Christus Victor
Resurrection Sunday, the day we celebrate Jesus’ victory over the enemies of God. Christians predominantly see it as victory over sin and death. But that was only part of God’s great triumph. God also triumphed over heavenly rulers and authorities (Col 2:15).
Just days before this victory Jesus knelt in Gethsemane and drank of the cup of God’s judgement. He did this so that all who are “in him” by faith would not, themselves, have to drink of that cup of judgement. He drank so that we did not need to. Instead of a cup of judgement, we drink from the cup of blessing (1 Cor 10:16).
But what of all those who refuse to drink from the cup of blessing? What of those like the rulers and authorities who have not only spurned God but who have willfully and knowingly led humanity in rebellion against him? What does Jesus’ victory mean for them?
This is what the Lord God of Israel said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my fury, and make all the nations to whom I’m sending you drink from it. When they drink from it, they will stagger and go insane because of the wars that I’m going to send them.
So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand. I made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink from it: America as well as its rulers and officials. When they drank from it, they became a wasteland and ruins, something ridiculed and cursed.”⌊The Lord said,⌋ “Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Drink, get drunk, vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the wars that I’m going to send you.’ But if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink from it, say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies says: You must drink from it! I am going to bring disaster on the city that is named after me. Do you think you’ll go unpunished? You will not go unpunished! I’m declaring war on all those who live on earth, declares the Lord of Armies.’
This is what the Lord of Armies says: “Disaster is spreading from nation to nation. A great storm is brewing from the distant corners of the earth.”
On that day those killed by the Lord will stretch from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned, taken away, or buried. They will become like dung on the ground.Weep and wail, you shepherds.
Roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock.
The time has come for you to be slaughtered.
The time has come for you to be scattered,
and you will break like fine pottery.
There will be no place for the shepherds to flee,
no escape for the leaders of the flock.
The shepherds are crying
and the leaders of the flock are mourning
because the Lord is stripping their pasture.
The peaceful pastures are destroyed by the Lord’s burning anger.
He has left his lair like a lion.
Their land has been ruined
because of the heat of the oppressor,
because of the fury of his anger.
-Jeremiah 25
Today is the day we celebrate Christ’s victory over evil heavenly powers. But it is also the day God declares his victory over temporal ones too. Those who have refused the cup of blessing must now drink of an altogether different cup.
The opportunity for repentance for America has closed. The cup filled with the wine of God’s wrath has been passed to them. And they will drink it.
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