Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/78

Contributor - Rev. J. Schriel

Title - Proclaiming Jesus Christ As The Risen Lord

Topic - Resurrection

"He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1: 13,14.

"He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness." When you read your daily newspaper, does it look ]like it? The darkness of war still reigns in the Middle East and while talking about peace the parties involved try to consolidate their positions by more injustice. The hostilities in Northern Ireland still rage unabatedly. The peace in Vietnam is disturbed by a new war with Cambodia. And have we been delivered from the dominion of darkness in our own country and in our own lives? How many of us can say that?

And when the apostle Paul wrote these words things were not much better in the Roman world. Man's inhumanity to man was reigning supremely.

What then caused Paul to say this? It was simply this: He believed and proclaimed that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead. Wherever you turn in the New Testament, everywhere you encounter the unshaken conviction that Jesus Christ not only was crucified, had died and was buried, but also had risen from the dead. And this conviction is their foundation on which their faith rests. Whereas the New Testament writers testify about their unshaken belief in the Resurrection, why should the Christian Church of today begin to doubt about Jesus' resurrection from the dead?

Why were the apostles so unshaken in their belief in Jesus' resurrection of the dead? Because many of them had been eyewitnesses and although the apostle Paul himself had not been an eyewitness to the resurrection, his constant contact with the other apostles had been the cause of his unshaken belief and conviction.

"He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness . . . ." Is it not too optimistic to say that we are delivered from the dominion of darkness? Does not the darkness rule all around us? Is there no hunger in the world? Has war ceased everywhere? Have all refugees been allowed to return to their homelands? No, the darkness still rules everywhere. And yet: "He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness." That is true for the believers in Christ's resurrection.

What then is the darkness Paul is talking about? He talks about sin: we are delivered from the dominion of sin! Jesus had died on the cross and in doing so had taken upon him the burden of our sin, he had descended into the hell of that darkness and herein Was "God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself" And how was this all finalized? Because God had raised Christ from the dead on the third day. That's why the apostles could preach with the conviction of an eyewitness, "We are delivered from the dominion of sin."

Darkness also includes fear and it is obvious that the believer in the resurrected Christ also is delivered from the dominion of fear, because they had come to know the perfect love which casts out fear. Darkness includes evil spirits. We might be ruled to a great extent by evil spirits, but the time of the apostles was not 'without them either. But again, those who heard the story of the resurrection and believed it for them the dominion of evil spirits was shattered. And so it is for our time: As soon as mental disorders and irresponsible behaviour, which is caused by unbelief, is cured by faith in Christ, the dominion of the evil spirits will cease. And our text goes on: ". . . . and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin." This is the heart of the gospel, the fact that the believer becomes a changed person, that his allegiance to the kingdom of Satan is switched to allegiance to the kingdom of Christ, who is the cause of the resurrection shout of the Christian, who is the author of the deliverance from the dominion of darkness, in the forgiveness of sins.

The Easter Gospel brought a terrific liberation in the early Church. And it was not difficult for the apostles to preach this gospel with conviction, because they were the men, who had seen Jesus die. They were the men who had seen him buried in a tomb in the rocks. They were the men, who had witnessed the resurrection, had seen it with their own eyes.

Why then should we hesitate to believe the apostles' witness and accept this Easter gospel? If we do, we too shall be "transferred to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

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