Christus Victor

Jesus wasn't messing around.

Today is Good Friday. When Jesus hung on the cross, it probably didn’t seem very good to anyone except his enemies. In the light of his resurrection, though, we can see that God was doing something cosmos-shaking through Jesus. His death was not a defeat, but a victory. Jesus is Christus Victor: through his death he conquered sin and death. As we read in Colossians:

And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them (Col 2:13-15).

When Paul writes of “rulers and authorities,” he’s not simply talking about earthly government. When the rulers and authorities of this world oppose the will of God, spiritual powers stand behind them. This is the whole point of Revelation 13: behind the terrible powers of this world are far more terrible spiritual forces that defy God and hate all who follow him in faith. In baptism we denounce these “spiritual forces of wickedness,” or, more to the point, “Satan and all his works.”

According to the Gospel of Mark, the defeat of these spiritual powers is why Jesus came. In Mark’s third chapter, the scribes malign Jesus by saying that his power is demonic. “He has Beelzebul,” they say. Beelzebul is just another way of talking about Satan. “By the ruler of demons he casts out demons” (Mark 3:22). But Jesus stymies them with a bit of elementary logic: “How can Satan cast out Satan?” (3:23). In other words, why would Satan cast demons out of people? That would be like a house or kingdom rising up against itself. He then gives what amounts to his mission statement in Mark: “But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered” (3:27). Jesus has come to bind up Satan—the strong man—and take back what Satan has stolen. His death on the cross is the decisive victory, and his resurrection is the sure sign he has defeated sin and death.

Ioannis Pagomenos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I was at the gym today, toiling away on an elliptical machine. One of the many televisions mounted on the walls was showing an episode of Lucifer. I’ve never watched this show, but I was there, it was right in front of me, and I was curious as to how they portrayed the prince of darkness. Lucifer, as it turned out, was charming, persuasive, attractive, and funny. This checks out. I’ve no doubt he can be all of those things. The show also added another dimension to his character: Lucifer isn’t all that bad. He has a soft side. He might just do the right thing every now and again. He’s just a mischievous scamp.

Nevertheless, as reliable as network tv shows may be in their depiction of Old Scratch, let’s go to a more trustworthy source: Jesus. He calls the devil “the evil one” and “the enemy” (Matt 13:38-39). He teaches, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28). He says that the devil “was a murderer from the beginning,” and “there is no truth in him.” He is “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). He comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). And as a bonus, 1 Peter 5:8 teaches us, “Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” Jesus didn’t come to reprimand Satan or to bring him to heel. Rather, Jesus came to defeat him, and on the cross he did just that. He is Christus Victor.

Now here’s the really great part: the victory of Christ isn’t just for everyone. It’s for you—personally. If you accept Christ as your savior, if you love him and devote yourself to him, then his victory is your victory. You may look back at moments of defeat in your life, moments of regret over your behavior. You may have deep sorrow, guilt, even shame, about things you’ve done in the past. If we’re honest, we all have points in our lives where we’d like a mulligan. Everyone has sinned. Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). But Christ is the victor, and whatever you’ve done in the past, whatever ways you’ve sinned against God or other people, he has nailed it to the cross. His victory is your victory.

Paul teaches us, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). Christ took our sin upon himself, even though he was sinless. When he died on the cross, our sin and its consequence—death—were crucified with him. And now we can have a new kind of life. We can become “the righteousness of God.” This doesn’t just mean our sins are forgiven. It means that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God will change us from the inside out. He will reshape our thoughts, desires, and priorities. In Christ, there is a new creation. He won the victory over sin, death, and the devil, and if we will accept it, that victory can be ours, too.