# “The Lamb has overcome” by Joel Beeke

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2025/11/22/the-lamb-has-overcome-by-joel-beeke/
- Published: 2025-11-22T21:30:00-06:00
- Author: tollelege

“Victory over sin and Satan was one of the great purposes for which Christ came:“
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works 
of the devil” (**1 John 3:8**).

Christ suffered and died as the Priest to offer himself as a sacrifice for sins.
At the same time, Christ was also conquering and winning victory as the King. How
is it that “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered”? The
answer appears in “a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (**Rev. 5:5–6 ESV**).

By picturing salvation as penal substitution, the Passover lamb was a type of Christ’s
sacrificial work as our only High Priest. The same type also foreshadowed his victory
as King. The Lord said, “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and
will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against
all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD” (**Ex. 12:12**). By
the Passover plague, God broke the enslaving power of false gods over his people.
By Christ, the Passover lamb, God broke the power of sin and Satan over his people.

Peter says, “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,
not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of
Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (**1 Pet. 1:18–19 ESV**). The
blood of Christ was the price of victory (**Rev. 5:5, 9; 12:11**). Christians are
no longer to live in sin because they were “bought with a price” (**1 Cor. 6:20**).
Our deliverance “from the power of darkness” is inseparable from our “redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (**Col. 1:13–14; cf. Eph. 1:7**).

Why was Christ’s satisfaction to justice needed to rescue his elect from the Devil?
Satan has no right to lead people in rebellion against God. But God justly gave 
sinners over to the power of sin when they rejected him (**Rom. 1:24, 26, 28**).
The penalty of Adam’s sin and our sins is death (**5:12; 6:23**). Spiritual death
includes hostility against God, so that people are unwilling and unable to submit
to his law (**8:6–8**).

Christ saved his people from the power of evil by paying their debt to God’s justice.
Paul says that God has “forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of 
the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, 
he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (**Col. 2:13–15**). Thus,
Christ’s victory as King comes from his sacrifice as Priest.

John Eadie said, “Redemption is a work at once of price and power, of expiation 
and conquest. On the cross was the purchase made; on the cross was the victory gained.
The blood that wipes out the sentence was there shed, and the death which was the
death-blow of Satan’s kingdom was there endured.”

Christ overcame the Devil by obedience to God. In the fires of suffering, Christ
forged a new humanity that obeys the will of God. He pressed his human nature into
the deepest submission to God. At Gethsemane, he prayed, “Abba, Father … not what
I will, but what thou wilt” (**Mark 14:36**). Christ reigned as King on the cross(**
John 19:19–21**). True kingship begins with ruling oneself (Prov. 16:32). Paul says,“
For in that he died, he died unto sin once” (R**om. 6:10**). John Murray said, “
It is because Christ triumphed over the power of sin in his death that those united
to him in his death die to the power of sin (**vv. 2, 11**).” Christ now imparts
by his Spirit the human holiness he perfected in his own human nature. By the Spirit,“
we have the mind of Christ” (**1 Cor. 2:16**), the mindset of self-denial (**Phil.
2:5, 8**).

Christ won a perfect victory by his obedience. By his perseverance unto death on
the cross, he became “the author and finisher of our faith” and attained glory at
God’s right hand (**Heb. 12:2**). In other words, Christ won the victory by perfecting
his own human faith and obedience through trials.

The incarnate Son “learned obedience by the things which he suffered” (**Heb. 5:
8**). He experienced obedience by patiently submitting himself to God’s will, though
it was extremely hard. By this experience, Christ was “made perfect” (**v. 9**) 
as the cause of eternal salvation to his people. That does not mean any sin needed
to be removed from him (there was none). Rather, he was “made perfect” by the building
of godly maturity and proven character.

God found it fitting, “in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of 
their salvation perfect through sufferings” (**Heb. 2:10**). The Greek word translated
as “captain” means founder or leader of a people. Christ leads a new family (“many
sons”) into the “glory” of “the world to come.” He did so by suffering, dying, and
being “crowned with glory and honour” to take up dominion over creation (**vv. 5–
10**).

In Christ, we are truly free because he won the victory over all that would oppress
us. This victory is the basis of Christian courage. We need not fear. No power of
earth or hell can conquer us since Christ died for our sins. The Lamb has overcome!””

–Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, [_Essentials of Reformed Systematic Theology_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1433590913?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2025), 440-442.

More on [salvation](https://tollelege.net/category/salvation/)