Victory!

I was at the gym this morning listening to Fee's album We Shine. This has to be one of the best albums of the year. From top to bottom, every song is great. I highly recommend picking this up for your own personal listening, but also for some corporate songs. I think we'll be trying "How Beautiful The Blood" before the end of the year. I sang it corporately at National Community Church in Washington DC a few weeks ago, and it works really well in the corporate setting.

Fee's entire album is about the victory of Jesus and the freedom that we have in Him. As we look forward to this Sunday at Cherry Hills, we are celebrating the baptism of 14 people - children and adults. I am so thankful for the victory of Jesus and the freedom he provides - victory and freedom from sin, guilt, condemnation, addiction, death...

I'm reminded of a description of Jesus that I've learned in seminary. Jesus is the Christus Victor. This description, first offered by Gustaf Aulen in his 1931 book by the same title drew attention back to the classic early church understanding of atonement. In that book, Aulen writes this, "The work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil." So as we're set to baptize people Sunday, I'm thankful that Jesus is the Christus Victor and that we can sing songs of victory together in a few days like "Our God Saves," "I am Free," and "Awesome is the Lord Most High."