Thoughts for the Day

Salvation - a vicious violence by which Christ wrenches his people out of the clammy clutches of the prince of darkness

That was Israel’s condition. ‘When the judge died, they turned back and acted more corruptly than their fathers’ (2:19). Why did they always do that? Why could they not break that pattern? It is mysterious; but Judges does teach us that that is the tragic tyranny of sin. Sin is not simply an action you do or fail to do, that you can choose to do or not to do. Sin is a power that holds you in its grip. That is precisely what the apostle meant when he averred that all—both Jew and Gentile, both religious man and pagan man—are ‘under sin’ (Rom. 3:9), by which he means ‘under the power of sin’ (rsv). And until the church gets a proper view of sin, we will never see salvation as much more than a moving religious charade rather than as an act of holy, vicious violence by which Christ wrenches his people out of the clammy clutches of the prince of darkness (cf. 1 John 3:8).

Davis, D. R. (2000). Judges: Such a Great Salvation. Focus on the Bible Commentary. Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications.