Fleming Rutledge on Christus Victor

Fleming Rutledge on Christus Victor June 30, 2016

I’m currently reading Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015) and it’s a fine read written by a pastor/scholar known for her preaching.

I particularly liked her summary of the significance of apocalyptic theology for Christian hope:

The apocalyptic emphasis on the triumph of God celebrates not only God’s initiative in Christ but also God’s coming victory n Christ. This is the already/not-yet of hte New Testament that must always be held in balance. In the stories of the exorcisms of Jesus, for instance, we see that the demons are already in flight before him; however, they are not yet destroyed, for they will be given free rein to assault him as he is crucified. In much the same way, we read in Revelation that Satan is allowed ‘to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given [him] over every  … nation’ (Rev. 13:7). In other words, being joined to Christ in his death and resurrection through baptism (Rom. 6:3-11) does not mean being lifted clear of the cosmic battle, as the Corinthians thought it did. The life of the church is lived in a balance between the first advent of Christ and the second. It is a life of affliction for the sake of the gospel but if there is one word that sounds the apocalyptic note, it is ‘hope’ – the hope that is beyond human hope (Rom. 4:18) because it is grounded in the promise of the future of Jesus Christ. Abraham is the great model here; he was ‘fully persuaded that, what [God] had promised, he was able also to perform‘ (Rom. 4:21 KJV). This is the bedrock. Because ‘God is able’ – as black church people often say – we are not prisoners of the Powers; rather, we are, as the prophet Zechariah proclaimed, ‘prisoners of hope’ (Zech. 9:12).


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