The Invincible Christ

The invincible¹ Christ

Herod could not kill Him, Matt. 2

Guided by the star, the wise men from the east came to Jerusalem seeking for the newborn king, and King Herod was troubled. He told the wise men to let him know when they found the child, so that he too could come and worship Him. However, his intention was to destroy the child, and when the wise men did not return, he killed all the children two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem.

God protected the life of the Lord Jesus by means of three dreams:

1. God warned the wise men not to return to Herod but to go home another way, and Herod’s evil plan was thwarted, 2. 12.
2. The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, telling him to take the young child and His mother and flee into Egypt. ‘Out of Egypt have I called my son’, 2. 15; cp. Hos. 11. 1; and another example of the wrath of man praising the Lord, Ps. 76. 10.
3. The angel of the Lord later appeared to Joseph again, informing him that Herod was dead, and it was safe for them to return. When he heard that Herod had been succeeded by his brother, who was just as ruthless, Joseph brought Mary and the child to Nazareth, ‘that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene’, Matt. 2. 23. Herod was dead, but the child lived on; He is the invincible Christ.

The Devil could not defeat Him, Luke 4. 1-13

For a period of forty days, the Lord Jesus was tempted of the Devil in the wilderness.

There were three separate temptations:

1. The Devil said, ‘If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread’, and His answer was, ‘It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God’, 4. 3, 4; Deut. 8. 3. The Lord never used a miracle to provide for Himself, always for others.
2. The Devil then took Him up into a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. He said, ‘All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them … If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine’, 4. 6, 7. Our Lord’s answer was, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve’, 4. 8; Exod. 20. 4, 5.
3. Finally, he brought the Lord Jesus to Jerusalem and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple. ‘If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone’, 4. 9-11; Ps. 91. 11, 12. The Devil was attempting to misuse scripture. To ‘dash thy foot against a stone’ was something accidental; but to throw Himself from the pinnacle of the temple would have been a deliberate action. ‘And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God’, 4. 12; Deut. 6. 16. He did not need angels to bear Him up; after His temptation they ‘came and ministered unto him’, Matt. 4. 11.

‘And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season’, Luke 4. 13. The Lord Jesus alone could say, ‘for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me’, John 14. 30. In the paradise of the Garden of Eden, Adam had succumbed to the Devil; but even after fasting for forty days in the wilderness, the Lord Jesus was victorious - He is the invincible Christ.

The men of Nazareth could not harm Him, Luke 4. 16-30

In this chapter we have a remarkable account of the Lord Jesus visiting the synagogue at Nazareth on the sabbath day, and He stood up to read. He was given the scroll of the prophecy of Isaiah and He read from chapter 61 verse 1 and the first half of verse 2. The only comment He made was, ‘This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears’, and those who heard it wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. He had the acceptance, and indeed the admiration, of the audience.

He proceeded to speak of a miracle in the days of Elijah, saying that there were many widows in Israel, but to none of them was Elijah sent but unto a widow in Sarepta, a city of Sidon. Then He spoke of the days of Elisha, when there were many lepers in Israel, but none of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian. Those in the synagogue who had been filled with admiration were now filled with indignation, 4. 28. They were enraged at the very thought of blessing coming to a woman in Sidon and a man who was a Syrian; both were Gentiles, living beyond the borders of Israel. Full of religious hatred, they rose up and led Him out of the city to the brow of the hill, fully intending to cast Him down headlong. But passing through the midst of them, He went His way - the invincible Christ.

The waves could not drown Him, Luke 8. 22-25

When He saw the great multitude around Him, the Lord commanded His disciples to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He entered a ship and they followed Him. The weather changed dramatically, a great storm arose in the sea, and they were in jeopardy, v. 23. Mark chapter 4 verse 37 says, ‘the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full’. When the disciples found the Lord Jesus asleep, ‘they . . . awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm’, Luke 8. 24. He is the invincible Christ.

The Jews at Jerusalem could not stone Him, John 10. 22-39

The Lord Jesus was in Jerusalem during the feast of the dedication. It was winter, and He walked in the area of the temple known as Solomon’s porch. The Jews gathered around Him, and asked, ‘How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly’. The Lord replied, ‘the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me . . . I and my Father are one’, vv. 24, 25, 30.

This one statement answered their question, and again they reacted with hostility, vv. 31, 32. ‘Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand’, v. 39. Notice the many attempts they made to take Him.

They could not stone Him, because 1,000 years before it was written, ‘they pierced my hands and my feet’, Ps. 22. 16, the Calvary psalm. His death would be by crucifixion. He Himself said, ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent . . . even so must the Son of man be lifted up’, John 3. 14. They could not stone Him because He was not guilty of blasphemy. He is the Son of God, and His claim to be one with God His Father was true, so ‘he escaped out of their hand’, John 10. 39 - the invincible Christ.

Death could not claim Him, John 10. 18

The Lord Jesus was the only man who lived, who retained the right to live. All others forfeited that right because of sin, Rom. 6. 23. He spoke of His death as laying down His life; it was a voluntary act. He said, ‘No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father’, John 10. 18. He was not deprived of His life by the actions of the men who crucified Him. The charge was rightly brought against them, that they ‘killed the Prince of life’, Acts 3. 15. They did everything in their power to bring about His death, but God was in control of all that happened at Calvary, and He had also decreed what would not happen.

The last physical act of the Lord Jesus on the cross was to bow His head and dismiss His Spirit, John 19. 30. His public ministry had begun with prayer, Luke 3. 21, and it concluded with prayer, ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit’, 23. 46. He was never ‘a dying man’. When all the scriptures relating to His death were fulfilled and His mighty work was finished, of His own volition He dismissed His Spirit and died. ‘He yielded up His spirit’, Matt. 27. 50 NKJV. W. E. Vine points out that ‘yielded up’ here is ‘to send away’, as the command of a king - which fits well with Matthew’s Gospel.² The Lord Jesus was unique. Scripture records of all others, ‘There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death’, Eccles. 8. 8. In this too, He is the invincible Christ.

The grave could not hold Him, Acts 2. 24

The tomb where the body of the Lord Jesus was laid was hewn out of a rock, which was very fitting for the one who bears the name ‘the rock of ages’, Isa. 26. 4 JND. There was one way in and one way out of it. The entrance was closed by a very great stone being rolled into position.

Then there was the waxen seal bearing the insignia of the Roman empire, and soldiers standing guard outside. It was ludicrous to claim that the disciples had stolen the body while the soldiers slept. The soldiers, the stone, and the seal could not hold the Lord Jesus in the tomb.

Peter said on the Day of Pentecost, ‘Jesus of Nazareth . . . whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it’, Acts 2. 22, 24. God sent an angel to roll away the stone and he sat upon it in defiance of the authority of Rome, for the angel represented a higher authority, and he told the women, ‘He is not here: for he is risen’, Matt. 28. 5, 6. The seal was broken, the guards became as dead men, and the stone was rolled away so that all might see the tomb was empty and the invincible Christ was alive.

‘Wrapt in the silence of the tomb
The great Redeemer lay,
Till the revolving skies had brought
The third, the appointed day.

Hell and the grave combined their force
To hold our Lord in vain;
Sudden the Conqueror arose,
And burst their feeble chain’,

[Isaac Watts].