God is Like a Trojan Horse

Yesterday, I introduced a basic understanding of the Christus Victor view of Christ’s work on the cross. Today, I want to expand on this briefly. Because God is a God of love who gives genuine “say-so” to both angels and humans, God rarely accomplishes his providential plans through coercion. God relies on his infinite wisdom to achieve his goals. Nowhere is God’s wisdom put more on display than in the manner in which he outsmarted Satan and the powers of evil, using their own evil to bring about their defeat. Most readers probably know the famous story from ancient Greece about the Trojan Horse. To recap the story, Troy and Greece had been locked in a ten-year-long vicious war when, according to Homer and Virgil, the Greeks came up with a brilliant idea.

They built an enormous wooden horse, hid soldiers inside and offered it to the Trojans as a gift, claiming they were conceding defeat and going home. The delighted Trojans accepted the gift and proceeded to celebrate by drinking themselves into a drunken stupor. When night came and the Trojan warriors were too wasted to fight, the Greeks exited the horse, unlocked the city gates to quietly let all their compatriots in, and easily conquered the city, thus winning the war. Historians debate whether any of this actually happened. But either way, as military strategies go, it’s brilliant.

Now, there are five clues in the New Testament that suggest God was using something like this Trojan Horse strategy against the powers when he sent Jesus into the world.

1) The Bible tells us that God’s victory over the powers of darkness was achieved by the employment of God’s wisdom and was centered on Jesus Christ becoming a human (Rom 16:25; I Cor 2:7; Eph 3:9-10; Col 1:26). It also tells us that, for some reason, this Christ-centered wisdom was kept “secret and hidden” throughout the ages. It’s clear from this that God’s strategy was to outsmart and surprise the powers by sending Jesus.

2) While humans don’t generally know Jesus’ true identity during his ministry, demons do. They recognize Jesus as the Son of God, but, interestingly enough, they have no idea what he’s doing on earth (Mk 1:24; 3:11; 5:7; Lk 8:21). Again, the wisdom of God in sending Jesus was hidden from them.

3) We’re told that, while humans certainly share in the responsibility for the crucifixion, Satan and the powers were working behind the scenes to bring it about (Jn 13:27, cf. 1 Cor 2:6-8). These forces of evil helped orchestrate the crucifixion.

4) We’re taught that if the “rulers of this age” had understood the secret wisdom of God, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (I Cor 2: 8, cf. vss 6-7). Apparently, Satan and the powers regretted orchestrating Christ’s crucifixion once they learned of the wisdom of God that was behind it.

5) Finally, we can begin to understand why the powers came to regret crucifying “the Lord of glory” when we read that it was by means of the crucifixion that the “charge of our legal indebtedness” was “canceled” as the powers were “disarmed.” In this way Christ “triumphed over” the powers “by the cross” and even “made a public spectacle of them” (Col. 2:14-15). Through Christ’s death and resurrection God’s enemies were vanquished and placed under his feat.

Putting these five clues together, we can discern God’s Trojan Horse strategy in sending Jesus.

The powers couldn’t discern why Jesus came to earth because God’s wisdom was hidden from them. God’s wisdom is motivated by unfathomable love, and since Satan and the other Powers are evil, they lack the capacity to understand it. Their evil hearts prevented them from suspecting what God was up to.

What the powers did understand, or at least thought they understood, was that Jesus had for some reason or other entered into their domain and had become mortal. This meant he was killable. Lacking the capacity to understand God’s self-sacrificial love, they never suspected that making Jesus vulnerable like this might actually be part of God’s infinitely wise plan.

And so they took the bait. Utilizing Judas and other willing human agents, the powers played right into God’s secret plan and orchestrated the crucifixion of the Lord of glory (Ac 2:22-23; 4:28). God thus brilliantly used the self-inflicted incapacity of evil to understand love against itself. And, like light dispelling darkness, this unfathomably beautiful act of self-sacrificial love defeated the powers.

The whole creation was in principle freed and reconciled to God, while everything written against us humans was nailed to the cross, thus robbing the powers of the only legal claim they had on us. They were “disempowered” (Col. 2:14-15).

As happened to the Trojans in accepting the gift from the Greeks, in seizing on Christ’s human vulnerability and orchestrating his crucifixion, the powers unwittingly cooperated with God to unleash the one power in the universe that dispels all evil and sets captives free. It’s the power of God’s self-sacrificial love. -

Eternal Security

   As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.

                                                         Ecclesiastes 5 : 15

Working in care centers, I'v witnessed two types of people, those who have eternal security and those who don't. Those that have eternal security are held together while those without eternal security are undone. Eternal security starts the moment we receive & believe in Jesus Christ as our  personal  savior & Lord. People who have not developed that personal relationship with the Lord have problems when everything they love & own is removed from them, but those who have trusted & cultivated  Christ presence & peace are content.

     A personal relationship with the Creator is success, and the way to heaven : Jesus said to him, " I am the way, the truth, and the life , no one comes to the Father accept through me. John 14 : 6. What is eternal security ? It's not a place but a person. And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son, He who has the Son has the life , he who does not have the Son does not have the life. 1 John 5 : 11 - 12. In Christ we have Eternal security through faith. Of course this is believing not a feeling at first. The revelation of this truth is revealed after we believe. Also In Christ now  we are held together by him this is what the bible means by abiding. Its something the Lord does for us, he holds us together, see 2 John 2 Truth abides in us and will be with us forever.

    Apostle Paul writes to the church in Colossi. You are all complete through your union in Christ who is the head over all principality & power. Colossians 2 : 10.

The Witness of the Cross

Philippians 2:3-11

The witness of the cross reveals a radical contrast between what Jesus could have done and what He did. Although (since) He was God and could have ordered us to bring Him perfect offerings, He did not require of us what we could not give, but rather He gave to us His perfect life as an offering in our behalf. Amazing! Herein we see the witness of the cross - a life of self-offering to God and to others.

ALTHOUGH He “existed in the form of God” (a status that implies a full and free exercise of power), HE DID NOT “regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped” (did not exploit that status for personal gain), BUT “emptied Himself” (poured out His life for the sake of others). He certainly acted contrary to what we might expect from those in positions of power, but not contrary to His nature or to His mission. This is God in fullness of character being and behaving as a human in the world! (Are we sure we want to be like Jesus?) This is the “mind of Christ” (I Cor 2:16) that we freely received. (Do we know what it means to think Christianly?)

Wherever Crucified, Risen Life reigns, this witness shows up! In Timothy: “ALTHOUGH he could have sought his own interests, he DID NOT live for himself, BUT he concerned himself for the welfare of oth-ers.” (Phil 2:19-21) In Epaphroditus: “ALTHOUGH he was sick to the point of death, he did not use that as a reason to be self-preserving, BUT risked his life for others.” (Phil 2:25-30) In Paul: “ALTHOUGH we have the status of apostles, we DID NOT use our position for special treatment, BUT we made ourselves as slaves to you.” (I Cor 9:1ff)

Do you understand then, why Paul told the Philippians, “ALTHOUGH you may be right and others wrong, DO NOT operate from self-centeredness or empty conceit, BUT in humility put others interests about yours.” (Phil 2:3-4). Or, why to husbands he would say, “ALTHOUGH you may be head of the household, DO NOT take advantage of that status to oppress your wives, BUT rather sacrificially love them.” Or, to wives, “ALTHOUGH there is no male of female in Christ, DO NOT exploit that to usurp your husbands’ headship, BUT instead respectfully subject yourselves to them.” (Eph 5:22-33)

This is how the cross “in the heart of God” shows its character. This is how the Crucified, Risen One in our hearts bears witness to Himself. This is what it means to “work out our own salvation” according to the nature of God “who is at work” in you and me. (Phil 2:12-13)

Emmanuel - God With Us

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (Matt. 1:23 quoting from Isa. 7:14)

This SERMON SUBJECT--Emmanuel, God with us--appropriately appears on many church bulletin boards during the Christmas season.

Years ago in a most unusual setting a little boy was born. He grew up to manhood and announced Himself as the long-awaited Messiah of the expectant Jews. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). But God's purpose in revealing Himself through the man Jesus was that we also would know Christ in our flesh.

CHRIST DWELLS IN US

If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mor­tal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.(Rom. 5:11.)

In Romans Eight Paul underscores a truth which is only revealed by the Spirit-that we are the offspring of God: "Those led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God" (Rom. 8:14). As if this glorious truth were not enough, Paul startles us with the conclusion that if we are the offspring of God, then we are also heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. In the New Testament's unfolding message, particularly in the writings, of Paul and John, we have the emphasis of sons of God by faith.

Paul makes what is, to him, a logical statement, which readers of Paul often miss. To many, joint-heirs implies there will be a pot of gold in their storeroom. But Paul says, "joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him" (v. 17). He is saying that adopted sons become vessels by whom and through whom the Father's love work continues. Though Paul speaks powerfully from his private revelation of sonship, John, in both Gospel and first Epistle, underscores exactly the same point.

During the past year both parts of I John 4:15 have become alive to me in a new way. As with so many other Scriptures, for years I had highlighted one section of the verse and blocked out another. The verse reads, "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and He in God." I understood the "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God" part, for I related it to my previous salvation experience. Then nine years ago the section, "God dwells in him, and He  in God," began to be opened up to me. Till then, I had thought, "Oh, that elusive God." All the time that I was chasing Him, He had dwelt within! He cer­tainly had not been in any rush to show Himself to me. I smiled to myself as I recalled the twenty-three­and-a-half years' separation in my experience between these two sections of this one verse of the Bible, finally realizing that I had been in union with God all the time. Why does it usually take so long for these deep things of God to become reality?

CHRIST FOR ME

Christmas teaches us the blessings of giving over getting. At this season, people concern themselves with giv­ing visible expressions of love to others. But our attention can remain upon getting for a long, long time. I might ask, "What are you more interested in-getting from God, or expressing God to others at any cost?" All are interested in getting from God to begin with. For example, I have noticed that "no condemnation" is one of the initial results of a person experiencing union with Christ. It is a getting. It is the desire of the Chris­tian to get for himself. It is the pro­verbial carrot in front of the eyes. It gets our attention. Thankfully this carrot can be reached by one and all. Many are first caught by the carrot truth of "no condemnation" which satisfies their desire to be getters.

A couple of summers ago two women came to the Union Life Conference Center near Hixton. Their lives were filled with accumulated guilt and condemnation. One of them later said she was ready to leave on the first or second day of her stay. However, by the end of the week they had both experienced a knowing in their spirits which released them from years of condemnation. They departed rejoicing.

I have seen them several times this year. I did not recognize one of them when I saw her for the first time after Hixton. The removal of guilt and condemnation has caused her to do a few nice things for her appearance, and the knowing of union has pro­duced an entirely new person from the inside out.

CHRIST IN ME

Expressing God to others by "Christ living in you" is another matter. This is what John talks about in his first epistle: "God dwells in him, and he in God" (I John 4:15). The next verse carries us to the weightier matter, "God is love" (v. 16) God is agape. Agape is God. Write it either way-it is the same. The Greek word agape-­meaning love--is the key. The only source of agape is God. Isn't it the definition of the character of God ­ having the welfare of others as His only concern-that most clearly de­scribes Him to us? This love is not inanimate, but personal-"He." That is the trick. It is He Who is shed abroad in our hearts-Love is The Person.

The second woman mentioned previously not only experienced the truth of no condemnation, but also is so totally aware of her union with Christ that manifested rivers of Love now flow forth from her. Without any advertisement, she is drawing to her­self those who are hurting.

I have seen the awareness of this giving revelation bring life to many. It whirls them about and thrusts them out as rivers of living water. Isn't this the experiential side of John's statement, "As He is, so are we in this world"? (I John 4:17.)

CHRIST AS ME

Today, as I was preparing to go to my desk, the telephone rang. Barbara, the official receptionist here, answered the call. It was the oft repeated story of a marriage problem. In tears, a young lady was speaking, "Will you come? I want someone with honest answers." Barbara is in God and knows it. Her word is His Word. This young caller heard truth coming from someone who knows who she is. She is witnessing agape for her. Love is coming to her in the form of Barbara ­ who knows God dwells in her, and she in Him.

But how is one able to act with such sureness and authority? That is what we wish to know. Let us examine the prayer of Jesus in John 17 with particular emphasis on verses 20-23. As we know, Jesus' prayer reaches forward to include all who would ultimately believe on Him. The prayer is remarkable.

I pray for them which shall believe on me that they may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us. . . and that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one. (Vs. 20-23.)

Jesus' prayer expresses His desire for all future followers to know the truth; the Father and His Son in them, and themselves in the Father and the Son. We are intended to know a oneness in ourselves.

Now, in what realm is this knowing to take place? I take it to be the realm of Spirit, for all knowing is inner when you and the concept or truth become so one that you may say, "I know." It is a prayer for each individual though spoken collectively.

Another reason I see it as inner knowing is the human experience of Jesus. He was never recognized by the eye of flesh as being in union with the Father. His accusers said He was Beelzebub. The townspeople said He was only the son of Joseph and Mary. And even at the end, one disciple ques­tioned Him concerning the Father about whom He spoke.

But some of us have come to know within ourselves this vital union of our human spirit with the Trinity­, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What ultimate purpose does this knowing serve? Jesus said it would have a two­fold result: "that the world may believe that you have sent me" and "that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" (John 17:20, 23).

The result of our knowing ourselves in them" puts to rest the question of the existence and reality of the Father and the Son. Now we can speak with the authority of God and "say to this mountain, Be thou removed." We can now speak as first-hand knowers. This is to convince the world that the Father sent the Son. Our knowing "them in us" makes us vessels of love (agape)-it is our perfection, and the result should be a world which knows they are loved also!

Isn't the simplicity of God's plan amazing? Anyone who is willing to announce Himself through a birth in a manger setting must know the truth of simplicity. His plan appears so simple when placed alongside man's efforts. Simplicity frightens people, ­it strikes them as naivety. They say, "It can't work. It's too simple."

"Christ in You" is the completion of the Old Testament "God with us" truth. It is so utterly simple. The world merely tips its hat toward the manger as it dashes on its way to celebrate the incoming new year. But, countless others pause at the manger in reverent awe knowing that this little one was truly God (Phil. 2:5-7).

Those who are aware of their union with Christ press on to share this miraculous truth of Christ in you, reaching out in the beautiful sim­plicity of a manifested concern for the well-being of others. Jesus said that because of this manifested love, the world would know that the Father sent Him, and that the Father loved them.

Now, it is clear. The God with us truth of Isaiah becomes the Christ in you reality of Galatians 2:20: ". . . I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Him­self for me." Our knowing now is, "Christ in us, as us," so, isn't this an appropriate season to celebrate our own unique union of our spirit with the Christ of the manger.

by Dan Stone

The Church as God’s Vehicle of Mercy

            The church is called to represent this God, just as Christ did. Indeed, the church is Christ continuing to manifest the true God. As Bonhoeffer said, “The Church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ Himself who has taken form among men.”³ Hence, the church is called “the body of Christ.” Living out this truth is the way we testify to a life and a love that is free from bondage to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It is how Christ manifests the reversal of the fall that he achieved on Calvary.

            God’s love is merciful; so must our love be. If even God does not hold his rightful knowledge of good and evil over us in judgment but rather loves us where we are, how much less can we who are sinners hold our stolen and illegitimate knowledge of good and evil over one another, or even over ourselves? How much more (if that were possible) should we rather extend mercy and love to one another and to ourselves? We ourselves live before God only because we have had our shame clothed in mercy and love.

            God’s love is patient; so must ours be. God’s love does not start with an ethical ideal and then pronounce judgment. God doesn’t start where he wishes we were, condemning us for what we are not. God starts where we actually are and then pronounces hope and patiently and graciously loves us into becoming what we can be and what we, in fact, already are in Christ.

            The body of Christ is to love mercifully and patiently. We are to accept people wherever they are and patiently love them and view them with hope. While we cannot ignore practical considerations of safety, we are to embrace people as they are, trusting that the Spirit of God will use our love to lead them to a place closer to where God wants them to be. We are to love like this because this is how we ourselves are loved.

            Finally, God’s love is accommodating; so must ours be. Unlike ethical principles, which are always abstract, universal, and idealistic, God’s love is always perfectly tailored to the complex uniqueness of each individual’s nonideal life situation in the present. The covering Adam needed was different from the one Eve needed. When we live out our calling and embody God’s triune love, the church does the same thing. We do not live by our knowledge of ethical principles, however good and noble and true they may be. Rather, we live by following the Spirit and by loving people where they are, in the complexity and uniqueness of their nonideal situations. And we do so without judgment.

            As we saw in chapter 5, this is the difference between a genuinely loving husband and a merely ethical one. We are called to live out of love, not out of an ethical system. Of course this does not in any sense entail that we relativize ethical truths, but it does mean that we make them subservient to love. Moral principles are absolute, but only love submitted to the will of God can direct us on how they apply in a particular situation.

            Only by being acutely aware of our own fallibility and sinfulness and making ethical principles subservient to love do we acquire the freedom and boldness to enter into solidarity with people in radically nonideal situations—as Jesus did with prostitutes and tax collectors. People who live in ethical principles cannot get this close to such people. Their knowledge of good and evil filters their relationships and keeps them from fully entering into the concreteness of another’s sinful situation. They can only pronounce what such people ought to do and should have done.

            However, it is only when we enter into solidarity with people as they are that we acquire the wisdom to know how, when, and if various ethical principles apply to their lives. Only then do we learn how to realistically and helpfully adapt ethical principles to the real situations in which people find themselves. Only love, led by the Spirit of God, can discern when (for example) the ideal must be abandoned for a lesser of two evils. And only love, given without hesitation and without conditions, can ever motivate people to trust us enough to invite us to speak into their lives in the first place. This is how God loves us, this is how we are called to love all others, and this is how people are helped in the concrete situations of their lives.

Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross

If asked why Jesus had to die on the cross, most Christians today would immediately answer, “To pay for my sins.” Jesus certainly paid the price for our sins, but it might surprise some reader to learn that this wasn’t the way Christians would answer this question for the first thousand years of Church history. The main reason Jesus died on the cross, according to this earlier view, was to defeat Satan and set us free from his oppressive rule. Everything else that Jesus accomplished, including paying for our sins, was to be understood as an aspect and consequence of this victory.


This earlier understanding of why Jesus had to die is called the Christus Victor (Latin for “Christ is Victorious”) view of the atonement. In my estimation it captures the profound beauty of the New Testament account better than the view that focuses exclusively on what Jesus did for us.

The Christus Victor motif is strongly emphasized throughout the New Testament. Scripture declares that Jesus came into this world to “drive out the ruler of this world” (Jn 12:31), to “destroy the works of the devil” (I Jn 3:8), to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14-15) and to ultimately “put all his enemies under his feet” (I Cor 15:25). Jesus came to overpower the “strong man” (Satan) who holds the world in bondage and to work with his children to “plunder his house” (Lk 11:21-22). He came to end the reign of the cosmic “thief” who seized the world to “steal and kill and destroy” the life God intended for us (Jn 10:10). Jesus came to earth and died on the cross to disarm “the rulers and authorities” and make a “public spectacle of them” by “triumphing over them on the cross” (Col 2:15).

Beyond these explicit statements, there are many other passages that express the Christus Victor motif as well. For example, the first prophecy in the Bible foretells that a descendent of Eve (Jesus) would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). The first Christian sermon ever preached proclaims that Jesus in principle conquered all God’s enemies (Ac 2:32-36). And the single most frequently quoted Old Testament passage by New Testament authors is Psalm 110:1 which predicts that Christ would conquer all God’s opponents. (Pslams.110 is quoted or alluded to Mt 22:41-45; 26:64; Mk 12:35-37; 14:62; Lk 20:41-44; 22:69; Ac 5:31; 7:55-56; Rom 8:34; I Cor 15:22-25; Eph 1:20; Heb 1:3; 1:13; 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:11, 15,17,21; 8:1; 10:12-13; I Pet 3:22; and Rev. 3:21) According to the great New Testament scholar Oscar Cullman, the frequency with which New Testament authors cite this Psalm is the greatest proof that Christ’s “victory over the angel powers stands at the very center of early Christian thought.”


The Incarnation of the Son of God fulfilled God’s original dream of uniting himself to humanity to acquire a bride and co-ruler. But it’s clear from the Christus Victor motif we’ve just examined that, because of our rebellion, the Incarnation also involved a rescue mission that included a strategy for vanquishing the powers of darkness

- Greg Boyd

When the Bible Becomes an Idol

In John 5, we read about Jesus confronting some religious leaders saying, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40). These leaders thought they possessed life by diligently studying Scripture. What made these leaders feel accepted, worthwhile, and secure before God was that they knew their Bible and were confident they embraced the only true Bible-based beliefs.


Jesus, of course, wasn’t suggesting there was anything wrong with their diligent study of Scripture or with the rightness of their Bible-based conclusions. As a matter of fact, these leaders were more or less orthodox by first-century Jewish standards. More importantly, however, Jesus didn’t dispute the rightness or wrongness of their beliefs, because the issue wasn’t about what these leaders believed: he disputed the way they believed it.

Jesus responded to them by pointing out that all Scripture is intended to point to him (John 5:46), the one true source of life. He was trying to get them to see that there is no life in knowing the Bible and embracing Bible-based beliefs unless they lead to him. Yet by trying to wring life out of things that have no life apart from Christ, these leaders made an idol out of the Bible and their Bible-based beliefs.

There’s a demonic self-reinforcing quality about idolatry that can be discerned in these leaders. By trying to derive false life from their confident knowledge of Scripture instead of the One Scripture points to, these leaders had made an idol of their knowledge of Scripture. But the river also flowed in the other direction. Precisely because these leaders had made an idol of their knowledge of Scripture, they would not come to the true source of life to which Scripture points.

So these leaders were not hungry for the true bread of life (Jn 6:32-58) because they had already stuffed themselves with the false life of their idol. And they had to stuff themselves with this false life of their idol because they would not come to the true bread of life. It’s a vicious, idolatrous, self-reinforcing cycle that these religious experts were caught in. And the idols that trapped them, we must remember, were something that looked very spiritual: they diligently studied Scripture. They believed the right things. This is what made them confident they were okay with God.

This episode demonstrates that the way we believe what we believe can transform what we believe into an idol that actually blocks us from getting life from Christ—even when what we believe is completely true! And this happens whenever we are confident we’re okay with God because of what we believe rather than because of our relationship with the one true source of life. If what makes us feel okay with God is our confidence in the correctness of our beliefs, then our confidence in our beliefs is, in effect, our god.


—Adapted from Benefit of the Doubt, pages 55-56.