The Cross And The Gospel

The substitutionary death Christ died, in which he cancelled out the debt of sinners, then, is the backdrop for the next glorious truth found in Colossians 2:15. Here it is said that Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly,” putting them to shame and triumphing over them. The death by which Satan is disarmed and put to shame, then, is a death that cancels our sin. The disarming of Satan and the death that cancels our sin are theologically linked in this way: the basis of Satan’s power over sinners is sin itself; the only way to overthrow this power was for sin to be paid for and forgiven. Christ’s forgiveness through penal substitution, therefore, is the means by which we are freed from Satan’s power.

An analogy may assist in clarifying Scripture’s teaching about the pardon Christ earned for believers on the cross. Under a just system of laws, a prisoner is jailed because he has been convicted of some crime whose penalty involves his incarceration. Notice, then, that his guilt forms the basis for his bondage. Only because he has been proven guilty of breaking the law does the state have the right to imprison him. Furthermore, if a prisoner can prove his actual innocence, such that the charge of guilt can be removed—e.g., if some forensic or DNA evidence available after his incarceration demonstrates his innocence—then the state is obligated to release him from prison. It is clear, then, that the power of the state to put criminals in bondage comes from the guilt they have incurred and the accompanying penalty directed at them as a result. Remove the guilt and its penalty, and you remove the just basis for the state’s power to enforce bondage.

Similarly, Satan’s power over sinners is tied specifically and exclusively to the sinner’s guilt through sin. His hold on them is owing to their sinful rebellion against God. But remove the guilt through Christ’s payment for their sin and you remove the basis for Satan’s hold on them! So by his death Christ took upon himself the sin of others and paid the full penalty for their sin. As a consequence, the hold that Satan had upon sinners is necessarily broken since the basis for this bondage is removed. Remove the guilt and you remove the bondage; accomplish penal substitution and you accomplish Christus Victor.

The gospel is the good news that in the cross of Christ, the penalty of our sin was paid fully by Christ. By this, sin’s powerful hold on our lives, which leads ultimately to death, has been completely defeated. If we will trust fully Christ’s accomplishment for us—that he paid sin’s penalty and conquered sin’s power—and not look to our own works or accomplishments as if they could commend us to God, we will be saved (Eph 2:8-9).