Now what is the meaning of “he ascended,” except that he also descended to the lower regions, namely, the earth?
These are facts: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).
There are different parts to Jesus’ earthly experience after He descended from heaven: He lived, He died, and He rose from the dead.
In the next verses, Paul will tell us the implication of Christ's descent.
So not only did:
Jesus becoming man have an impact (He became our example/He taught us);
His death had an impact (he died for our sins);
The shedding of His blood had an impact (He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world);
And the impact of His ascension is seen in His giving of gifts (Ephesians 4:10-11).
There is the famous call in Isaiah 6 where God called out: Who shall we send?
God the Father sits on his throne as ruler, and He sent the Son.
The concept of sending the Son was revealed in a parable of Jesus, where the Father sent His Son to those He gave His vineyard to (Matthew 21:33–37).
And Jesus said that the Father has sent him (John 5:36).
In a different context, He said the Father sent Him to the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 15:24).
He said the Father sent Him to the world (John 3:17).
He said He came down from heaven to do the will of the Father (John 6:38).
That was why Paul, in another place, said that if the rulers of this world had understood God’s hidden wisdom, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:8).
He carried out the mission of God so that through death He could destroy the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14).
How?
It was prophesied that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, and it would bruise its heel (Genesis 3:15).
By being struck with death
Jesus swallowed death
The venom of death was emptied into Christ, who is the definition of infinity
So He swallowed it up as if it was nothing because it was nothing to Him, when compared to who He is.
That rendered the devil useless/destroyed when it comes to Christ, since the power the devil wields is the power of death (Hebrews 2:14).
Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
My opinion is that Jesus entered another dimension of the lower regions of the earth (the place of the dead), the stronghold of the strong man (Luke 11:21–22). And there He captured captives (He went there with an agenda, as one sent), according to Ephesians 4:8, and declared freedom to those who come to God through him (Hebrews 2:15).
Now, when John wrote that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19), it was in direct reference to the sway of evil over the soul of men.
But Jesus is different.
The devil had people do a lot of bad things to the body of Jesus, but he could not touch the core of his being because He was without sin; He was in complete compliance with the word of God. He is a man apart. Without innate (inherited) or actual (practical) sin-corruption, death cannot find a place in him since sin is like a death magnet (Romans 6:23). Therefore, death could not hold him (Acts 2:24)
Because Christ also suffered once for sins,
the just for the unjust,
to bring you to God,
by being put to death in the flesh
but by being made alive in the spirit.
Jesus described His death and burial and resurrection as being in the belly of the earth for three days (Matthew 12:40).
You can take that as His body being in the grave, and you can take it as His spirit full of life, unleashed without being limited in the death region of Satan.
Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
As I mentioned before, Jesus said:
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his possessions are safe. But when a stronger man attacks and conquers him, he takes away the first man’s armor on which the man relied and divides up his plunder.
The souls of men that are lost to the influence of the devil are what Jesus came to collect from the devil.
And in another place we read that God translated us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:13).
From this focus verse, I conclude that the domain of darkness does not mean something below earth; rather, it is another aspect of earth. As an illustration, Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19–31) went to the same region but different dimensions, hence a gulf.
The gulf between the land of the living and the dead was bridged by Jesus when he died.
And just as in a figure, we are seated in the heavenly places in Jesus (Ephesians 2:6); we can imagine that the devil was sitting on souls in hell.
In the book of Revelation, we find a woman who sits on many waters (Revelation 17:1), and the waters represent people groups (Revelation 17:15). So “sit on” is a picture of dominion. That woman sitting could be a picture of the dominion of darkness.
In summary, this focus verse is about the triumph of Christ. The spiritual gift you have, as mentioned in the next verses, is a symbol of the triumph of Jess. That is the truth.