Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition - Mentor's Guide

M E N T O R N O T E S / 1 0 7

defeats, constricts, and marshals his power to limit the influence and effects of his enemies (Acts 12.17; 18.9-10; 1 Cor. 15.25). As the one appointed by God to have all authority in heaven and on earth, he commands and arranges all things to exist for his greater glory and honor, and determines the inherent good in all things (Rom. 8.28; 14.11; Col. 1.18; Matt. 28.19-20). And as Judge, he will one day execute the righteous sentence of the Father upon all those who reject the good news of the Kingdom, and will himself take vengeance on those refusing his reign and disobeying his Gospel (Ps. 2.9; 2 Thess. 1.8). Jesus’ entrance into the world represents a new level of intensity and focus to the Lord’s divine battle to restore his reign in the world. In a real sense, Jesus of Nazareth intensifies the battle of the Kingdom in the world by focusing not so much on human sin and evil, but on the malevolent powers of the Evil One, and the spiritual powers and principalities. Jesus inaugurates the Kingdom with genuine violence against the kingdom of the devil, but he does not fight the battle with spear and sword, but with the weapons of spiritual warfare in the Holy Spirit. For instance, when Peter resorts to the use of the sword in protection of Jesus, he rebukes him and goes to the cross instead, which is the ultimate secret weapon of the Kingdom of God (Matt. 26.50-56). This notion of Jesus as the supreme Warrior and Christ’s death on the cross as the ultimate weapon is described by Paul in Colossians where he speaks of Jesus’ death as disarming the powers and authorities (Col. 2.15), and their ultimate defeat through the cross. Jesus’ death and ascension are figured as a classic kind of victory celebration, a parade of the great General who brings the spoils and prisoners of war in his mighty Victor’s train. This notion can be seen also in Ephesians 4.7-8, with its quotation from Psalm 68, a classic hymn of divine warfare. Amazingly, our Lord Jesus defeated the foes of God and inaugurated the Kingdom, winning the greatest battle of all on the cross, by being killed, not by physically killing others.

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