Letters to the Cross: Victory!

This Sunday at Christ Memorial Temple we will be continuing our Easter Sermon series called Letters to the Cross. Over the five Sundays in March, we will be examining the doctrines of the Cross and how it applies to us today.

Week One: Substitutionary Atonement
Week Two: Justification
Week Three: Redemption and Reconciliation
Week Four: Propitiation and Expiation
Week Five: Victory

Week Five Introduction: It was 2000 years ago… what does the Cross do today?

Death is Swallowed Up in Victory

It pleases God to confound the wisdom of this world with folly

When the Apostle Paul wrote these words in 1 Corinthians the first chapter, he made a minuscule dent into the human understanding of the mysterious nature of God, yet his revelation is all we have to build upon.

In the cross we can see the nature of God in action.
In atonement- God is gracious, in justification- God is forgiving, in redemption- God is delivering, in propitiation- God is angry. Through endless study and prayer we may understand these attributes, but never will we truly understand how in death- God is victorious!

Death is final, complete. Death is the ultimate defeat. Death is our greatest failure and final punishment.

This would not be our strategy for victory and it certainly wasn't Satan's plan.

But in the death of Jesus- we have the greatest victory.

Paul writes in Colossians chapter two, We, being dead in our sins and our flesh, are quickened with Jesus; who blotted out the ordinances against us and contrary to us, which Jesus took out of the way,and nailed them to his cross; having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them.

When the prophet Isaiah proclaimed, Surely you are a God Who hides he wasn't joking.

At Calvary, Jesus Christ defeated Death and Hell, triumphing openly over Satan, demons, principalities and powers. He beat them at their own game.

Jesus was God, hiding Himself as a sinful man, pouring out his life in defeat to reign victorious over all. Our adversary, came in like a flood, as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But we are not ignorant of his devices.

Satan has two main strategies, that together, provide a lethal combination destroying everyman since our father Adam.
1- He is the tempter: Appealing to our pride of life, our lust of the flesh, and our lust of the eyes.
2- He is the accuser of the brethern: After we have fallen through temptation into sin, Satan proclaims the law as evidence against us.
3- Because above all, Satan is the Destroyer: Jesus said, He is come to steal, kill, and destroy.

The evidence complete, the verdict is rendered. But when all hope was lost, and every ordinance was against us, God came to us. Not as a conquering king or a triumphant warrior, but as the image of sinful flesh, He defeated sin in the flesh. He was in all points tempted as we, and sinned not.

Jesus defeated the tempter in life. And overcame the accuser in death, nailing each and every accusation against His children to His cross.

And hanging from the cross of death, as hell and the grave enveloped Him, Jesus proclaimed in a loud voice, It is finished!

Hidden as a dying and condemned man, Jesus openly defeated Death and Hell. He destroyed the Destroyer. So that with Him we may say O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ

And that is what the cross does today! It is our Victory!