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CHRIST OUR CHAMPION, WARRIOR-KING, AND
HUSBAND He has Conquered the Enemies of His Bride
How does the God
of the universe communicate His love to sinful man? God’s love is given to us in the Person of His Son (John
3:16). In the giving of His only begotten
Son, the Father freely bestows eternal life upon all those who believe and
repent. “There is no other name under
heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The Bible tells
us that all those who believe make up a community of individuals known as the
Church or “Bride of Christ.” Prior to
her salvation and arrival in glory, Christ’s Bride is truly a “damsel in
distress”, for Scripture indicates that without a Savior she would perish (John
8:24). There are SEVEN
enemies of Christ’s bride that are individually and collectively too strong for
her. Without Christ’s victory, the
people of God would most certainly be ravaged and consumed by these seven
enemies. These enemies
lie in wait to ambush the unprepared soul.
Like a pride of famished lions, they leap out and consume the naïve and
unwary. The ambushed gazelle is torn
apart and devoured in moments. So also,
the unrepentant sinner is destroyed forever by these enemies of his soul. These seven
enemies are the WORLD, the FLESH, the DEVIL, SIN, DEATH, HELL, and the
CONDEMNATION of GOD’S LAW. The enemies of
man’s soul line the broad road that leads to destruction spoken of by Christ
(Matt. 7:13). The only ones who escape
destruction by these enemies are those who follow Christ closely on the “narrow
way” (Matt. 7:14). Christ is a
conquering King who has defeated the enemies of His people. Psalm 45:5 tells us that Christ (the King)
has fired His arrows into the hearts of His enemies. These are mortal wounds to the adversaries of His spouse. The arrows are in the hearts of His enemies,
not in their limbs that they might recover and assault again the King’s
bride. He has vanquished the
adversaries of His spouse. He has made
our enemies His! He left His heavenly
throne to become Conqueror.
In the
incarnation we discover how He armed Himself as our Champion and
Deliverer. The book of Hebrews tells us
that He partook of flesh and blood that through death He might render powerless
him who had the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14). The
condescension of our king is remarkable.
He who is worshipped by angels became for a little while lower than
angels (Heb. 2:6-8; Phil. 2:6-8). He
assumed our nature, He was born of a woman, born under the Law. He trusted upon His mother’s breast (Ps.
22:9,10). He lived under the curse as a
weakened mortal (2 Cor. 13:4). He
entered into our experience of misery, sorrow, suffering, temptation, and
death. The manner by
which He made our enemies His was by substitution. He took our place in our nature in order to vanquish our
foes. We must carefully study how
Christ has conquered our enemies in order that we might become partakers of His
victory over them. Daily reliance
upon Christ is the believer’s security (1 Pet. 1:5). Jesus’ sheep stick close to their Shepherd. They know that He alone is able to take them
safely past each of the seven foes. The
believer is kept by his love of gospel truth (2 Thess. 2:10). It is in this way that the Christian is
prepared for tomorrow’s battles that are sure to come. In a television
ad, beer drinking campers exclaim, “It doesn’t get any better than this.” What
the ad doesn’t say is that it will get worse.
A man’s strength will decline, the grave will ultimately claim him. Death is the place of no return (Job
10:21). Scripture says that the glory
of man is as temporary as a wildflower that lasts only a season (Is.
40:6-8). Death is followed by a judgment
that will test each man’s works.
Judgment Day will be a public determination that discovers the absence
or presence of saving faith in Christ (Heb. 9:27). True believers
are assured that they “overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Rom.
8:37). Those who follow Christ are overcomers (1 John 5:1-5; Rev.
2:7,11,17,26; 3:5,12,21; 21:7). Through
Christ, they overcome the seven
enemies. The following section catalogs
the SEVEN ENEMIES of man’s soul and describes the manner in which Jesus Christ
saves His Bride from them. THE WORLDChrist has
overcome the world with its lies and soul-damning philosophies. The entire world system is energized by
Satan. It lies under his power (1 John 5:19; John 14:30). Those who are “of the world” subscribe to
its anti-God propositions and are therefore enemies of the knowledge and glory
of God (1 Cor. 3:19; Eph. 6:12; 1 John 3:13; 4:5; John 7:7; 15:18,19; James
4:4). Jesus warned
that no one can serve two masters. The
person who attempts to do so will love one and hate the other. The love of God
and the love of the world are mutually exclusive (Matt. 6:24; 1 John
2:15-17). The world opposes the
immutable righteousness of God. Those
who love the world will pass away with it (1 John 2:17). The world is filled with idols that corrupt
and enslave the worshipper (2 Pet. 1:4; Col. 3:5). Christ spoke of
the antipathy that the world would have toward the believer (John
15:19-23). John also warned that the
world would listen to its own but not to the Lord’s messengers (1 John 4:1-6). Christ redeems out of the world those whom
the Father has given Him (John 17:6).
The believer’s union with Christ in His death and resurrection liberates
from the old master, sin and the world,
and binds us to a new master, Christ and
righteousness. As a result of this transfer, the believer
is to daily present the members of his body to God as instruments of
righteousness. By union with
Christ, the believer is dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:10-13). Thus by
the cross of Christ, the believer has been severed from the world as a source
and has been joined to the Lord.
Galatians 6:14 depicts this event as a double severing. The believer through Christ is crucified to
the world and the world is crucified to him. The world is no
longer a “bazaar” or workshop for the flesh to seek the fulfillment of its
desires. That alliance has been
broken. The cross has attached the
believer to Christ as “Source Person.”
The Christian is now ashamed of what was once his pride and boast (Rom.
6:17-21). The redeemed now
glory in the cross. They willingly
reckon the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than the world (Heb.
11:26). The Christian’s radical
identification with Christ is seen in his willingness to follow his Savior
outside the “gate of this world”, counting it a privilege to bear His reproach
(See Heb. 13:13). On last day,
Christ will own as His only those who have confessed Him before men. These are the ones who have not been ashamed
of Him and His words (Luke 9:26; 12:8,9).
The true believer maintains a visible and verbal witness for Christ in
the world. The believer is no longer of the world (John 15:19). By Christ’s sovereign deliverance, the saint
has been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the
Son (Col. 1:13). THE FLESHThe flesh
comprises all of the desires, passions, reactions, and reasonings of the Adamic
nature. The flesh is dead to the things
of God. It cannot “see” above the horizon of this present existence. Therefore it finds all of its objects of
delight in this present world. The flesh
and the world possess a hand in glove relationship. They appear made for one another. They are fused into a
Satanically inspired bond (Phil. 3:18,19; 1 John 2:16; Gal. 5:19-21). The flesh is
hostile to God’s Law and is therefore hostile to God Himself (Rom. 8:5-8). The flesh lacks the ability to obey God, it
doggedly follows a self-determined course of destruction ending in death (Rom.
8:6). The believer is
set free from bondage to the flesh and from the consequences of that
bondage. By union with Christ, the
legal reign of the Adamic nature is broken.
Christ has crucified our flesh in the crucifixion of His flesh. God declares that Christ’s death was the
execution and death of the tyranny of our flesh (Rom. 6:5-11). We now walk in
newness of life, led by the Spirit of God so as not to fulfill the lusts of our
flesh (Gal. 5:16). The believer’s daily task is to live out his co-crucifixion
with Christ. This means he is under
obligation to mortify or put to death the deeds of the flesh, cutting off provision
for their expression (Rom. 13:14; Rom. 8:12; Col. 3:2-5; Gal. 5:24). The flesh is no
longer our standard for behavior. We do
NOT consult our flesh to determine what is right and wrong for ourselves (Rom.
8:5, Williams Translation). The new birth
implanted within us a new inclination to obey God. We now sow to the Spirit and no longer to the flesh (Gal.
6:8). The heaven-bound person thinks
the things suggested by the Spirit (Rom. 8:5, Wms. Transl.). The flesh and the world are no longer his
master. THE DEVILChrist conquered
and overcame the devil. We were
formerly slaves under the devil’s blinding reign (John 8:34. 38, 44; 2 Cor.
4:4; Eph. 2:2,3; 2 Tim. 2:25,26).
Christ confronted the devil in the wilderness, defeating his most
powerful temptations (Matt. 4:1-11).
Christ opposed Satan and his minions by performing miracles, exorcisms,
and healings. By these signs and
wonders, the Lord demonstrated His authority over the kingdom of darkness. The devils cast
out by Christ recognized that some day He would speak an irresistible word that
would send them into the pit forever.
Demons shudder to think of the agony and destruction that awaits them
(Matt. 8:29; James 2:19). The schemes of
the devil are crafty and wicked, but Satan uses one weapon that is
righteous. That weapon is the
condemnation of God’s Law. Satan
approves of the capital sentence of God’s Law. He who is known
as the “murderer from the beginning” presides over the verdict, “the soul who
sins will die” (John 8:44; Ez. 18:4).
Satan slew our first parents by means of a lie. By apostasy, Adam placed
himself and his progeny under the divine sentence of death. Thus, as the instigator of human (and angelic)
lawlessness and rebellion, the devil possessed the power of death thereafter
(Heb. 2:14,15). The evil one
takes ghoulish pleasure in overseeing the deaths of billions. He approves of the sentence of God’s Law,
for it seals the destiny of the damned.
Satan is the “spiritual coroner” of the lost. He gladly hovers over the dying as they pass through the portico
of death into the place of everlasting burning. The devil claims them as his own. They are the tares laid up for burning that fill his barn. Why is
the mouth of Sheol never satisfied? Why
does it want every single soul? Here is
the reason. Lucifer, the shepherd of
death, for whom hell was created, seeks to take all souls with him into his
final doom. But God, in His
great love for mankind sent His only begotten Son into the world to save
sinners. Christ our Substitute has
struck the devil’s chief weapon from his hands. Christ disarmed the devil and made a public display of him (Col.
2:15). Only those who understand the
meaning of the cross and who share in Christ’s victory perceive this triumph as
the public defeat of Satan. As the
believer’s Substitute, Christ subjected Himself to the sentence, “the soul that
sins will die.” Upon Jesus Christ, the
Law of God prosecuted its sentence to the fullest degree. Christ was executed as the Sin-bearer. He was cut off from the living. The wrath of God was poured out upon Him. As the God-man,
the benefits of His substitutionary death are infinite in value. Christ has traded places with the sinner who
believes! (1 Peter 3:18). Christ took
upon Himself the believer’s guilt, shame, death, suffering, separation, and
damnation. Christ exhausted the capital
offense of the Law for all those who would believe. This event forever changes the nature of death for the
believer. Death is no longer under the
jurisdiction of Satan. For the saint,
its agony and sting have been removed, but for the unbeliever they remain (Acts
2:24; 1 Cor. 15:55-57). For the
believer, death is the stepping stone and doorway to paradise with God forever
(Rev. 21:1-8). Christ’s life,
death, and resurrection are for His people that they might have life
eternal. “The Son of God appeared for
this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The devil has been stripped of his most
potent weapon, death. Jesus now holds
the keys of death and hell. No one gets
in or out of death and hell but by Christ, the King of kings (Rev. 1:18). SINAll sin is
lawlessness (1 John 3:4). We live in a
moral universe because the Author, Sustainer, and Ruler of that universe is
holy. The God for whom and through whom
all things exist is holy. Therefore,
sin necessarily reaps a consequence of death, decay, dishonor, agony,
punishment, and separation. God has an
absolute claim upon all of His creatures and He has a perfect purpose for His
creatures, therefore all sin is against God.
The Holy Scriptures are an exhaustive testimony from God concerning
man’s sin. According to the Bible, sin
defiles, pollutes, deforms, enslaves, corrupts, and destroys those who practice
it. Sin flows from man’s nature like
stinking water from a contaminated spring.
God alone is
able to ferret out the treachery and deceit that is inherent in sin (Jer.
17:9,10). Men conceal their sinful
thoughts, plans and desires, but God sees their hearts with perfect clarity
(Rom. 2:16; Heb. 4:12; Rev. 20:12). Nothing is more
fickle than the temporary religious devotion of the unregenerate. Multitudes who heard Jesus preach and who
witnessed His miracles cried out for His murder when stirred up by the
religious leaders of Israel. By these
actions they evinced the character of universal sin. The character of
sin is vividly seen in the murder of Jesus.
Sin is high-handed rebellion against God. In order to defend and perpetuate itself, it would plunge a knife
into the very heart of God if it were able to do so. Certainly the murder of Jesus gives evidence of sin’s malignity. Sin is so vile
that it contains much of its own punishment (Isaiah 48:22). Sin keeps producing the “fallout” of regret,
guilt, shame, fear, and self-contempt.
It putrefies in the soul of a man producing festering wounds of
resentment, rebellion, and hatred. It
sits in the conscience of a man ready and waiting to take eternal revenge
against its owner. Here is the worm
that never dies. In eternal perdition, the wrath-awakened conscience keeps
beating the soul to bits, producing the torment of ever-increasing dissolution. Nothing can
avail against sin but the Person and work of Christ. In order for sin’s reign to be broken, there must be a blood atonement
by the Son of God. Nothing else can cut
sin’s enslaving links of iron. Nothing
else can satisfy the justice of God and thereby win the sinner’s freedom. Here is the
reason why. The guilty sinner awaiting
condemnation is spiritually dead by reason of his transgressions. In the deadness of his sin nature he lacks
the power to love God and turn from his iniquity. For him to be set free, the guilt of sin must be dealt with in
strict justice. It must be punished to
the full extent of the Law. This very sentence of death has been carried out by
Christ, the believing sinner’s Substitute (2 Cor. 5:21). Sin’s grip is
only broken when its guilt is pardoned!
Through the forgiveness purchased by the sacrifice of Christ, sin’s
power to enslave is broken. Within the
sinner’s bosom is an enmity, hatred and hostility toward the holy God who holds
him accountable and deserving of damnation.
It is only the cross of Christ that can remove enmity from the heart of
man. When by faith in
the gospel, the sinner beholds Christ becoming sin for him, he marvels that
Christ should take his penalty so that he can go free. Christ became sin for us. He became its shame, guilt, curse, and
separation. No wonder Jesus is called
the friend of sinners. DEATHDeath is
described as the king of terrors in the book of Job (18:14). Scripture indicates that the sting of death
is sin and the power of sin is the Law (1 Cor. 15:56). The prospect of death holds men in a state
of enslaving fear Heb. 2:14,15). People may pretend that they do not fear
death, but Scripture puts this to the lie. The conscience
of man rightly reasons that death holds a portent of ultimate judgment (Heb.
9:27). Death is a most formidable enemy
because man cannot recover from it.
There is finality in death. The
Bible says that all self-determination ceases at death (Eccl. 9:10). The spiritual
state and character of a man at death remain with him for eternity. At death, sin receives its “wage” of eternal
separation from God. This is known as
the “second death” (Romans 6:23; Rev. 20:14; 21:8). Death is the
great leveler of the human race. Every
class of men, whether slave or free, rich or poor, are placed in the grave with
nothing accompanying them into eternity but their bad record in heaven. Death begins the eternal ruin of the sinner. The marvelous
news of the gospel is that for believers, Christ conquered death by dying and
rising from the dead. Death could not
hold Him because He was sinless. Since
death is the penalty for human sin, it could not keep Christ, the perfectly
Holy One, under its power. His death
was for the sin of others. By the
giving of His life for His people, He exhausted death’s penalty and eliminated
death’s ability to ruin the souls of His own (1 Cor. 15:55-57). When Christ
died, His soul left His body. His cold
lifeless corpse was entombed. Only in
this way could death be defeated.
Everything horrific about death happened to Jesus. He was mangled, mutilated, and tormented,
all while being mocked. He was abandoned
and deprived of care and compassion. He
was humiliated during His agony. He was
terribly alone, dying without comforters.
The reproach of men and the wrath of God fell upon Him at the same
time. He was treated as worthless. Those who witnessed His crucifixion assumed
He was cursed of God (Is. 53:4). Everything
Christ suffered He suffered as a Substitute (Heb. 9:11-15). Jesus rose from the dead the third day. He was victorious over death for the sake of
all who would believe upon Him. Those
who trust Him are assured that death cannot hurt them. Christ promises
His own that He shall raise them from the dead (1 Thess. 4:13-18). Christ’s victory over death is the assurance
that death cannot ruin His people. The
Savior guaranteed that His resurrection was the “first-fruits” of a coming
“harvest” of innumerable resurrected individuals (1 Cor. 15:20-26). The wages of sin
is death (Rom. 6:23). Death will ruin
every person whose sin and guilt have not been carried away by Christ the
sinner’s Substitute (John 8:24). Only
the names of those written in the Lamb’s book of life will escape the second
death (Rev. 21:27). HELLNo New Testament
speaker addressed the subject of hell more frequently than the Lord Jesus
Christ. Hell is the greatest enemy of
the soul. It is separation from life,
light, love, God, goodness, and peace.
It is a conscious existence that involves the eternal loss of all
well-being. Hell is a place of
darkness, remorse, and agony. In hell,
the terrors of conscience are released.
Damnation is the sinner’s ill desert, therefore perdition is an eternal
monument to the justice of God. How little
sinners consider the brevity of time on earth and the lack of strength
necessary to repent of sin. Jesus put
the issue of eternity into graphic terms when He indicated that gaining the
whole world could not begin to offset the devastation of losing one’s soul
forever in hell (Matt. 16:26). All of
life is but a brief time to prepare for eternity. Jesus warns that
hell will ultimately claim the vast majority of mankind (Matt. 7:13). As the sovereign
builder of His Church, Christ proclaimed that the “gates of hell” would not
overpower His Church (Matt. 16:18). Christ defeated
hell for the believer by permitting the infinite wrath of God to crush His own
person (Is. 53:6-10; Rom. 5:8,9). With
sin’s guilt and curse loaded upon Him, He bore the wrath of God. Amidst the suffering of His passion, the
wrath of God coursed through His soul like white-hot bolts of lightning. For the sake of
those who would believe, He endured the turning away of His Father’s gaze. He died alienated and cut off, perishing
under sin’s curse (Ps. 22:1; Gal. 3:13).
Christ drained the cup of judgment.
From the first bloody drop of sweat in Gethsemene until He uttered “it
is finished” from the cross He endured the penalty due our sin. He exhausted an eternal hell for all who
would believe upon Him (John 19:30). Christ did in
one day what the sinner can never do.
The condemned sinner can never exhaust hell’s justice. A trillion years in hell will not place a
damned individual any closer to release.
No wonder Christ is the “city of refuge” where guilty sinners may flee
for salvation (Heb. 6:18,19). THE LAW’S CONDEMNATIONThe Law points
an accusing finger, but won’t lend a hand.
The reason for this resides in the purpose of the Law. The Law of God is the primary revealer of
man’s moral condition (Rom. 3:19,20). The Law was never intended to be a means
of gaining eternal life. The Scriptures
indicate that the Law was added because of transgressions (Gal. 3:19). By divine Law,
God holds all sinners in custody.
Unbelievers are considered criminals under the government of God (Gal.
3:23; Rom. 11:32; John 3:36). The Law
pronounces transgressors guilty of a capital offense against God. The Law is not a tool of self-reformation,
for no man can work his way out of the Law’s condemnation. The Law’s great
salvific use is that of providing an x-ray of the human heart. The Law shows a man his moral deformity and
helplessness. The stringency of the Law
stirs up man’s ire and wrath, fomenting his innate rebellion (Rom. 5:20). The Law accuses
and thus brings to the surface the enmity and hostility of the creature. The Law’s power to exasperate the sinner is
a necessary step in preparing him for salvation. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ explained that God’s moral
requirements extend to man’s thoughts, glances, speech, and intents of his
heart. The Law is not a free-floating
arbitrary code of ethics, it is the revelation of God’s righteousness. To transgress God’s Law is to rebel against
God’s moral authority. The natural man
is a fugitive under God’s moral government.
He dreams of a land where the 10 Commandments are not enforced. This becomes his philosophy of freedom. It can appear in subtle ways. The covenant breaker says in his heart, “I
will choose what is right and wrong for myself.” “ I will set my own standard.” By such impenitence, the unbeliever says in
effect, “I will cast off God’s yoke because it is repressive” (Ps. 2:2,3). The rebel, whether legalistic or lawless,
refuses to be “tutored” by God’s Law. Scripture states
that the Law is a “tutor” to lead men to Christ. The Law teaches the sinner that his only hope of salvation must
come from outside of himself (Rom. 10:1-4; Gal. 3:24). Christ has great love and compassion for
sinners held in custody by God’s Law.
He knows that the sinner attempts to meet his needs by sinning. He knows that the sinner has misery instead
of peace as he feels the vice of the Law and his own conscience squeezing from
both sides. He knows that the more the
sinner tries to feel better by pursuing sin, the more his misery
increases. For the Law and conscience
cast up accusations and self-contempt.
The Law accurately whispers to him that he deserves to die and be
separated from God. Christ’s love to
sinners is unfathomable. For believers,
Christ disarmed the Law’s power as a damning force. Jesus took the sinner’s place that He might satisfy the Law’s absolute
requirement of perfect obedience. By
Christ’s life and death, He purchased peace, pardon, acceptance, and adoption
for His people (Rev. 5;9,10). Christ
accomplished right-standing for believers in the sight of God’s Law (Rom.
2:16). How do we know when
the Law has done its preparatory work upon a sinner? Only when a soul is led to Christ alone for righteousness is the
work of the Law done (Rom. 10:1-4). The
justified person has repented of his sin.
He affirms that God’s Law is “holy, righteous and good” (Rom.
7:12). He also knows that it is Christ
alone who commends him to God. By His
substitutionary death, Christ cancelled out the certificate of debt. “He has taken it out of the way, having
nailed it to the cross” (Col. 2:14).
The Law of God is now in the hands of a placated Mediator. It is no longer an accuser that is hostile
to us. For believers, it has ceased to
condemn and charge with guilt (Rom. 6:14; Gal. 5:18). For the man who
dies outside of Christ, the horrors of an endlessly roaring conscience await
him. A great part of hell’s torment is
the possession a conscience that cannot be quieted, bribed, or pacified. To the lost man’s chagrin, his conscience keeps
shouting out its agreement with the condemnation of God’s Law. How serious a
thing it is to be made in the image of God!
Even in hell, the reprobate cannot escape having been made in God’s
moral image. That moral mark and image
cannot be sinned away. The Law of God
written on the conscience will not evaporate in the lake of fire. The Law of God will continue to inform the
conscience forever that its condemnation is just. In the “second
death,” the Law and the conscience will never unfasten their eternal grip. They shall always be in agreement. In echoing God’s immutable commands, the
conscience will incessantly beat upon its owner, declaring that he deserves to
be eternally miserable. Who but the most
incorrigible rebel would not run to Christ to escape this wrath to come? Think again what the Lord has done for
sinners. The God of the universe, the
Lawgiver Himself, took off His judicial robes and allowed Himself to be
executed by lawbreakers! Christ’s death
was no mere martyrdom. God the Son, by
His Father’s plan, had the guilt of sinners transferred to Him! Think of the incalculable debt the believer
owes his Savior. Christ voluntarily
placed Himself in the immense stone cog works of God’s justice. He was crushed by divine decree (Is.
53:10). He became the willing
victim. The turning teeth of God’s
ineffable justice pressed the life and heart blood out of Him. He reaped what we had sown so that we might
have an unchangeable love relationship with God. Sinner, put down
the weapons you bear against God.
Receive His love. Be reconciled
to God on His terms of peace. The
justice of God has been satisfied on behalf of those who will believe. Consent to be represented by the Son. Repent of your self-will and love of
sin. He will receive you and will not
turn you away. Now is the day of
salvation (2 Cor. 6:2). |
