The Mystery of Faith
This fifth century mosaic, inspired by Psalm 91, is located in the Archiepiscopal chapel in Ravenna. Christ is represented as a chivarlic Emperor, holding not a sword, but a cross over his shoulders because His kingdom is of an utterly radical life-giving and evil-conquering nature, unlike the kingdoms of the Fallen World System. The book He holds open that reads, "I am the way, the truth and the life."
I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:13-14
Introduction
Christus Victor is the ancient, central, and unifying theme of the faith of God’s people since the beginning (Gen. 3:15). The prophets called it “the counsel of the Lord” (Jer. 23:18; cf. Amos 3:7). Paul referred to it when he spoke of the “good confession” that Jesus made before Pontius Pilate (1 Tim. 6:13). And Jesus Himself called it “the mystery of the kingdom of God” (Mk. 4:11).
At the center of this kingdom mystery is the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in Christ alone and His victory over the powers of evil that we find the key to the nature of reality, the meaning of life, and the sure hope of the restoration of all things. The theme of Christus Victor is the vision of the ever-increasing rule of Jesus Christ through His Church whereby individuals and nations voluntarily apply and keep His every word in all areas of thought and life until He comes.
This Christus Victor theme is not revealed by “flesh and blood” but only by our “Father in heaven” (Matt. 16:17). As Jesus says to those who are His disciples, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom” (Mk. 4:11). Thus it is the core of the Church’s confession. It is the thread that weaves together all the particulars of Scripture and our faith into a coherent and holistic picture. It is the framework or rule of our faith whereby we, along with God’s people in all times and cultures, properly understand Scripture, the Church, worship, and our mission of destroying evil and restoring all things ruined by evil. We do not understand even one fact correctly revealed in Scripture, by the Spirit, or through creation, until we understand it in relationship to Christ (Eph. 2:1-3).
In our Basileian way being, living and doing we desire that this Christus Victor vision be worked out in the lives, callings, and ministries of composers, artists, businessmen, husbands and wives, doctors, politicians, scientists, educators, etc. For at the heart of the faith of God’s people is an impulse authored by the Spirit “to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery…that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Eph. 3:9-10).
Christus Victor
By His word, God created, sustains, and rules all things in the heavens and the earth [Gen. 1:1; Jn. 1:1-3; Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3; Rev.4:11]. He created mankind in His own image to have dominion over the earthly realm, to cultivate and keep it as the dwelling place of God with mankind [Gen. 1:26-28; 2:15; Ps. 8:6-8; Dan. 4:32; Rom. 13:1; Rev. 21:3]. By His grace, God empowered mankind to rule over the earth by revealing the meaning of all things in His word, by the Spirit, and through creation [Gen. 2:16-17; Ex. 25:40 (cf. Heb. 8:5); Jer. 23:18; Amos 3:7; Mk. 4:11-12; Jn. 16:13; 1 Jn. 2:20]. God only required that mankind keep the covenant and live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God [Gen. 2:15; 17:9; Deut. 4:6; 8:3 (cf. Matt. 4:4); Is. 62:6-7; Matt. 28:20].
Likewise, just as God granted authority to mankind over the earthly realm, so He granted authority to angelic principalities and powers in the heavenly realms [Is. 24:21; Col.1:16]. But Satan led one-third of the angels in rebellion against God and sought to establish his own independent Kingdom in the heavenly realms [Is. 14:12-21; Ezek. 28:11-29 (cf. 1 Tim.3:6); Eph. 6:12]. Not stopping there, he then aspired to expand the reach of his Kingdom beyond the heavens to the earth. This required Satan to find a way to convince Adam to become “like God” on his own terms and cast off God’s sovereign authority over him and the earth. For if Adam did this, then Satan could justly accuse Adam and all mankind before God of being unfit to serve as the Lord’s ruler of the earth [Rom. 6:6; Rev. 12:10].
So Satan came to the Garden. He first deceived Eve, and then tempted Adam. But neither Adam nor Eve bore witness to the truth – the truth that mankind’s kingdom authority is grounded, not in himself, but in God and His Word [Gen. 3:1-6, 13; Jn. 19:11; 2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14]. So they sinned, but not just as individuals. In his collective capacity and representative authority, Adam was not only Eve’s husband, but also the covenantal head of all humanity [Gen. 1:27; Rom. 5:14]. Thus Adam plunged the entire human race and the whole earthly creation into ruin by heeding the voice of human authority rather than God’s [Gen. 3:17]. In Adam, sin entered the world and death through his sinful [Rom. 5:12-20], lawless attempt to determine the knowledge of good and evil in his own authority, foolishly declaring his independence from God and His word [Gen. 3:22; 1 Jn. 3:4].
But before Adam ate of the Tree of Life (whereby he would not die), God excommunicated him from the Garden. While Adam would now certainly die, not just spiritually, but also physically, he could also be born again. So the Lord drove Adam from His presence, stationing cherubim to guard the way back to the Tree of Life [Gen. 3:22-24; Ex. 26:31]. And just as God had warned, Adam’s sin plunged all mankind [Rom. 5:12] along with the entire created order [Rom. 8:21-22] into the darkness of death. By failing to keep the dominion authority that was his by grace, Adam’s sin opened the spiritual doorway to Satan and death, permitting these enemies to unleash hellish destruction throughout the earthly realm [Lk. 4:6; Rom. 5:12]. By his sin, Adam, as the covenantal representative of the whole human race, delivered to Satan the authority of the kingdoms of the world that had originally been given to mankind by God [Lk. 4:6]. By his sin, Adam crowned Satan the god of this world [Eph.2:2].
But when all appeared to be lost, God intervened and revealed His plan to defeat sin, Satan, and death and thus restore mankind and the creation [Gen. 3:15]. The Lord announced that He would launch a great war between the covenant-breaking seed of Satan and the covenant-keeping Seed of the woman [Rev. 12:17].
Although ordained by God from before the foundation of world, this plan was so bold and unexpected that the rulers of the fallen world system never comprehended it [1 Cor. 2:7-8; Rev. 13:8]. They failed to perceive that this Seed of the woman – who is the Church collectively and Christ individually – would not fight with carnal weapons, attempting to defeat evil by wielding coercive power like the rulers of this world [Rom. 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:21-22, 45, 47; 2 Cor. 10:4-5]. Instead through humble obedience to the will of God, Christ would crush Satan’s head under His feet. But this radical road to victory would come at a great cost, for His heel would be bruised, resulting in His death [Gen. 3:15; Is. 53:4-6]. However, even death could not keep its hold on Him. Rising from the dead, He turned the greatest apparent defeat in history into the greatest triumph of the ages, the victory of the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world [Jn. 1:29; Rev. 4:-9-10]. Through the cross Christ was crowned in His resurrection, not just with one, but with two great victories [Jn. 12:21-33; Col. 2:13-14; 1 Jn. 3:5, 8]. In one blow He both crushed Satan’s head, casting him out of heaven [Rom. 16:20; Heb. 2:14; Rev. 12:7-9], and He destroyed the power of sin [Rom. 8:3], freeing mankind and creation from the grasp of Satan and death [Is. 53:5; Rom. 6:6; 2 Tim. 1:10]. Thus began the New Heavens and the New Earth [Jn. 19:30 (cf. Gen. 2:1; Is. 65:17-23); 2 Cor. 5:17].
And so Christ, the last Adam [Rom. 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:45], by His obedience to God’s every word [Matt. 4:4; Heb. 10:7], was given the dominion authority that the first Adam lost [Ps. 8:6; 110:1; Dan. 7:13-14; Matt. 28:18; Phil. 2:9-11]. He made the good confession that Adam failed to make [1 Tim. 6:13], confessing before Pontius Pilate that His Kingdom is not of this world, rooted in the independent force and folly of autonomous human authority [Jn.18:36]. Instead, Christ, a king born to testify to the truth, confessed that the origin of His kingdom authority is from above [Jn. 18:36-37; 19:11]. He never did or said one thing in His own authority, but only in dependence upon His Father’s authority [Matt. 12:28; Jn. 5:17-30; 7:16-19; 12:49 ]. Thus He lived the first human life as God had from the beginning intended mankind to live. By His death He forever sealed His perfect life and then by His resurrection forever removed it from the clutches of sin, Satan, and death. It is this life He now offers us when we receive the bread which is His body and drink the wine which is His blood, doing this in remembrance of Him [Jn. 6:53-58; 1 Cor. 11:23-26]. For it was not in His power as the eternal Son of God, but by His obedience as the Son of Man [Matt. 4:4], even to the point of death on the cross [Phil. 2:8], that He definitively destroyed sin, Satan, and death [Rom. 5:15, 17; 6:6; 1 Cor.15:21-22; Heb. 2:14-15; 17-18; 2 Tim. 1:10]. Through His obedience as a Man, Christ totally defeated Satan and redeemed all of mankind [Jn. 12:31-32], permanently reopening the gateway into God’s presence that had been closed by Adam’s sin [Matt. 27:51; Jn. 1:51; Rev. 21:25].
Christ did all this for the sake of His Church [Eph. 1:22], the house of God, the gate of heaven [Gen. 28:17], the dwelling place of God with mankind [Eph. 2:22], and the pillar and foundation of the truth [1 Tim. 3:15]. Now He calls His Church as a holy nation to follow Him, voluntarily building upon the foundation of God and His word [Ps. 110:3; Matt. 7:24-27; 21:43; 1 Cor. 3:11; 1 Pet. 2:9-10], exercising the kingdom authority originally given to mankind, lost by the first Adam, but now regained by the Second [Matt. 21:43; 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; 1 Pet. 2:9]. Peter, by his confession, embraced this call [Matt. 16:16; 1 Cor. 3:11]. Thus Jesus called Peter a rock upon which He would build His Church. For Jesus recognized that Peter’s confession, as the representative apostle of all the apostles, was not based in human authority but upon the revelation of our Father in heaven [Matt. 16:17-18]. By his confession, Peter chose to live like Jesus. In the years that followed, Peter declared that all believers who confess Christ in accordance with the foundation laid by the apostles and the prophets are living stones [Eph. 2:20-21; 1 Tim. 6:12; 1 Pet. 2:4-8; Rev. 21:14]. By this testimony of Jesus Christ – the testimony by which believers confess that God, not mankind, is the final authority in all things – the Church keeps the authority given her to extend Christ’s Kingdom into the entire world [Rev. 12:11, 17].
Christ, now ascended to heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father until all His enemies are made a footstool for His feet [Ps. 110:1-2; Heb.10:12-13], crowned with all glory, honor, and authority. He has received the Kingdom and been given the dominion that Adam lost [Dan. 7:13-14; Matt. 28:18; Phil. 2:9-11; Rev. 5:1-14; 12:10]. But Satan, although definitively defeated, is full of rage and seeks to make war against the seed of the woman, Christ’s Church, against all who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the testimony of Jesus Christ [Rev. 12:17]. Yet instead of taking His Church out of the world [Jn. 17:15], Christ commissions His Church to go into the fallen world, teaching all nations to observe everything that He has commanded [Mat. 28:19-20]. It is by this means that He extends His two-fold victory of progressively crushing Satan’s head and restoring all things [Rom. 16:20; Acts 3:21].
About Christ alone it can be said, “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end” [Is. 9:7]. The Father’s Kingdom shall come and His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, “‘not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts” [Zech. 4:6; Matt. 6:10].
Before His final return, all nations shall pass through the Garden gateway once closed to Adam, but now reopened by Christ, to eat from the Tree of Life [Ezek. 47:12; Rev. 22:2 ]. They will go up to the Mountain of the Lord to be taught the ways of God [Is. 2:2-4]. No one will have to force them. They will volunteer freely [Ps. 110:3]. In this way Christ will build His Church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail [Mat. 16:18]. He will continue to sit at the right hand of the Father in heaven until all His enemies are made a footstool for His feet [Ps. 110:1-2; Matt. 16:28; 26:64; 1Cor. 15-23-25]. Then the end of the present age shall come.
Today we rejoice that Christ has bestowed upon His people the Kingdom, just as His Father bestowed one upon Him, that all peoples may eat and drink with Him at His table in His Kingdom, exercising the ruling authority God originally gave to mankind at the beginning of all things [Matt. 8:11; Lk. 22:30]. And so shall it be, from age to age, now and ever. Amen!