Skip to main content

Fully Delivered

"He has delivered us from the domain of darkness"
(Colossians 1:13a)
Matthew Henry gets us to the point quickly :
[Jesus] has saved us from the dominion of sin, which is darkness (1 John. 1:6), from the dominion of Satan, who is the prince of darkness (Ephesians 6:12), and from the damnation of hell, which is utter darkness (Matthew. 25:30)
This deliverance" is not merely cosmetic. It is the ultimate rescue operation. The word "delivered" literally means deliverance from danger. What is the danger we face if are under the domain of darkness?

It is certainly the danger of the enslavement under dark Satanic powers. Before we were followers of Jesus our all lives worshipped Satan. Like hostages suffering from Stockholm syndrome we honoured Satan with sin and all kinds of shameful deeds of darkness. Demons and other satanic powers were our masters, even if we were unaware.

But it was much worse. The bigger danger we faced is that we were under the wrath and judgement of God. Lost in our eternal state of damnation we faced an angry God against us. It is a fearful thing to be in the hands of an angry God. Because God is a consuming fire! Like a man seating on time bomb waiting to explode with no rescuer in sight, we could not deliver ourselves from the guilt and penalty of sin!

And then entered our heavenly champion - Jesus our Christus Victor. He lived a sinless life, died on a brutal and shameful death on the cross and rose victoriously to life from the dead. Through that he rescued all who follow him from death, sin, hell and Satan!

That means then that in Christ we are perfectly secure from the devil's dominion. Lucifer may cause us trouble from time to time, but he can't harm. We are held secure from his power and slavery.

Because of Jesus all who are truly his can now sing with Charles Wesley :

Death, hell, and sin are now subdued;
All grace is now to sinners given;
And lo, I plead the atoning blood,
And in Thy right I claim Thy Heaven!

Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Am Mother

I think it is true to say that the Netflix film I Am Mother is one the most disturbing movies I have watched for a long time. The film is set in a near future. Human life has been wiped out. An artificial intelligence (AI) called Mother is living inside a bunker where thousands of embroyos are stored. It selects an embryo and initiates a program to grow a baby within 24 hours. The AI then goes on to raise the child as its mother over the next few years.  After 16 years, the girl, who now goes by the name of Daughter (Clara Rugaard) is a teenager. She has never been outside because Mother has told her that the air is toxic. Her time is spend being home schooled in science and ethics so that she can become a perfect human being. The bond between Daughter and Mother is unusually strong. To our surprise there does not appear to be any mental or pyschological trauma of having a machine as her mother.  The strength of the bond between man and machine is tested when a nameless Woman (Hilary
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

What is the best preparation for preaching?

The best preparation is not to be too anxious about it. Anxious care hinders liveliness and efficacy. It leads to too little dependence on the Spirit. Be not didactic. Aim at the conscience as soldiers aim at the faces. Consider I may be preaching my last sermon. This leads to setting forth Christ as The Way, the Truth and the Life . .. Make Christ the prominent figure…Pay less attention to dear self. JOHN NEWTON
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

White Fragility, A Review

Robin DiAngelo has a sermon to preach. It is in form of a short popular book called White Fragilit y. Straight off the bat she tells us not to expect balanced analysis but a forceful argument “unapologetically rooted in identity politics”.  She understands identity politics as “the [political] focus on the barriers specific groups face in their struggle for equality”. The group she wants to save is black people, whom she blankets under “people of colour”.  So what is White Fragility about?  DiAngelo is sick and tired of white racism in the western world, and specifically the USA. She believes every white person, including babies, are guilty of racism by virtue of being white. So she wants to use her “insider status” as a white American woman to challenge this white racism by getting her fellow “white progressives” to force forward her thesis. In her words, “I am white...and I am mainly writing to a white audience”. I was immediately tempted to put down the book because being black Afri
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →