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Breshears

ETS 2001 Atonement

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Taking redemption in this direction leads us to look at triumph. This theme is found

throughout the New Testament but neglected in many treatments of atonement. Jesus proclaims
his triumph over the world (John 16:33) and joined the disciples in celebration their successful
mission of the seventy by declaring, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." (Luke 10:18).
In the book of Revelation, the angel declares,

"See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open
the scroll and its seven seals." Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain,
standing in the center of the throne, (Rev. 5:5-6)

The one who is slain is the one who has triumphed. Far from being a defeat, his death is the
event that defeats the demonic powers.

Of course this triumph is not limited to the cross as Luke 4 and the demonic deliverance

in Jesus' ministry make clear. Similarly, the triumph is carried forward by the apostles (Rom.
8:37-39; 1 John 5:4; Rev. 3:20-21; 12:11). While the definitive work is done at the cross, its
application is continued in salvation history.

This does not negate the fact that decisive victory

is one facet of Christ's work on the cross.

Colin Gunton, The Actuality of Atonement (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1989), 53-

82 discusses the language of battlefield and the demons. He argues that if victory extends beyond
the cross into the Old Testament, the ministry of Jesus and particularly into the ministry of the
church, then it cannot be a theory of atonement as Aulen proposes.

The central text for Christ's triumph at the cross is Colossians 2:8-15. The Colossians

have come from a pagan context characterized by the worship of many gods. Paul centers his
preaching on supremacy of Christ. Rather than being one power among the many gods, Paul
declares that Jesus created all the other gods, whether thrones, powers, rulers or authorities,
whereever they fit in the angelic hierarchies (Col. 1:16-17). As the Colossian Christians feel the
pull to turn back to these gods for help, Paul tells them it would be returning to captivity (2:8). It
is Jesus Christ who is the full incarnation of deity (2:9). Fullness comes in him and him alone,
who is head over every demonic power and authority (2:10). That fullness comes through
identification with his death, burial and resurrection (2:11-12), through the work of the cross and
the return to life. That identification gives people dead in their sinfulness the very life of Christ
(2:13).