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“He Led Captivity Captive”

Ephesians 4:8

As he ascended up to heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ, our omnipotent Savior, our mighty God, led captivity captive. The allusion here is to the public triumphal parade of a Roman commander, who led his captives, bound in chains, through the streets to make an open show of them. Our Lord triumphed at the cross; and his triumph was manifest to the angels of heaven and all the inhabitants of hell when he both arose from the dead and ascended on high, having the keys of death and hell at his side. The Lord Jesus Christ led into captivity all those who once held us captive.

The world, wherein we were once bound, is under the domain of Christ. The ascended Savior has power over all flesh, ruling all things absolutely, that he might give eternal life to every sinner chosen in everlasting love and redeemed by his precious, sin-atoning blood.

The curse of the law, by which we were condemned, has been forever consumed in Christ. He swallowed the sword of Divine justice in his own holy soul. All the fury of hell fell upon our Substitute. Now, the Lord God says to Jacob, to every chosen sinner, to every blood-bought soul, to everyone who trusts the Lord Jesus, “Fury is not in me!” He who was “made sin” for us was “made a curse for us.” And, being made a curse for us, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law!”

The sin which once enslaved us is forever drowned in the sea of Calvary’s blood! He who was “made sin for us” put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself. The Lord God did not merely treat our Savior as if he had been made sin. To put it in the very language of Holy Scripture, he “made him sin for us!” And the holy, just, and true Lord God does not merely treat us as though Christ had put away our sins. — The Son of God has put away our sins!

Satan, who once took us captive at his will, is in the captivity of our Christ, bound in the chain of our great King’s omnipotence! — “God is gone up with the shout; the Lord with the sound of the trumpet” (Psalm 47:5). — “Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).

And death, which once had the power over all flesh, is now defeated by Christ. He arose crying, “O death! Where is thy sting; O grave, where is thy victory!”

Don Fortner

Pastor Fortner’s