The Christadelphian August 1875, Robert Roberts

“The Devil Destroyed by Christ in His Death”

1.—Who or what is “that having the power of death, that is the devil,” which Jesus came to destroy?

Answer.—Sin is the cause of death, and, therefore, “that having the power of death,” and, therefore, the devil. And sin is disobedience. But it is not an abstraction that sin has the power of death. That is, it has no power to hurt with death until it obtain admission in some way. So long as it is outside of us it cannot hurt. There are two ways in which its deadly work can be done: “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant (or slave) of sin.” This is one way—the personal commission of sin, which brings us under personal condemnation, as Paul in all his epistles teaches, e.g., Rom. 1:32; Eph. 5:6; Col. 3:6. The other way is exemplified in our relation to Adam. He sinned, and death coming on him, was transmitted to all who afterwards inherited his death-stricken nature.—(Rom. 5:14; 7:24; 1 Cor. 15:54.) In this way, sin or the devil obtains access to the innocent, or, as Paul defines them in the chapter, “them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgressions.” A child just born, for instance, though innocent of actual sin, has death in itself through Adam. Christ’s sacrificial mission was to destroy the hold the devil had obtained in both these ways. He did not destroy the hold it had obtained on sinners in general; for the vast mass of them continue under its bondage from generation to generation, and will be held by it in eternal bonds, and the (comparative) few whom Christ will save are yet unreleased. He was sent to be a beginning or release for all who should incorporate themselves with him. The release began with himself. He destroyed that hold which the devil had obtained in himself through extraction from Adam, and through submission to the curse of the law in the mode of his death. He was of the same nature as ourselves as regards flesh and blood, and, therefore, death-stricken, for that is the quality of flesh and blood; and in obeying the command which required him to submit to crucifixion, he came under the dominion of death as administered by the law. The testimony is that he destroyed the devil through death. Sin can do no more when a man is dead. Therefore, in dying on the cross, Christ yielded to the devil all he could take; and God then raised him for his righteousness sake, so that in Christ, the devil was destroyed in the only way possible in harmony with God’s appointments. He was not destroyed out of Christ. He was destroyed in him. We have to get into Christ to get the benefit. In him we obtain the deliverance accomplished in him.

2.—Was the sacrifice of Christ a sin-offering? If so, was Jesus a sinner in any sense? Was he offered on the cross for his own sins, or, in other words, for himself?

Answer.—The sacrifice of Christ was a sin-offering: but the phrase “sin-offering” requires understanding before the answer is intelligible. It is a phrase borrowed from the institutions of the law of Moses; and those institutions were shadowy in relation to Christ; consequently, the literal meaning and relation of a sin-offering under Moses cannot be transferred to him as the question seems to suggest. We have to find out the real nature of his offering from the testimony concerning his own case. Jesus was not a sinner in any sense, when by sinner is meant transgressor. He was a sufferer from the effects of sin in all the items of weakness, labour, pain, sorrow, death; and in this sense (as a partaker with us of the effects of sin) has been described as a constitutional sinner, or one subject to a sin-constitution of things. But as this phrase gives occasion to disingenuous cavil, it is well to discard the phrase and look at the meaning, which has been stated. As a sufferer from the effects of sin, he had himself to be delivered from those effects; and as the mode of deliverance was by death on the cross, that death was for himself first, not for sins of his own committing, but for deliverance from the sin of Adam from which he suffered in common with his brethren, and from the sins of his brethren which were laid on him. To deny that he suffered from the effect of sin, is to deny that he was of our race and nature, and (to deny) all the testimony in the Psalms and elsewhere concerning his sufferings in the days of his flesh. Jesus Christ was “the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1), as well as the son of God, and was made in all points like his brethren, partaking of their flesh and blood for the express purpose of redeeming it in himself from the dominion of sin and death, and inviting them to build on the new foundation thus laid.—(Heb. 2:11–17.)

3.—Could the sacrifice of Christ be a sin-offering for himself when the Scriptures declare that Jesus Christ “knew no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth,” and that he (Jesus) was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners?

Answer.—This question is answered in the reply to question 2. In the moral sense, that is, as regards character, Jesus knew no sin, and was absolutely separate from sinners; but in the physical sense, he was not separate from sinners, for “he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh.”—(Rom. 8:3.) He was “made sin” for us who knew no such thing in his character.—(2 Cor. 5:21.) He was made in all things like his brethren (Heb. 2:17), tempted like them (Heb. 4:15), and possessed their very flesh and blood.—(Heb. 2:14.) He was of the seed of David according to the flesh.—(Rom. 1:3.) Therefore he was not “separate” from them physically, but their bone, and their flesh, and their blood—Son of Man as well as Son of God.—(John 5:27.) This being so, he was a sufferer from the hereditary effects of sin; for those effects are physical effects. Death is a physical law in our members, implanted there through sin ages ago, and handed down from generation to generation. Consequently, partaking our physical nature, he partook of this, and his own deliverance (as “Christ the first fruits”) was as necessary as that of his brethren. In fact, if Christ had not first been saved from death (Heb. 5:7)—if he had not first obtained eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12)—there would have been no hope for us, for we attain salvation only through what he has accomplished in himself, of which we become heirs by union with him. He overcomes and we share his victory by uniting with him, if he at the judgment seat permit. This we do in baptism, in which we are made partakers of his death, as well as his resurrection. The orthodox and Renunciationist theory of Christ’s death being substitutionary, and the payment of a debt owing by us, is another affair altogether, and destructive of the wisdom of God, as expressed in the death and resurrection of His Son; and of His mercy and loving-kindness, as manifested to us in the offer of forgiveness on approaching Him through the name of His slain and accepted Lamb, who from birth to resurrection was provided “for us,” “the just for the unjust that he might bring us unto God.”