The cross as conquest
For the first thousand years of Christianity, Christ’s victory was the central theme in the preaching of the Cross. This metaphor is found across the New Testament, the church fathers and early Christian worship.
Jesus proves himself to be the promised Redeemer-King who vanquishes Satan, sin and death and brings them under his feet. He conquered death by death and reigns over his Kingdom of love by love—not just someday, but already, his kingdom is “in our midst.”
The victory of Christ is at least three-fold: Jesus conquers at the cross, through his resurrection and again, by his love.
At the Cross - Paul writes,
"God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." (Colossians 2:13-15)
There is the victory of the Cross. Who does Jesus defeat? The powers and authorities. How does he defeat them? By disarming them. What weapons did he take from them? The legal charges and debts held against us. How did he disarm them of these legal charges and debts? By cancelling them. How did he cancel them? By forgiving all our sins. The result? God made us alive (raised us) with Christ.
The Cross, symbolizing forgiveness, defeats the enemy. Without those legal charges and debts, the accuser is disarmed. When Jesus Christ asked his Father to forgive us, he did! All the enemy’s armaments dissolve in his hands.
Through the resurrection, Christ’s victory is focused on the defeat of death and hades. St. John Chrysostom’s Paschal homily (4th century) powerfully illustrates the victory metaphor:
Let none fear death; for death of the Saviour has set us free.
He has destroyed death by undergoing death. He has despoiled hell by descending into hell. O death, where is your sting? O hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen! And the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
This shout of victory is proclaimed by Paul:
"Then the end will come, when [Christ] hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:24-27)
By his love - This same victory is now ours, God’s all-powerful might identified as love itself:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No! In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35, 37-39)
This Cross-shaped love is higher than the heavens, broader than the horizons, and deeper than death. It brings into worshiping surrender every subject in the heavens, earth and under the earth.
Further than the Hubble’s reach, closer than the Higgs Boson particle … God’s love is there and it reigns, holding all things together in the care of a good and merciful King!
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Adapted from Brad Jersak, A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospel (CWR Press, 2015).
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