10.3 The Victory of Life
The Bible gives us two quite different ways of seeing Jesus’ Victory upon and out from the Cross. The first is as we have considered, the Ark in the Jordan, Psalm 22, and the view from the Gospel narratives. But the second way of seeing is found in Revelation 20, the very same Gospel Victory, but known as it is in power in the heavens. Thus “Father, forgive them” IS – the sword of Jesus’ mouth, bringing His enemies under submission. These two ways of seeing apply to offering our lives to God for the sake of our brethren as well.
Resurrection is VICTORY over death, defeating death and casting it down, everywhere it works its woes in the experience of our brethren, removing its power to prevent the knowledge of God.
Subdue – Overcome. After God gave all authority to humans, “Subdue – conquer – overcome,” He invited them to eat of the Tree of Life. “Of all the trees in the garden, you may freely eat.” God’s Victory comes only out from Life, out from all levels and arenas of partaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. With God, Victory is the only possible outcome of the authority given to Jesus our only Life, His directive through us to subdue and to overcome.
The Gospel gives us three Victories of Life, victory over the world (1 John 5), victory over the accuser (Revelation 12), and victory over death (1 Corinthians 15). Yet these three enemies are so intertwined that to defeat one is to defeat all.
My New Name. Our topic is entirely Resurrection Life. Life, by its very nature, as it comes to Completion, casts off a now useless death. But Life is life shared together, thus we are speaking also of the living substance of Grace, the energeoing of Grace as it absorbs all things into the knowledge of God.
Before we can know how Life casts off death, we must have a clear working definition of Resurrection Life. Resurrection Life is that quality of God-Life that sustains and carries all, that quality by which God places Himself beneath to lift up others into Life and Joy. Resurrection Life is Life for others, and the outcome is Glory, the name above all – I will write My new name upon you.
The Rule of Victory. Let’s begin with the ruling verse of our Victory. – Now have come the salvation, the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down, the one who has accused them in the presence of our God day and night. And THEY have overcome him through the blood of the Lamb, and through the word of their testimony; and they have not loved their souls unto death (Revelation 12:10-11).
During the course of our redemption, we learned to cast down the accuser for our own victory over that which opposed Christ, the spirits animating our false imagination. Now we cast down the accuser for the sake of the Church, that she might be clothed with the knowledge of Jesus.
Clothed with the Lord Jesus. The implications of Revelation 12:10-11 are staggering. First, it is speaking of the Church of Jesus Christ prior to the removal of demons from the world and its beast, prior to the outward resurrection of our physical bodies, the Church right here on this earth, right now in this age.
This is a Church clothed with the sun, having placed the Lord Jesus Christ upon herself, completely free of all the demonic seals preventing her from knowing Jesus written all through her being. This is, by God’s grace, millions of believers in Jesus who have turned away from “go to” heaven, a “someday gospel,” and are now the Glorious Salvation of God through her into creation, millions of believers loving one another with pure hearts fervently.
Who Are THEY? But the big question is, who are THEY? And how do THEY succeed in removing from millions of Christians on this earth the darkness of a false gospel?
These are they who follow the Lamb, who are just like the Lord Jesus Christ, carrying inside themselves, inside of Jesus, all whom the Father has given to them, all the way through death and into Life. And they succeed in removing all falseness from the Church by the Blood of the Lamb having already redeemed all, by the word of their testimony, the speaking of “Christ our life,” and because they do not hold onto their souls, but give themselves utterly to the Father for the sake of others, to God who sustains all and who raises the dead into Life.
What Did Jesus Do? What did Jesus actually do to connect us back together with God? Nothing outwardly. Yet we do know exactly what He did inside Himself, for God sent David into Jesus’ soul upon the cross, a thousand years before. And there David saw a man in such agony and confusion of soul that he was teetering on the precipice of driving God away on the one hand, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” And on the other hand, at the edge of contempt, ready to call ten thousand angels to destroy the dogs screaming falseness against Him without a cause.
Yet He did neither. For inside of His confusion, David heard Him say, “Father, You have answered Me.” And Isaiah heard, “Here am I, I and the children whom You have given Me.”
The Authority of Christ. This joining of God with us inside Himself, receiving the Father and receiving you and me into His human agony, was God’s open Door into creation, God’s permission to enter. It is the authority of Christ.
God gave all authority inside creation to humans and reserved none for Himself. And He gave no power to humans, but reserved all power to Himself. No power, that is, except one. You and I have the power to open our door to God, our hearts filled with Jesus, that He might enter through us now into our world. Yet our souls are committed to our brothers and sisters, to millions of fellow believers all across the earth, that God might enter their knowledge as well, that the Knowledge of God might be birthed through the Church into the knowledge of all, the Salvation, the Power, and the Kingdom.
The Deliverance of the Church. They break. They break and run; they cannot stand in the face of Love.
The image of the arrogant “Christ,” of “heavenly superiority,” flees away from the minds of millions of Christians as they see the Father only through Jesus, through a Man meek and lowly of Heart, carrying them, carried by Father. Giving thanks inside of and for the sake of all, giving thanks for our human weakness filled with God, exorcises all contempt and they know its wickedness no more.
Quickly the others vacate from all the memory of the Church, limiting the atonement, “going to” heaven through death, refusing to know God now, pretending, pretending, and accusing the Father of knowing evil – ALL ARE GONE!
Where Home Is. What happens next? To answer that question, we must answer the question – What matters the most?
If anyone loves Me, he will keep, guard, and watch over My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our home in intimate closeness and participation with him (John 14:23).
Home matters most, where the heart is, the place where I belong. – God wants to come Home. I know where my home is, for God has given me such knowledge, where my heart dwells, where I belong. My home is Christian Community. Why? Because Christian Community is where God my Father is at Home, believers in Jesus loving one another as Jesus loves us.
That the World May Know. What happens next? The New Jerusalem begins to appear upon the earth, coming out from the Father, Christian Communities springing up in every place on earth, as believers in Jesus enter together into all the Life of Christ. Yes, the demons are raging in hatred and fear, yes the beast is running around like a chicken with its head cut off, but their time is over. No one cares anymore.
WHY? WHY? – WHY does no one care about the antics and stupidity of evil anymore? Because the people of this world SEE Christians, on this earth and in this age, loving one another, and they say to each other, “Now we know that God sent Jesus into the world; now we know that God is Love” (John 17:22-23).
Jesus Faithful and True. I have described for you the Victory of Life over death, for it is the Victory of Love. When I know that I love you more than life itself, God as Love at Home in my heart, and when you know that you love me more than life itself, God as Love at Home in your heart, then the Father is at Home in our gathering together.
Yet Love cannot rest, for Love triumphs only as all whom the Father has given to Jesus, to the last little one, has found their way Home, inside of Jesus, inside of Love. And there, inside of Love, in Christ Community together, our bodies are swallowed up into Life and death is no more. For there God commands the blessing, even life forevermore.
This is a True and faithful testimony of Jesus our Lord.