Today is Holy Saturday, the day between the brutal crucifixion of Jesus and His glorious resurrection. Both aspects were necessary for Christ's redemption of His Bride, the Church.
2 Corinthians 5:21 - For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus Christ took on Himself the sins of His people, receiving the punishment due for their sins. On the cross, He was crushed beneath the weight of God’s wrath against sin. The only perfect man to ever live was declared guilty and treated as such to the point of death on the cross. Because of that, we who are infinitely guilty, who call upon the name of Christ, are declared righteous and treated as such to the point where we are coheirs with Christ in His Kingdom.
This is why we call such a dark day, Good Friday. Christ took our place.
On the third day, Sunday, Christ rose from the dead, conquering sin and death. He ascended into Heaven where He is seated at the right hand of God the Father, righteously ruling over all things, and one day He will come back to judge the quick and the dead.
This is the simple message of the cross; it is the power of salvation to all who believe.
I’ve heard it said that the gospel, like all good stories, can be summed up with “kill the dragon, get the girl.” Christ, the conquering King, defeats the serpent to redeem His Bride.
Genesis 3:15 is known as the Protoevangelium, or the first telling of the gospel. This is where the curse was given, but it also offers the promise of redemption and restoration. The seed of the woman, Christ, will crush the head of the serpent, Satan. Christ will be victorious, not only in the resurrection where He defeated sin and death, but also in the full redemption of all of creation where every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)
Genesis 3:15 - I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.
This passage serves to give us hope and mark the beginning of a cosmic struggle between Christ’s covenant people and the enemy. From Cain killing Abel to Herod killing all the male babies to the ultimate crucifixion of Christ – only to have Him rise from the dead, the serpent’s attempts to snuff out the seed of the woman have been futile. Christ was and is victorious over the grave and the ultimate victory has been won. However, the cosmic battle didn’t end with the crucifixion and resurrection, it rages on today.
John 12:24 - Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Romans 8:29 - For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Christ is the seed that died and was put into the earth, the seed who would rise and bear much fruit as the firstborn among many brothers. Those “many brothers” are those who believe in Him – male or female, Jew or Gentile – those baptized as His covenant people. Christ’s people would be dispersed, spreading the Gospel across the region, and a few hundred years later Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, eventually taking over all of Europe. This was the formation of Christendom which translates to “where Christ has dominion.”
Simply put, historic Christianity understood that the Gospel was more than punching a ticket to get into Heaven, it was about all of Christ for all of life. They ordered everything according to God’s Word and His design and the result was flourishing the likes of which had never been seen on earth. Christianity shaped law, education, and daily life, and the glory of God fueled the art and architecture we still marvel at today.
Oddly enough, the historical revisionists would refer to this time as the “Dark Ages.”
Eventually, God’s people would cross the Atlantic, planting the flag of Christ on this continent. They were fueled by “the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian Faith,” the Mayflower Compact tells us.
The Pilgrims would build homes, churches, and schools in their communities and small governments to order their colonies. This was done repeatedly and some of the fruit of this Christ-centered colonial expansion was the creation of institutions for higher learning like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.
The early motto of Harvard was "Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae" which translates “Truth for Christ and the Church.” Yale was founded by Congregationalist ministers with "zeal for upholding and propagating the Christian Protestant Religion."
Everything across Europe and America was steeped in the glory of Christ and His Kingdom, and the result was excellence, order, and a Christian ethos.
When we see that the Gospel and the work of the cross are about more than just individual salvation, we can see the story God is telling come into focus. The cosmic battle is not just against His people, it is a war against the civilization His people built. This battle is no fairytale, it is as real as the air we breathe.
His Kingdom is not OF this world; it is IN this world wherever God’s people are in covenant and seeking to be faithful to His commands. That faithfulness looks like ordering our individual lives, homes, churches, and civil governments according to His Word. Wherever this is happening, Christ has dominion, and this is where Christian civilization comes from.
“Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
The enemy seeks to disrupt this natural outworking of the spread of the Gospel. Hopefully the cosmic battle between Christ’s covenant people and the enemy is becoming clearer.
The enemy is waging warfare through ideology – Marxism, communism, progressivism, Bolshevism – ideologies that are anti-Christ at their core. These ideologies are the result of a radically egalitarian and revolutionary spirit. The same serpent who rebelled against God’s order in the garden is convincing people to rebel against God’s order and good design to this day.
This ideology is a direct inversion of the Christian faith. Whatever God says is good, this ideology says is bad. Whatever God says is bad, adherents to this anti-Christ ideology will parade in front of your children.
The goal of this ideology is clearly seen in their own writings. The “long march through the institutions” outlines their plans to destroy the Christian nuclear family, infiltrate the Christian church through seminaries, secularize our education system, gut our legal tradition of its Christian roots, and hijack our entire media, entertainment, and information infrastructure. I could write a book on this subject alone, but suffice it to say the goal of this ideology is to secularize the Christian West through the infiltration of our institutions, destroying our Christian ethos and replacing it with a secular, Christ-hating one.
Christ’s people need to wake up and understand the battle we are waging.
Considering this darkness, what can we possibly do? This is a generational battle, and we need to get back to the basics of building a Christian civilization.
Christians should get married, and as Charlie Kirk often said, have more children than you can afford. Women should strongly consider staying home with their children. Join a healthy local church that understands the cosmic battle and what is at stake for our civilization. Train your children in the faith and provide them with a thoroughly Christian education. Teach your children about their Christian heritage and the saints of old.
If our churches and families function properly, we will win this war in 40 years. To win, we must raise up men of honor and women of virtue. This is where we will raise future leaders who will tear down the idolatrous high places and lead God’s people in the way of righteousness.
Read Psalm 2 and the picture becomes very clear. The kings of the earth set themselves against God and the peoples plot in vain against the Lord and against His anointed, but He who sits in the Heavens laughs, He holds them in derision. Read the entire chapter – it is a summation of what Christ’s victory means in this cosmic battle as it pertains to bringing the nations into submission to King Jesus. This passage should give us tremendous hope, even when we look around and see defeat.
Christ paid for the redemption of all creation with His own blood, raising Himself from the dead. The victory has been won, the enemy has been defeated, but the war is still playing out. The empty tomb should be our reminder that the eternal work has been done. Simple generational faithfulness is what is required of us, but the world, the flesh, and the devil are ever at work seeking to lure us into a life of selfish hedonism.
Deny yourself. Pick up your cross daily. The victory has been won. Seek to be faithful.
Happy Easter!
Bryan Dawson is CEO of 1819 News. He is the host of 1819 News: The Podcast.
This culture article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News. To comment on this article, please email [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
