Sword and Salvation (Matthew 26:52)

Then said Jesus unto him,
Put up again thy sword into his place:
for all they that take the sword
shall perish with the sword. Matt. 26: 52

Introduction

1. The Sword is not The Answer. It is only a Temporal Answer. It has no Eternal Effect. Destruction of the wicked is not the answer to the problem of evil. Such procedure requires a cyclical repetition (Also e.g. avatars). The answer is still earth-bound and has no eternal cosmological benefit. If sword were the answer, Christ had legions to assist Him towards that end. Christ came to deal a permanent and final blow to the problem of sin. 1Jn 3:8.
2. The Sword is an Incomplete Answer. The sword serves the political and judicial purpose in this life but does not deal with the spiritual dimension of evil in the world. As such it is unfulfilled and incomplete. Violence is indispensable in judgment. However, violence doesn’t serve the eternal divine goal for man to be in loving fellowship with God. The rule of sword was not God’s actual design. It was only accommodative. The real and complete answer to the human predicament was provided when the Son of God stepped down to the earth and bore all the violence of divine wrath on Him to succor humanity from hell and reconcile man to God.
3. No Man is Worth to Wield the Sword. The sword of God’s wrath hangs over the head of every man. Man is doomed to perish. His wielding of sword in such fated context is absurd.
4. The Sword is Symbolic of Human Government often severed from divine will. It is the human and only possible way in a world of evil. Might has often been right and the rule of the strong is the rule. And as the mightier always supercedes the mighty, they that take the sword shall perish by the sword.

Domenic Marbaniang, October 16, 2005

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Marbaniang, Domenic

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