"[The cross] was a Divine conflict and victory; Christ—Christus victor—fights against and triumphs over the evil powers of the world, the ‘tyrants’ under which mankind is in bondage and suffering, and in Him God reconciles the world to Himself.” (Swedish theologian Gustaf Aulén) The cross is indeed God’s wrath pouring out on Jesus so we who stake ourselves to Christ won’t have to bear it; but it is so much more than that. At the cross Jesus faced-off with evil in all its grotesque wretchedness. Evil, personified by sin and death, by the principalities and powers, sought to lead Jesus to the cross but soon discovered that Jesus had been leading evil to its own defeat. Jesus’ resurrection dismantled evil’s foothold over creation. At the least, Christ’s resurrection from the dead reveals that evil has indeed been defeated, since the ultimate consequence of evil (death) couldn't hold down the One who defeated it.
Jesus disarmed those who once ruled over us--those who had overpowered us. Like captives of war, he put them on display to the world to show his victory over them by means of the cross.
(Colossians 2.15, The Voice)
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