Message delivered at San Lorenzo Valley First Baptist Church's Good Friday Service, April 10, 2009

There are numerous and momentous implications of our Lord's death that we celebrate today. I draw attention this afternoon to just one of them: Christus Victor. This view emerged very early in the church, and with good reason -- the Bible teaches it. It means "Christ is Victor." Satan and sin are our enemies. In dying on the Cross, Jesus vanquished these enemies. Jesus' death defeats the Devil.

Sin enslaves us (Rom. 6:17), and Satan is our captor (2 Tim. 2:26). We're born into his clutches. We head down the wrong road from the very beginning. Satan and sin snare us. Sin addicts us. We fall into sin and then we despair at the inevitable, destructive consequences, but then we keep on sinning. More ominously, if we persist in sin, we'll face God's judgment in the end (Rom. 6:23). Sin separates us from God. It makes us God's enemy. We're at war with God (Rom. 8:7).

We know that Jesus' death paid for our sins (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18). But it did more. On the Cross, Jesus trounced Satan and sin and death itself. He liberated sinners from their shackles. The Cross isn't just about paying the penalty of sin; it's also and equally about liberating us from the power of sin.

The Bible's clear about this. The writer of Hebrews (2:14-15) tell us of Jesus:

[T]hrough death He . . . destroy[ed] him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release[ed] those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

We read something similar in Colossians (2:15), where Paul declares that in his death, Jesus

. . . disarmed principalities and powers[;] He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

The Cross means that Jesus is stronger than Satan. He's our mighty defender. Hebrews calls him the captain or prince of our salvation (Heb. 2:10). He willingly endured unspeakable agony to liberate us. Like the Allied soldiers who liberated the horrifying Nazi POW camps, Jesus emancipated the prisoners only by great personal cost. But liberate they -- and our Lord -- did.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a liberating Gospel. The Gospel isn't just the Good News that our sins are forgiven in Jesus. It's also the Good News that Jesus has broken the power of the world, the flesh and the Devil in our lives.

Let me mention two implications of Christus Victor.

Sin Is No Longer Our Master
First, Christus Victor means that sin is no longer our master. Jesus died not just to get rid of the penalty of sin -- and not just one day in eternity to deliver us from the presence of sin. In addition, today he's delivering his people from the power and pleasure of sin.

This is Paul's message in Romans 6. In our union with the crucified and risen Lord, we have died to sin and risen to righteousness, just as Jesus did.

We're not destined to sin. We do sin, and we confess our sins, and God grants forgiveness (1 Jn.1:9); but the life of the Christian is a life dominated by victory over sin. We may struggle with an untamed tongue, with lovelessness, with doubt, with immorality, with pride, with cowardice, with avarice or with Phariseeism. But because of the Cross and resurrection, we can be victorious over these -- and all other -- sins. Enslavement to sin is not our destiny.

Ask yourself this question: what sin must I commit? True, we'll never gain sinless perfection this side of the resurrection, but we can -- and should -- gain consistent victory over sin.

Christian: the message to you and me is that we're not destined to live in the stranglehold of sin. We celebrate on Good Friday our liberation from the dominating power of sin.

Satan is a Defeated Foe
Second, Christus Victor means that Satan is a defeated foe. Jesus once explained what was happening when he cast out demons (Mt. 12:29):

"[H]ow can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house."

Satan and his demons enslave sinners, but Jesus came to plunder Satan's kingdom. He came to rescue sinners -- that is, us. We were Satan's slaves, bound in sin and headed for Hell. But Jesus bound Satan and then entered the enemy's slave quarters and liberated us. He's our new master.

How did he do this?

Just days before his death, Jesus declared to his followers (Jn. 12:31):

"Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world [Satan] will be cast out."

When Jesus died, he judged the world. The "world" is the system of life under Satanic control. On the Cross, Jesus threw Satan off his worldly throne. Because of the Cross, Satan will never be the same. He has been mortally wounded.

At the Cross, the promise of Genesis 3:15 made in the Garden of Eden was fulfilled. The seed of the woman crushed the head of the serpent's seed. At the Cross, God got the last laugh.

For too long the church has seen itself as an embattled minority, predestined to increased irrelevance and failure. But if the Cross is what the Bible says it is, the church marches forward in great victory. Despite failures and setbacks and sins, the church revels in the wake of her Lord's great Cross-victory, preaching and living the Gospel, and longing for the day when all Christ's enemies will be made his footstool (Heb. 10:13).

The Cross vanquished Satan's Kingdom, and history is the relentless outworking of that Gospel victory.

The Gospel Question
Perhaps you haven't settled the Gospel question. Perhaps Jesus isn't your Savior and Lord. But he died for the sins of the world, and if you vest your faith in him; if you trust him and not your own works or goodness or ritual or virtue; if you make him your Lord, today you, too, can be gloriously saved. Jesus will become your Lord and King. He'll be your great defender and avenger. He'll progressively crush the Devil and sin and the world for you and me and the church.

This is Christus Victor, and we should celebrate it this Good Friday day -- and every day.

P. Andrew Sandlin is pastor of Church of the King, Santa Cruz and director of Center for Cultural Leadership. This message originally appeared at his website here.

Tonight I begin a new Bible study titled Loving Your Neighbor. I will begin by beating this dead horse, that he who defines the terms wins the debate. The same applies to the question under consideration. Different people mean different things by the term Christian Reconstruction. Consider these two alternatives. Is it biblical to seek to seize the reigns of government power, and to impose a biblical theocracy on an unwilling people? Precious few if any self-identified reconstructionists would ever agree with such a definition. But what about this- Is it the duty of all Christians everywhere to labor faithfully and honestly to see that every sphere of reality is brought under submission to the Lordship of Christ? Again, even the most strident dispensationalist would be hard pressed to disagree with that.

The right answer is more nuanced, and built upon a more nuanced understanding of what we at least ought to mean by reconstructionism. Let's begin with what we all ought to agree on - that discipling the nations and teaching them to obey whatsoever Christ commanded should include some understanding of the Lordship of Christ over the cultural and political spheres. Jesus is bringing every enemy under captivity, causing every knee to bow, including the knees of princes, judges and kings who will not kiss Him, who will not acknowledge Him as Lord. Coming from the other side, I suspect that we all agree that this will not happen through the imposition of a Reformed Inquisition. That is, our calling is not to storm Washington and put the President under the rack until He swears fealty to Christ, and submission to His Word.

So how do we make known the reign of Christ over all things? We begin by bringing our own sinful natures under submission. It's all too easy for Christians to grumble and complain about the sinfulness of those outside the kingdom. We forget that judgment begins with the house of God. As we learn to better submit to Christ, we become, as it were, cultural salt. In the end, the world will always follow the church. This is why I have long argued that the murder of unborn children will end in this land the day Christians begin to believe the plain teaching of the Word of God, that children are a blessing. They murder their children because we seek to avoid ours.

What we are called to is neither to huddle in the corner because Jesus is coming back tomorrow, nor to hang out in back rooms cutting deals to hurry His return. Instead we ought to be about our own callings, raising up godly seed, voting for and supporting honest and honorable candidates that submit to the Lordship of Christ. Is this reconstruction, or is this faithful stewardship of our time? Is this reconstruction, or is this seeking first the kingdom of God? Is this reconstruction, or is this making visible the invisible reign of Christ over all things? In the end, it doesn't much matter what you call it. We are to obey Christ, to train up our children to do the same. This is loving your neighbor and this will change the world.

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What happens when you take two brilliant and winsome men who have diametrically opposed views of what Christianity does for the world? What if one of them is a minister and the other considers Christianity not only false, but dangerous and evil?

Well, I guess you get the exchange found in Is Christianity Good for the World? between Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens. Written at a fairly popular level (as far as these things go), both parties do a fine job presenting their side. Certainly I was rooting for the affirmative, and Wilson does not disappoint. Hitchens's sophisticated rhetoric and Wilson's punchy wit make them enjoyably engaging interlocutors.

Nevertheless, it took Wilson a good deal of time before I thought he was actually addressing the debate question. Some of that was Hitchens's refusal to directly address Wilson's million dollar question: One what basis do you critique Christianity? or How do you account for morality? That sort of thing. But it did take a while to get the ball rolling, so to speak.

Though the debate topic's question implicitly suggests some evidence will be offered, Wilson doesn't handle the evidence exactly how one might anticipate. Instead, he centers the answer on the Gospel of Christ itself and places the remaining necessary 'evidence' in playful, poetic language - yet nevertheless remains focused and serious enough.

Since the written debate, Hitchens and Wilson engaged in a debate tour that has been recorded for video. I happily recommend this book, and I look forward to the debate video.

One day, my neighbor came over to my house on a Sunday night. He was surprised to see me having nachos, because the previous two Sundays I had nachos, but he thought it was just a coincidence the second time.

"I didn't know you have nachos EVERY Sunday night!"

"Yep," says I, "always have."

"But I don't remember you having it until a few weeks ago!"

"Ah, but I did. I just never mentioned it."

"If you had eaten nachos every Sunday night before a few weeks ago, I'm certain I would have known it."

"Sorry, dude, it just never came up."

"I just don't think you did."

"Well, I'm telling you I did. Can you prove that I didn't?"

"Well, no. That's impossible. I can't prove that you didn't have nachos."

"So, will you accept that I always have?"

"No. You see, I'm a baptist."

In 1920, the National Prohibition Act destroyed the beer industry in the United States, putting some 1,500 breweries out of business. When the "noble experiment" was repealed in 1933, beer lovers rejoiced, and the beer industry staggered back to its feet. The industry had lost much of its diversity, however, and the emergence of national brands in the 1950s and 1960s led to industry consolidation and fewer choices for American beer drinkers. By 1980, there were less than 50 breweries in the U.S.

By the 1980s, American beer had an international reputation as weak and watery as a case of Hamm's. Most breweries only produced American-style lagers, a light and inexpensive style of beer typically made with rice or corn adjuncts in addition to barley, hops, yeast and water....

"Beer: An American Revolution" is approximately seven minutes. Watch it now!