Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Colossians 2:15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
DEATH DISARMED
In the spring of 1952, the U.S. government tested tactical nuclear weapons at the Nevada Proving Ground as part of Operation Tumbler-Snapper. It was the third nuke test series in 18 months at the Nevada site in an era of rapid atomic development. At 4:00 in the morning on May 13, one of the Tumbler-Snapper bombs --code name "Fox" -- was scheduled to go off. But the moment passed and no atomic fireball curled into the sky. Shot Fox had misfired. Locked in its cab atop a 300-foot tower rising over the Yucca Flat, the malfunctioning 15-kiloton device posed a serious danger to living things for many miles in all directions. Someone had to disarm the thing. What followed was one of the riskiest and most delicate jobs ever(1).
Disarming an atomic bomb that would bring instantaneous death to all life for miles around is one thing, but disarming death itself once and for all could be left to the one Man only capable of doing it, God's Son, Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Colossae saying, "Having disarmed principalities and powers, He [Jesus Christ] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15). When it came to disarming death's eternal grip on your sin-soaked soul bound to the fire of hell, there was no room for mistakes. No corners could be cut. Your loving and selfless God and Savior, Jesus Christ, perfectly disarmed death's eternal power over you. He did this by humbly and mercifully taking the full force of God's eternal and atomic wrath against your sins once and for all on the cross. In His powerful victory Jesus publicly triumphed over sin, death, and Satan's power in His resurrection from the grave Easter morning!
Imagine the unbearable suspense followed by the sudden peace flowing through your body having been in that tower where Shot Fox, that atomic bomb, was disarmed! It shouldn't be hard to imagine, because Jesus' cross removes all suspense and gives you once and for all the peace that passes all understanding, in disarming death itself, for you!
(1) Adapted from the November 2011 National Association of Atomic Veterans, Inc. Newsletter and an article written about the event by Steve Weintz. 