The Cross of Christ

by John R.W. Stott

The conquest is depicted in Scripture as unfolding in six stages,

Stage one is the conquest predicted.

The second stage was the conquest begun in the ministry of Jesus.

the third and decisive stage, the conquest achieved, at the cross.

Is not his payment of our debts the way in which Christ has overthrown the powers? By liberating us from these, he has liberated us from them.

So the victory of Christ, predicted immediately after the Fall and begun during his public ministry, was decisively won at the cross. Its remaining three stages were the outworkings of this.

Fourthly, the resurrection was the conquest confirmed and announced.

We are not to regard the cross as defeat and the resurrection as victory. Rather, the cross was the victory won, and the resurrection as victor...

‘It was impossible for death to keep its hold on him’, because death had ...

Fifthly, the conquest is extended as the church goes out on its mission, in the power of the Spirit, to preach Christ crucified as Lord and to summon people to repent and believe in him.

it may well be right to interpret the ‘binding’ of the dragon for a thousand years as coinciding with the ‘binding’ of the strong man which took place at the cross.

Sixthly, we are looking forward to the conquest consummated at the Parousia.

we need to be clear about the nature of the relation between the death and resurrection of Jesus, and careful not to ascribe saving efficacy to both equally.

For it was by his death, and not by his resurrection, that our sins were dealt with.

the resurrection was essential to confirm the efficacy of his death, as his incarnation had been to prepare for its possibility.

what the resurrection did was to vindicate the Jesus whom men had rejected, to declare with power that he is the Son of God, and publicly to confirm that his sin-bearing death had been effective for the forgiveness of sins.

If he had not been raised, our faith and our preaching would be futile, since his person and work would not have received the divine endorsement.32

The resurrection did not achieve our deliverance from sin and death, but has brought us an assurance of both. It is because of the resurrection that our ‘faith and hope are in God’ (1 Pet. 1:3, 21).

the four ‘works of the devil’ from which Christ frees us, on which the New Testament writers seem to me to concentrate, are the law, the flesh, the world and death.

First, through Christ we are no longer under the tyranny of the law.

So the same cross of Christ, which frees us from the law’s condemnation, commits us to the law’s obedience.

Secondly, through Christ we are no longer under the tyranny of the flesh.

Thirdly, through Christ we are no longer under the tyranny of the world.

Fourthly, through Christ we are no longer under the tyranny of death.

There are three difficulties in the way of accepting this interpretation, however.

First,

nasa’ is used in a variety of Old Testa...

So the verb in itself does not mean to ‘bear the punishment of’.

Secondly,

the concept McCrossan puts forward does not make sense.

what is the penalty of sickness? It has none.

So to speak of Christ ‘atoning for’ our sicknesses is to mix categories; it is not an intelligible notion.

Thirdly,

Matthew (who is the evangelist most preoccupied with the fulfilment of Old Testament Scripture) applies Isaiah 53:4 not to the atoning deat...

The four tyrannies characterize the old ‘aeon’ (age) which was inaugurated by Adam. In it the law enslaves, the flesh dominates, the world beguiles and death reigns. The new ‘aeon’, however, which was inaugurated by Christ, is characterized by grace not law, the Spirit not the flesh, the will of God not the fashions of the world, and abundant life not death. This is the victory of Christ into which he allows us to enter.

The visions cannot portray successive events in a continuous sequence, since the final judgment and victory are dramatized several times. It seems more probable, therefore, that the scenes overlap; that the whole history of the world between Christ’s first coming (the victory won) and second (the victory conceded) is several times recapitulated in vision; and that the emphasis is on the conflict between the Lamb and the dragon which has already had a number of historical manifestations, and will have more before the End.

This, then, is the situation. The devil has been defeated and dethroned. Far from this bringing his activities to an end, however, the rage he feels in the knowledge of his approaching doom leads him to redouble them. Victory over him has been won, but painful conflict with him continues.

he relies on three allies

that all three are symbols of the Roman empire,

Rome the persecutor, Rome the deceiver and Rome the seducer.

The first monster, which John sees arising ...

In every violent state, which opposes Christ, oppresses the church and demands the unquestioning homage of citizens, the horrible ‘beast from the sea’ raises again its ugly heads and aggressive horns.

The second monster arises ‘out of the earth’

it is the characteristic of the second to deceive (v. 14).

in our day he stands for all false religion and ideology, which deflects worship to any object other than ‘the living and true God’.

third ally

is called ‘the great prostitute’ (17:1).

what is symbolized is the moral corruption of Rome.

As for the ‘great prostitute’, the assault on traditional (i.e. biblical) Christian morality has now penetrated the defences of the church itself.

How, then, can we enter into Christ’s victory and prevail over the devil’s power?