We have just celebrated Independence Day. In his book 1776 David McCullough reminded us of how we came to not winning independence. He described a rag-tag, undisciplined, poorly equipped, often unpaid bunch of laborers, farmers, tradesmen, and business men who fought against a superior force of experienced military people. Not surprisingly, they lost battle after battle. How they won the war is difficult to say. As the old saying goes, they "snatched victory from the jaws of defeat." The outcome was, in the opinion of many, both providential and miraculous.
An even greater victory through defeat occurred when Jesus died on the cross. In chapter 11 of Ron Heine's book, Classical Christian Doctrine, Ron explains that there are "three major ways the redemptive work of Christ as been understood by Christians." One of these is most clearly consistent with what can be seen in both the church fathers of the second and third centuries and also in the New Testament. It portrays Christ as "doing battle with the devil and the forces of evil that hold this world captive." It would come to be called by the term Christus Victor."
In the Gospels the battle with the devil can be seen from the very beginning of Jesus ministry. His temptations set the theme for all that would follow. Sometimes his confrontation with evil was in the form of evil spirits, but more often it was in the form of sickness, prejudice, violence, and sinful actions or attitudes. The battle was fierce. Often he would withdraw to pray. Finally, we see him, as Isaiah prophetically said, "despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ... we esteemed him stricken, smitten, and afflicted ... he was wounded for our transgressions ... bruised for our iniquities ... he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth ..." (Isa 53).
As Jesus hung upon the cross all appeared to be lost. His disciples thought so. The women mourned and the men ran away in fear. Peter denied him. It appeared that the forces of evil had won. Jesus was dead -- really dead and buried! Defeated! But then angels rolled away the stone and God raised him from the dead -- snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. As a result we have freedom from death, hope for life to come, and peace with God.
Many texts in the NT mention this battle and victory but one that I particularly like is Hebrews 2:14 that speaks about Jesus partaking of flesh and blood so "that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." It was this that led Paul to express our praise in 1 Corinthians 15:57, "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
