1Jn 3:8ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστίν, ὅτι ἀπ̓ ἀρχῆς ὁ διάβολος ἁμαρτάνει. εἰς τοῦτο ἐφανερώθη ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα λύσῃ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ διαβόλου.
Those who practice sin are from the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. Into this [mess of a context] the Son of God was made manifest in order that he should destroy the works of the devil (writer's translation).
Many of us are most familiar with the Latin description of Christ's work as being a legal justification of the sinner before God on account of God's love for sinners. As ancient and important as this Anselmian understanding is, it is not the most ancient and I would say does not describe the other critical aspects of Christ's work on this earth as θεάνθροπος, the God-Man. 1 John makes plain to us that Christ is our Divine Warrior, our "Mighty Fortress", who has come to decimate his and now our enemies. The Most Holy God is one who is worthy of our reverence and weighty worship. For He alone has sent the devil packing. Indeed His D-Day incarnate invasion of this world was an absolute success and He has been raised from the dead to demonstrate this. We now live in the time in which we await the V-Day celebration in which the devil and his minions are marched through the streets of glory in humiliation before Christus Victor.
1 comments:
Another thought that grips me here is the fact that instead of destroying all of us - for all of us have practiced sin and in that sense are of the devil, Christ has caused widespread satanic mutiny. The devil's human "troops" have been liberated and having defected now stand with Christus Rex, Christ the King.
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