I prepared a message last weekend to minister to a group of residents at Windcrest Retirement Home on 4 tyrants over which Christ has won the victory in view of the upcoming Independence Day celebration. Much of this comes from John Stott’s book, The Cross of Christ.
1. We have been delivered from the tyranny of the law. God’s good gift for it is holy, righteous, and good. Galatians 3:23 states that “before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law.” The reason the law is a tyrant is because it condemns our disobedience and brings upon us the curse or judgment of disobedience. Because of Jesus Christ, the curse or judgment of the law is broken so that we are not under its condemnation and set free to obey the law. (Romans 8:1-4)
2. We have been delivered from the tyranny of the flesh. Our flesh is our fallen nature or self that we inherited from Adam. It represents all the characteristics of our self-centeredness. Jesus stated that everyone who sins is a slave to sin but He added, “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” This freedom from our fallen nature and its self-centeredness comes to us through the cross of Christ. (Romans 6:6)
3. We are delivered from the tyranny of the world. The world is the means which the devil exerts pressure upon us outside of our flesh. The world represents the godless human society which is hostile to the church and its values and standards. The Apostle John was outspoken in 1 John stating that to love the world and to love God were totally incompatible. The world is the community of unredeemed people whose outlook is dictated by their nature. John summarizes their nature as natural desires, superficial judgment and arrogant materialism. John lets us know in 1 John 5:4, 5 “for whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” When we believe in Jesus, our values change and we are weaned from worldliness by the cross of Christ. (Romans 12:1,2; Galatians 6:1-4)
4. We have been delivered from the tyranny of death. The fear of death is universal. Jesus has unseated the devil and sin as stated in Hebrews 2:14, “that through death He (Jesus) might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” The sting of death is sin and the reason why death is a painful thought. Sin has caused death and is the judgment for it. But Christ has died for our sin and taken them away so that we can shout at death the way Paul does in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, “O Death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” Death and the devil have no reply so we shout in triumph, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Because Christ has taken away our sins, death has no power to harm or to terrify us. Jesus summed it up in 1 Corinthians 15:26, “the last enemy that will be abolished is death.” And John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
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