CHRIST TRIUMPHANT – Charles Spurgeon

CHRIST TRIUMPHANT

Introduction
“And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:15).

To the eyes of reason, the cross is the center of sorrow and the lowest depth of shame, as Jesus dies a malefactor’s death. He hangs upon the gallows of a felon and pours out His blood upon the common mount of doom, with thieves for His companions. In the midst of mockery, jest, scorn, vulgarity, and blasphemy, He gives up the ghost. Earth rejects Him and lifts Him from her surface. Heaven affords Him no light, but darkens the midday sun in the hour of His extremity. Deeper in woe than the Savior dived, imagination cannot descend. A blacker defamation than was cast on Him, satanic malice itself could not invent. He hid not His face from shame and spitting—and what shame and spitting it was! To the world, the cross must always be the emblem of shame—to the Jew a stumbling block, and to the Greek foolishness.

Faith’s Perspective
How different, however, is the view which presents itself to the eyes of faith! Faith knows no shame in the cross, except the shame of those who nailed the Savior there. It sees no ground for scorn but hurls indignant scorn at sin, the enemy which pierced the Lord! Faith sees woe, indeed, but from this woe it marks a fountain of mercy springing. It is true, it mourns a dying Savior, but it beholds Him bringing life and immortality to light at the very moment when His soul was eclipsed in the shadow of death. Faith regards the cross not as the emblem of shame, but as the token of glory! The sons of Belial lay the cross in the dust, but the Christian makes a constellation of it and sees it glittering in the seventh heaven! Man spits upon it, but believers, having angels for their companions, bow down and worship Him who lives forever, though once He was crucified!

Christ’s Triumph on the Cross
My brothers and sisters, our text presents us with a portion of the view which faith is certain to discover when its eyes are anointed with the eye salve of the Holy Spirit! It tells us that the cross was Jesus Christ’s field of triumph! There He fought and there He conquered, too! As victor on the cross, He divided the spoil. No, more than this—in our text, the cross is spoken of as being Christ’s triumphal chariot in which He rode when He led captivity captive and received gifts for men!

Calvin thus admirably expounds the last sentence of our text—“The expression in the Greek allows, it is true, of our reading—in Himself; the context of the passage, however, requires that we read it otherwise; for what would be meager as applied to Christ, suits admirably well as applied to the cross. For as Paul had previously compared the cross to a signal trophy or show of triumph in which Christ led about His enemies, so he now also compares it to a triumphal chariot in which He showed Himself in great magnificence. For there is no tribunal so magnificent, no throne so stately, no show of triumph so distinguished, no chariot so elevated as is the cross on which Christ has subdued death and the devil, the Prince of death—no, more—has utterly trodden them under His feet.”

Christ Spoiling His Enemies
I shall, this morning, by God’s help, address you upon the two portions of the text. First, I shall endeavor to describe Christ as spoiling His enemies on the cross. And having done that, I shall lead your imagination and your faith further on to see the Savior in triumphal procession upon His cross, leading His enemies captive, and making a show of them openly before the eyes of the astonished universe!

I. Christ Spoiling Principalities and Powers
Satan, leagued with sin and death, had made this world the home of woe. The Prince of the power of the air, not content with his dominions in hell, must invade this fair earth. He found our first parents in the midst of Eden. He tempted them to forego their allegiance to the King of heaven, and they became at once his bond-slaves—bond-slaves forever, if the Lord of heaven had not interposed to ransom them! The voice of mercy was heard while the fetters were being riveted upon their feet, crying, “You shall yet be free!”

In the fullness of time, there shall come one who shall bruise the serpent’s head and shall deliver his prisoners from the house of their bondage.” Long did the promise tarry. The earth groaned and travailed in its bondage. Man was Satan’s slave, and heavy were the clanking chains upon his soul. At last, in the fullness of time, the Deliverer came forth, born of a woman! This infant conqueror was but a span long. He lay in the manger—He who was one day to bind the old dragon, and cast him into the bottomless pit and set a seal upon him!

When the old serpent knew that his enemy was born, he conspired to put Him to death. He leagued with Herod to seek the young child that he might destroy Him. But the providence of God preserved the future conqueror—He went down into Egypt and there He was hidden for a little season; and when He had come to the fullness of years, He made His public advent and began to preach liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them who were bound.

Then, Satan again shot forth his arrows and sought to end the existence of the woman’s seed. By different means, he sought to slay Him before His time. Once the Jews took up stones to stone Him, nor did they fail to repeat the attempt. They sought to cast Him headlong down from the brow of a hill; by all manner of devices they labored to take away His life, but His hour was not yet. Dangers might surround Him, but He was invulnerable till the time was come.

The Battle Begins
At last, the tremendous day arrived. Foot to foot, the conqueror must fight with the dread tyrant! A voice was heard in heaven, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” And Christ Himself exclaimed, “Now is the crisis of this world; now must the prince of darkness be cast out.” From the table of communion, the Redeemer arose at midnight and marched forth to the battle!

How dreadful was the contest! In the very first onset, the mighty conqueror seemed to be vanquished. Beaten to the earth at the first assault, He fell upon His knees and cried, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Revived in strength, made strong by heaven, He no longer quailed and from that hour never did He utter a word which looked like renouncing the fight.

The Crucial Battle on the Cross
All red with bloody sweat from the terrible skirmish, He dashed into the thick of the battle! The kiss of Judas was, as it were, the first sounding of the trumpet. Pilate’s bar was the glittering of the spear. The cruel lash was the crossing of the swords. But the cross was the center of the battle! There, on the top of Calvary, must the dread fight of eternity be fought! Now must the Son of God arise and gird His sword upon His thigh. Dread defeat or glorious conquest awaited the Champion of the church! Which shall it be? We hold our breath with anxious suspense while the storm is raging.

I hear the trumpet sound! The howls and yells of hell rise in awful clamor! The pit is emptying out its legions! Terrible as lions, hungry as wolves, and black as night, the demons rush on in myriads. Satan’s reserve forces, those who had long been kept against this day of terrible battle, are roaring from their dens. See how countless are their armies and how fierce their countenances! Brandishing his sword, the arch fiend leads the van, bidding his followers fight neither with small nor great, but only with the King of Israel!

Christ’s Triumph
Terrible are the leaders of the battle! Sin is there, and its innumerable offspring spitting forth the venom of asps, and sinking their poison fangs in the Savior’s flesh! Death is there upon his pale horse and his cruel darts rend their way through the body of Jesus even to His inmost heart! He is “exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.” Hell comes, with all its coals of juniper and fiery darts. But chief and head among them is Satan—remembering well the ancient day when Christ hurled him from the battlements of heaven, he rushes to the attack, yelling with all his malice! The darts shot into the air are so countless that they blind the sun! Darkness covers the battlefield and like that of Egypt, it was a darkness which might be felt. Long does the battle seem to waver, for there is but one against many. One man—no, listen, lest any should misunderstand me—one GOD stands in battle array against ten thousands of principalities and powers! On, on they come and He receives them all!

Victory Achieved
Silently, at first, He permits their ranks to break upon Him, too terribly enduring hardness to spare a thought for shouting. But at last the battle cry is heard. He who is fighting for His people begins to shout, but it is a shout which makes the church tremble. He cries, “I thirst!” The battle is so hot upon Him, and the dust so thick that He is choked with thirst! He cries, “I thirst!” Surely, now, He is about to be defeated! Wait awhile—do you see yon heaps? All these have fallen beneath His arm and for the rest, fear not the issue! The enemy is but rushing to his own destruction!

In vain his fury and his rage, for look, the last rank is charging; the battle of ages is almost over! At last the darkness is dispersed. Listen how the conqueror cries. “It is finished!” And where are His enemies now? They are all dead! There lies the king of terrors, pierced through with one of his own darts! There lies Satan with his head all bleeding, broken! Yonder crawls the broken-backed serpent, writhing in ghastly misery! As for sin, it is cut in pieces and scattered to the winds of heaven!

Dividing the Spoil
“It is finished,” cries the conqueror, as He comes with dyed garments from Bozrah, “I have trodden the winepress alone, I have trampled them in My fury and their blood is sprinkled on My garments.” And now, He proceeds to divide the spoil. We pause here to remark that when the spoil is divided, it is a sure token that the battle is completely won. The enemy will never suffer the spoil to be divided among the conquerors as long as he has any strength remaining.

Christ’s Victory and Our Assurance
We may gather from our text, of a surety, that Jesus Christ has totally routed, thoroughly defeated, once and for all, and put to retreat all His enemies, or else He would not have divided the spoil! And now, what does this expression mean of Christ dividing the spoil? I take it that it means, first of all, that He disarmed all His enemies. Satan came against Christ—he had in his hand a sharp sword called the law, dipped in the poison of sin so that every wound which the law inflicted was deadly. Christ dashed this sword out of Satan’s hand and there stood the prince of darkness unarmed!

Conclusion
My brothers and sisters, in all things we must be made like unto Christ. We must bear our cross and on that cross, we must fight as He did with sin, death, and hell! Let us not fear. The result of the battle is certain, for as the Lord our Savior has overcome once, even so shall we most surely conquer in Him!

Every one of them, waving his helmet in the air, cries, “Unto Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His blood, unto Him be honor, and glory, and dominion, and power, forever and ever!” Look, my brothers and sisters, with admiration upon this noble army! Mark the heroes as they march along the golden streets, everywhere meeting an enthusiastic welcome from the angels who have kept their first estate. On, on they come, those countless legions—was there ever such a spectacle? It is not the pageant of a day, but the “show” of all time! For 4,000 years, on streams the army of Christ’s redeemed! Sometimes there is a short rank, for the people have been often diminished and brought low, but soon a crowd succeeds, and on, on, still on they come, all shouting, all praising Him who loved them and gave Himself for them!

But look! He comes! I see His immediate herald, clad in a garment of camel’s hair and a leather girdle about his loins. The Prince of the house of David is not far behind! Let every eye be open! Now, mark, how not only angels, but the redeemed crowd the windows of heaven! He comes! He comes! It is Christ, Himself! Lash the snow-white coursers up the everlasting hills. “Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in.” Look, He enters in the midst of acclamations. It is He! But He is not crowned with thorns. It is He! And though His hands wear the scars, they are no longer stained with blood. His eyes are as a flame of fire, and on His head are many crowns! And He has on His vesture and on His thigh written, KING of KINGS and LORD OF LORDS. He stands tall in that chariot which is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem! Clothed in a vesture dipped in blood, He stands, proclaimed the emperor of heaven and earth! On, on He rides, and louder than the noise of many waters, and like great thunders, are the acclamations which surround Him!

The New Song of Christ’s Triumph

Look how John’s vision has become a reality, for now we can see for ourselves and hear with our ears the new song whereof He writes, “They sung a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. And You have made us unto our God, kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders—And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.”

The Defeat of Christ’s Enemies

But who are those at His chariot wheels? Who are those grim monsters that come howling in the rear? I know them! First of all, there is the arch enemy. Look at the old serpent, bound and fettered, how he writhes his ragged length along! His azure hues all tarnished with trailing in the dust! His scales despoiled of their once-vaunted brightness. Now is captivity led captive, and death and hell shall be cast into the Lake of Fire! With what derision is the chief of rebels regarded! How has he become the object of everlasting contempt? He who sits in the heavens laughs—the Lord has him in derision. Behold, how the serpent’s head is broken, and the dragon is trampled underfoot.

And now, regard attentively yon hideous monster, sin, chained hand in hand with his satanic sire! See how he rolls his fiery eyeballs! Mark how he twists and writhes in agonies. Mark how he glares upon the holy city, but is unable to spit his venom there, for he is chained and gagged and dragged along, an unwilling captive at the wheels of the victor! And here, too, is old death, with his darts all broken and his hands behind him—the grim king of terrors—he, too, is a captive! Listen to the songs of the redeemed, of those who have entered into paradise, as they see these mighty prisoners dragged along! “Worthy is He,” they shout, “to live and reign at His Almighty Father’s side, for He has ascended up on high, He has led captivity captive, and received gifts for men.”

The Procession of the Redeemed

And now, behind Him, I see the great mass of His people streaming in. The apostles arrive in one goodly fellowship hymning their Lord; and then their immediate successors; and then a long array of those who, through cruel mocking and blood, through flame and sword, have followed their Master. These are those whom the world was not worthy, brightest among the stars of heaven! Regard also, the mighty preachers and confessors of the faith—Chrysostom, Athanasius, Augustine, and the like. Witness their holy unanimity in praising their Lord!

Then, let your eyes run along the glittering ranks till you come to the days of the Reformation. I see in the midst of the squadron Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, three holy brothers! I see just before them Wickliffe, Huss, and Jerome of Prague, all marching together. And then I see a number that no man can number, converted to God through these mighty Reformers who now follow in the rear of the King of kings and Lord of lords! And looking down to our own time, I see the stream broader and wider, for many are the soldiers who have in these last times entered into their Master’s triumph. We may mourn their absence from us, but we must rejoice in their presence with the Lord.

The Shout of the Redeemed

And what is the unanimous shout? What is the one song that still rolls from the first rank to the last? It is this—“Unto Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever!” Have they changed the tune? Have they supplanted His name by another? Have they put the crown on another head, or elevated another hero into the chariot? Ah, no—they are still content to let the triumphant procession stream along its glorious length—still to rejoice as they behold fresh trophies of His love, for every soldier is a trophy, every warrior in Christ’s army is another proof of His power to save, and His victory over death and hell!

Pictures of Christ’s Victory

I have not time to enlarge further, or else I might describe the mighty pictures at the end of the procession—for in the old Roman triumphs, the deeds of the conqueror were all depicted in paintings—the towns he had taken, the rivers he had passed, the provinces he had subdued, the battles he had fought were represented in pictures, and exposed to the view of the people—who with great festivity and rejoicing accompanied him in throngs, or beheld him from the windows of their houses, and filled the air with their acclamations and applauses.

I might present to you, first of all, the picture of hell’s dungeons blown to atoms! Satan had prepared, deep in the depths of darkness, a prison for God’s elect, but Christ has not left one stone upon another! On the picture, I see the chains broken in pieces, the prison doors burnt with fire, and all the depths of the vast deep shaken to their foundations. On another picture, I see heaven open to all believers. I see the gates that were fast shut heaved open by the golden lever of Christ’s atonement! I see on one, another picture, the grave despoiled. I behold Jesus in it, slumbering for a while, and then rolling away the stone and rising to immortality and glory.

The End of the Triumphant Procession

But we cannot stay to describe these mighty pictures of the victories of His love. We know that the time shall come when the triumphant procession shall cease—when the last of His redeemed shall have entered into the city of happiness and joy—and when with the shout of a trumpet heard for the last time, He shall ascend to heaven and take His people up to reign with God, even our Father, forever and ever, world without end!

A Personal Question

Our only question, and with that, we conclude, is, have we a good hope through divine grace that we shall march in that tremendous procession? Shall we pass under review in that day of pomp and glory? Say, my soul, shall you have a humble part in that glorious pageant? Will you follow at His chariot wheels? Will you join in the thundering hosannas? Shall your voice help to swell the everlasting chorus? Sometimes I fear it shall not. There are times when the awful question comes—what if my name should be left out when He should read the muster roll? Brothers and sisters, does not that thought trouble you? But yet I put the question again. Can you answer it?

The Assurance of Salvation

Will you be there—shall you see this pomp? Will you behold Him triumph over sin, death, and hell at last? Can you answer this question? There is another, but the answer will serve for both—do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He your confidence and your trust? Have you committed your soul to His keeping? Reposing on His might, can you say for your immortal spirit—“Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on You?” If you can say that, your eyes shall see Him in the day of His glory—no, you shall share His glory, and sit with Him upon His throne even as He has overcome and sat down with His Father upon His throne!

Conclusion

I blush to preach as I have done this morning on a theme far beyond my power, yet I could not leave it unsung, but, as best I might, sing it. May God enlarge your faith and strengthen your hope! May He inflame your love, and make you ready to be made partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light so that when He shall come with flying clouds on wings of wind, you may be ready to meet Him, and may with Him ascend to gaze forever on the vision of His glory! May God grant this blessing, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

—Charles Spurgeon