Ultimate Destruction and Christus Victor
To continue with some atonement thoughts, I want to examine Christus Victor in light of evil as that which is destructive, the end of evil being ultimate destruction. I have said that only God can bring about ultimate destruction and only God can absorb ultimate destruction. This is possible because God is omnipotent and Triune: His omnipotence makes possible that he can render creation to nothing (ultimate destruction) and his Triuneness assures that the relationship between the person who brings ultimate destruction and the person who absorbs ultimate destruction is not destroyed, because there still exists the bond of love who is the Spirit himself. Now, how can we think of this in terms of God's defeat of Satan on the Cross, Christus Victor?
The biblical language about Satan is subtle and elusive. He is the accuser (literally, what the Hebrew word 'stn' means); he is the enemy; he is the serpent (a symbol for the fertility god of some of Israel's contemporary nations); he is the dragon who gives power to the beast in Revelation; he is the tempter when Jesus is in the wilderness. We can say, in Christus Victor terms, that Jesus defeats the Satan because Jesus displays the end of the power that the Satan can offer. The power which the Satan offers the beast in Revelation is political empire. Political empire shows its ultimate power in taking life; it cannot, however, give life. For this reason the resurrection brings terror to those who trust the power of the Satan because the beast is only able to kill; he cannot raise to life (Rev. 11:7-12). The power that the Satan gives is shown to be lacking even in its ultimate display by God the Father on the cross because God the Son absorbs this destruction and is resurrected. The negation (ultimate destruction) is negated (resurrection). In this way Christ conquers the Satan. (Interestingly, this conquering is started when he rejects the offers of power the Satan makes in the wilderness, offering a more wholistic, narrative account of atonement.)
The biblical language about Satan is subtle and elusive. He is the accuser (literally, what the Hebrew word 'stn' means); he is the enemy; he is the serpent (a symbol for the fertility god of some of Israel's contemporary nations); he is the dragon who gives power to the beast in Revelation; he is the tempter when Jesus is in the wilderness. We can say, in Christus Victor terms, that Jesus defeats the Satan because Jesus displays the end of the power that the Satan can offer. The power which the Satan offers the beast in Revelation is political empire. Political empire shows its ultimate power in taking life; it cannot, however, give life. For this reason the resurrection brings terror to those who trust the power of the Satan because the beast is only able to kill; he cannot raise to life (Rev. 11:7-12). The power that the Satan gives is shown to be lacking even in its ultimate display by God the Father on the cross because God the Son absorbs this destruction and is resurrected. The negation (ultimate destruction) is negated (resurrection). In this way Christ conquers the Satan. (Interestingly, this conquering is started when he rejects the offers of power the Satan makes in the wilderness, offering a more wholistic, narrative account of atonement.)
posted by Aaron Perry at
2:02 PM
1 Comments:
i just had a thought and wanted to put it out here. some guy, let me know if it assuages some of your concerns.
I have said that the end of evil is ultimate destruction, because that which is evil is that which is destructive. What if we put this in relational terms? What if we saw destruction in terms of broken relationship? After all, it is the relationship broken between God and humanity that leads to the cursing of creation. And it is the creation which groans for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed… Could we see ultimate destruction, then, as the possibility of the Triune relationship being broken? What if “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” is more than a Messianic cry, but also an *ontological* one? We could then see that since God is the only one who can do the ultimately destructive act that he is the only one who can let his Triune relationship be threatened, or he is the only one who can threaten his Triune life. The wrath of God is poured out on Christ because the relationship broken, suffered by God and humanity, is now **suffered by God in humanity.** The human Jesus now knows what it is like to be out of relationship with his heavenly Father—the experience of which is God’s wrath. He bears all evil--which can only be done as the God-man; as God because the broken relationship within God must be suffered by God; as human because it is the broken relationship between God and humans that is being repaired.
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