Luke 10:18

‘And He said to them, “I beheld (or ‘I was beholding') Satan fallen as lightning from heaven.” '

Jesus replied that it was what they should expect, for He their Master had seen (or ‘was beholding') Satan fall from Heaven ‘like lightning'. He was a defeated foe. ‘Like lightning' may refer to the speed at which it happened, it happened in a flash, or to a vivid and symbolic picture of an angel of light (compare 2 Corinthians 11:14) falling into darkness. Lightning more suggests the latter. But the idea is metaphorical, not literal (Satan is never seen, he is a spiritual being).

‘From heaven.' That is from the heavenly sphere. We are not necessarily to see this literally as a fall from a height, but as a movement from heavenliness to non-heavenliness. he ceased to enjoy the benefits of being ‘heavenly'. As man through sin ‘died', so Satan through sin lost his heavenliness. He lost his authority, he lost his privileges, he lost his position, he lost the presence of God, he lost what he essentially had been. It was this loss that made spirits seek to possess the bodies of men and women.

It has been suggested that this might refer to:

1) The original fall of Satan, when, in pre-creation times, he fell from His position as an angel attendant on God through pride, which was what has resulted in His opposition to God ever since, an opposition expressed in Genesis 3; Job 1-2; Zechariah 3:1.

2) Jesus being continually aware of what His disciples were successfully doing and seeing in it symbolically the swift fall and defeat of Satan. As the Kingly Rule of God advances Satan now ‘falls from heaven'. He has no place in the Kingly Rule of God and is thrust outside and must flee before it. This would tie in with Luke 10:19 which depicts the changed status of the disciples.

3) A foreview in vision or spiritual insight, as a result of what was happening now, of the final victory He would gain over him at the cross (Revelation 12:7).

If we take the first Jesus is here saying that they need not fear Satan's power because in the face of Jesus authority as the One Who cast Satan out of Heaven Satan is a defeated foe, a fact to which Jesus Himself can bear witness. This idea naturally arises out of the conversation. As the disciples rejoice in what they have seen of defeated evil spirits Jesus wants them to know that He saw, and was responsible for, an even greater defeat of evil when Satan himself was cast from Heaven. Let them therefore recognise that for them the most important thing is that their names are written in Heaven. Even though He has given them amazing powers and abilities nothing is more important than that.

If we take the second it is Jesus rejoicing with them over the defeat of Satan as He has witnessed it in their activities, in the same way as he has also already been defeated in Jesus' own activities since His coming. He is on the run.

But essentially the New Testament sees the defeat of Satan as finally accomplished at the cross (Colossians 2:15; Revelation 12:7). And the reason that they are able to defeat him now, even before the cross, is because they are ambassadors of the One Whose authority is above that of Satan because of Who He is. Thus when they act in His name the forces of darkness will be defeated, for He is the One Whom all evil spirits must obey because He is Lord of all. Something on which the cross will put the final seal.

(So the idea is that Satan is to be seen as already defeated, whatever his part in world history. We are not therefore intended to see him as able to fight God. God is over all, and Satan, whether he likes it or not, must do His will. And his end is certain. But it is a reminder that when he fell God did not destroy him, any more than he destroyed man when he fell. He has allowed him to operate within the created sphere, although held on a tight rein).