Christus Victor on the Big Screen

There are a lot of possible answers to the question “Why did Jesus have to die?” Common answers include ideas such as that Jesus bore our punishment on the cross, that his sacrificial death atoned for and cleansed our sin, or that his death inaugurated a New Covenant. These answers are based on various metaphors used in Scripture from which people develop theories or try and explain the Atonement. None of these by themselves express the full truth of the Atonement, but they each contribute something unique to our understanding of this great mystery.

 

One of the main ways early Christians sought to explain this mystery was to talk about Jesus winning a great victory over death and Satan. It’s actually the main thing Peter says about the death of Jesus the first time he preaches the Gospel (Acts 2:22-36). This explanation has come to be called the Christus Victor theory and it has a lot of biblical support. 

 

People sometimes challenge the Christus Victor theory with questions like, “But how did Jesus’s death defeat Satan?” or “How does this view explain reconciliation with God through the forgiveness of sins?” The short answer is that I don't think the Christus Victor theory addresses these issues very well and that’s why we also need other metaphors and theories such as Penal Substitution and Covenant Inauguration to get a fuller picture. 

 

But I want to try to show how some of these concepts might fit into the picture of Jesus winning a great victory. These ideas might not all resolve perfectly into a tidy set of doctrinal statements, but the Gospel is not primarily a list of doctrines, theories, or formulas anyway. Rather, it is the Good News of what God in Christ has done to reconcile the world to himself. In other words, the Gospel is a Story.

 

The Story
The Gospel is a Story, and as with any story, its power comes largely from its ability to stir our emotions and capture our hearts. In fact, Christians believe that all good stories in some way reflect the truth of the Gospel. That’s why we consider them good. Our sense of aesthetic truth and moral beauty subconsciously draws us to the images and ideas that reflect the Ultimate Story of God’s love for humanity. We love stories of a great hero who saves the world, and we can’t help but be moved by images of loving self-sacrifice. Because of this, we shouldn’t be at all surprised when we see reflections of the Atonement in our favorite stories and films. These can actually serve to draw us into a deeper understanding of the Atonement as we see God’s Story reflected in them. There are many ways to tell this story, but the Christus Victor version frames the story in terms of Christ defeating his enemies. 

The Enemies
In the biblical narrative, the first enemy to appear is the snake in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1). This creature is generally associated with the Satan (the Accuser), who is also depicted in the book of Revelation as a great Dragon (Revelation 12:9). This supernatural being, also called the Devil, wields great power and even claims to have authority over all of the kingdoms of the world (Luke 4:5-6). He rules over other demonic forces and is depicted as giving his power to evil earthly empires which rise up in opposition to God and his people (Ephesians 2:2, Revelation 13). He tempts people away from God towards wickedness and is thus associated with sin and destruction (Matt 4:1, 1 Peter 5:8). Sin and the resulting Death are often personified in scripture and are also treated as enemies (Romans 6:23, James 1:15, I Corinthians 15:26). 

So when you think of the Enemies in this story, it’s not unreasonable to imagine this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, these enemies need to be destroyed because they are the embodiment of all that is wrong with the world. They torture and enslave people, robbing us of the full and satisfying life God wants for us. Some people may not realize they are slaves to these worldly powers, but Jesus insisted that “everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34). Paul describes this slavery at length in Romans 6 and 7, concluding, “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?”

The answer of course, is Jesus. But how exactly does he do this? Maybe our culture’s most compelling stories have some clues for us. This idea is easy to joke about, but if every great story is ultimately about Jesus, it’s also not too far from the truth. 

 

Infiltration

In many of our favorite stories, the hero or heroes must at some point plunge themselves into the very heart of enemy territory. The villain resides in some dark castle far behind enemy lines, and the heroes must risk almost certain death to accomplish their mission. This requires incredible courage and often involves significant difficulty and suffering. In the Wizard of Oz, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion must overcome their fear and enter the Wicked Witch’s Castle. In The Return of the King, Aragorn and his companions must enter the Dark Door and pass through the Paths of the Dead. Harry Potter walks boldly into the midst of his enemies and surrenders his life.

 

I think these stories resonate with us because we admire the incredible bravery of the heroes allowing themselves to be completely taken in and surrounded by their enemies, sometimes even unto death.

 

Many of these stories include the common trope whereby the heroes infiltrate the enemy’s stronghold in disguise. Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion dress up as the Wicked Witch’s henchmen. Frodo and Sam dress as orcs as they press into Mordor. Luke and Han Solo disguise themselves as Stormtroopers to save Princess Leia. In Independence Day, Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum (because let’s be honest, no one remembers the names of their characters) fly an enemy spacecraft into the heart of the alien mother ship. They then use the aliens’ own signal to upload a computer virus, defeating the aliens. It went something like this.

 

Defeat from Within
 

The plot of Independence Day reflects another very common narrative theme: the Enemy can only be defeated from the inside. How can the giant Star Killer Base in Star Wars possibly be destroyed? Poe Dameron has to fly into it so he can blow it up from the inside. How do you destroy a giant alien or an enormous sea monster? The way Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Costner do it. You let the monster eat you, and then you blow it up from the inside. (The metaphor of Jesus as a worm on a hook luring Satan is actually one of the first Atonement theories expressed by Christian theologians). 

 

 

This common imagery is a visual way of representing the deeper reality about how these powerful enemies are vanquished. The hero has to press deep into enemy territory in order to defeat Evil at its source. He has to chase the monster into its own lair. Gandalf falls with the Balrog into the abyss, and at first this seems to be a devastating defeat. Everything changes when we realize he has turned towards the demon, and what we thought was his death is really his assault on the beast. 

 

This can help us understand a small part of why Jesus had to die. By plunging willingly into Death, Jesus defeated Sin and Evil at their source. The Bible says that “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the Devil” (I John 3:8) and that he “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (II Timothy 1:8).

 

Death has always been a problem for mortal humanity because we are slaves to sin and citizens of the kingdom of darkness (John 8:34, Colossians 1:13). Eternal life is out of the question as long as Sin, Death, and the Devil have us in their clutches. As Paul says, “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (I Corinthians 15:50). Death is the great enemy of all mortal sinners. 

 

But then, like the most brilliant disguise ever devised, Jesus became mortal. He took on the form of a lowly human servant, and in his human form, looking like any normal guy, died on the cross. (Philippians 2:7,8). In fact, the cross even made Jesus look like a sinner! Scripture says that he bore our sins and was even “made sin for us” (II Corinthians 5:21). This was all part of God’s brilliant plan to deal with Sin, Death, and the Devil: “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned Sin in the flesh.” (Romans 8:3) 

 

Hebrews says it this way: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil…” (Hebrews 2:14). 

 

Jesus in human form and disguised as Sin, heroically and sacrificially embraces death, charges into the pit of hell, and defeats the Devil on his own turf. This is why Jesus can say, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (Revelation 1:17) 

 

If you want a good visual of what Satan probably looked like during this process, you should check out this clip. Many of the ideas I’m talking about are very well illustrated in this scene. 

 

Disarming

There is another aspect of Jesus’s victory over the demonic forces that is worth mentioning, as it also relates to how Jesus overcame them. Oftentimes, movies will depict the poetic justice of the Enemy being destroyed by his own weapon. There’s something satisfying about seeing the villain defeated as his own scheme backfires. In the Bible, Haman is hung from his own gallows which he built for Mordechai (Esther 7:9). David kills Goliath by disarming him and killing him with his own sword (I Samuel 17:51). Sauron creates a ring of power and seeks to use it as a weapon, but the destruction of his ultimate weapon also means the destruction of his entire empire. Voldemort tries to kill Harry with the Elder wand, not realizing that Harry is its true master. As Voldemort is disarmed, his own spell destroys him.

 

Jesus talks about defeating Satan by breaking into his heavily guarded castle, disarming him, and plundering all his stuff (Luke 11:21,22). As Jesus takes back what is rightfully his, the Devil is left powerless. 

 

Scripture is clear that “the power of Sin is the Law” (I Corinthians 15:56). The Law of God is not in any way a bad thing, but it is the source of Sin’s power over us because we cannot keep the Law perfectly. Sin wields the Law like a weapon and uses it to bring about our death (Romans 7:7-15). The record of sins is a great weapon Satan can use to beat us down and keep us enslaved. 

 

But this all changed when Jesus defeated the Devil because Jesus stripped him of this weapon: “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.” (Colossians 2:13-15)

 

By ending the Old Covenant with all its legal demands and mediating a New Covenant through his death (Hebrews 9:15, 10:9), Jesus took away all of Satan’s leverage. (This is also described in Romans 6-8). It’s as if the Enemy had a record of all your sins stored on the Death Star computers…but then Jesus blew the whole thing up! Victory over the Accuser and the utter defeat of Death also handles the problem of Sin. This means victory over all the so-called “worldly sins” as well as the legalism and moralism so common in the Church. 

 

Rescue

 

We’ve said that Jesus had to plunge into Death in order to defeat Sin, Satan, and Evil at the source. He had to bring down the Empire from the inside, killing the monster in its own lair by blowing it up from the inside. But there’s another very important reason Jesus had to go into the realm of the dead…to rescue us! 

 

The reason Sam braves the orc-infested tower is to save Frodo. The reason the three friends summon the courage to enter the Wicked Witch’s castle is because Dorothy is in there. There are few pictures of heroism quite as powerful as Wesley diving headfirst into quicksand to save his beloved.

 

Colossians 1:13 says: “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” This rescuing from the enslaving powers of darkness is directly tied to Christ’s victory over Death and the Devil:

“He himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” (Hebrews 2:14,15)

 

This picture of rescue is at the heart of the biblical metanarrative, and God consistently reveals himself to be a God who rescues. He delivers his people from Egypt through his victory over the Egyptian powers. He consistently rescues them from their enemies and, when they get themselves sold into slavery, he brings them back from Exile. 

God’s victorious rescuing from Death is the theme of Psalm 68: “God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him!... God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity… You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train… Our God is a God of salvation, And to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death. But God will strike the heads of his enemies… The Lord said: “I will bring them back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea.”

 

This idea is picked up later by the New Testament authors who apply it to Jesus and use it to talk about him descending into the lower regions of the earth to lead captives out from the place of the Dead (Ephesians 4:8). Some of these passages may be metaphorical, but they may also reflect a very real rescuing of souls from Hades. Peter includes this idea in the same sentence as his often-quoted explanation of the Atonement: 

 

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey…” (I Peter 3:18). 

This idea is probably why Matthew gives us this picture, saying that when Jesus died: “The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.” (Matthew 27:52) 

 

This picture of Jesus rescuing the dead from Hades is also seen in ancient Christian art:

 

 

Notice the broken cross and Jesus trampling Death.

 

I find this picture of Jesus incredibly moving. His courage, his strength, his passionate love. Jesus stormed the Gates of Hell to rescue us and lead us out of the pit of Death. The image of captives being set free is a powerful and beautiful one. As is the image of love-driven, self-sacrificing rescue that results in ultimate glory and victory over evil.

 

I love this Story. Because of his amazing love, Jesus dove into Death so that he could draw us out. This is passionate, self-giving love. This is both the ultimate sacrifice and ultimate victory. There is no one like this Jesus; this one whose very name means “God Rescues”. 

I will follow this man.

He’s my hero.