crooked age.