#137 The Triumph, Peace, and Power of True Christianity - Part 5
The Triumph, Peace, and Power of True Christianity part 5, by Pilgram Marpeck
The Way of the Cross
The "evangelicals" lose the reality of the cross of Christ when they sit behind the protection of lords, princes, and cities to defend themselves. Only under the cross of Christ may patience be learned and all anxiety overcome. Christ the lamb triumphs in the cross, not like the lion, the bear, the wolf, the dog, and the leopard who fight and tear one another with their teeth (Revelation 17).
Woe, woe to the teaching and kingdom of Antichrist that must be revealed (II Timothy 3)! Look and listen, all you who have eyes and ears! Discern for yourself whether the deceivers and troublemakers are followers of the Lamb of God or followers of the dreadful beast! Children of God do not mingle with them. Do not let anyone deceive you. Wish no evil on your enemies, but do good to them, and that from the heart. You have one who judges you, and he is in heaven.
If worldly rulers use their power as God ordained them to use it (Romans 13), if they use the sword correctly, according to God's command; you are under a measure of protection. But where worldly rulers use the sword in an unjust way, when they punish the good and let evildoers go free, love liars and persecute the truth, all you may do is to content yourself with calling them to conversion. Leave vengeance to the God whom worldly rulers are called to serve. Christ did not give you any other sword or means of self-protection. Whoever teaches otherwise is a liar and a deceiver (I John 4; II John 1). The one, who looks for Christ elsewhere than in patience beneath the cross, will not find him. Just as wooden crosses and road signs direct us on the way, so the cross and hand of Christ direct us on our way to him. Moreover, the cross of Christ does not stand still. It is with us from the beginning and moves along with us to the end. The way of the cross is the way of truth. Out of truth comes life, and life comes by faith. Faith produces virtue and lets us know Christ. "This is eternal life that they should know you, Father, the true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17).
Possessions and Self-defence
To know Christ and his teaching is to live not after the flesh. It is not to hang onto our possessions, but to be born again, through which we die to all earthly things. He who hangs onto his old life and possessions will lose them. But he who gives them up comes to possess eternal life (Matthew 16; Matthew 19). He puts (Luke 9) every thought of self-defence behind his back, offers to carry the cross for his master and Lord, Christ, and does this faithfully with all meekness, love, and patience (Matthew 11) as the lambs of God.
We protect ourselves against the enemies of Christ by becoming more than conquerors through him. Our triumph, not limited by time, is eternal (Romans 8; I John 5). Christ says, "Rejoice! I have overcome the world" (John 16). Overcoming power never comes from winning in an earthly conflict. Whoever wins a conflict is overcome sooner or later by a stronger opponent who dominates him. That is because earthly conflicts are not won with Christ. It is the flesh that wins them, and the flesh with its triumphs passes away.
Where Christ's teaching and life take over, fleshly rule and power ends. But where people are ruled by the flesh, Christ must leave, just as he had to leave the land of the Gadarenes (Matthew 8). Christ had to leave the land of the Gadarenes because his work affected their business (their hog operation), something that needs to be taken into account if we want to be saved. The two demon possessed men held in the bondage of a legion of demons typify the love of God and the love of man, both of which have been hindered for a long time by Satan. Bondage comes from our love of property, as can be seen when the two men (who had been a great danger) returned with Christ, who had freed them, to the village of the Gadarenes. The Gadarenes, because they suffered damage to their earthly property (the loss of their pigs), begged Christ to leave them.