Sermon on Luke 11:14-28, for the 3rd Sunday in Lent (1 YR), "Christus Victor"
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Early Christians found various ways to speak about the redemption that Jesus Christ won for mankind. They followed the descriptions in Scripture. “What was the center of Jesus’ redeeming work?”, they asked. Of course the cross of Jesus had to be central. But what exactly was happening there? A transaction? A tragedy? A judgment? A battle? An example? The most common description is that Jesus was our perfect, innocent substitute, facing God’s judgment against sin. A similar picture is Jesus as the ransom for our human bondage to sin. A third description found more in hymns than in theology books, is called the Christus Victor Theory . Christ is the Victorious champion who destroys sin, death, and the devil. It’s a more triumphal picture—but really all three images together describe facets of the one reality that Jesus has redeemed us from the power of sin, death, and the devil. One...