Christ: The Commander

When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man was standing before him with His drawn sword in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And He said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” And the Commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

~Joshua 5:13-15

Of the innumerable ranks and offices He is decorated with, our Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme Commander-in-Chief of the LORD's celestial army. The angels, arch-angels and all the heavenly host report to Him and await His orders.

This Commander has a 100% victory rate in all His battles; "defeat" is a word foreign to the military records of Christ. There is not one battle-plan He has drawn against satan that had the slighest miscalculation. There is not a single campaign He has set out on where He has returned without the complete plunder (Luke 11:21-22); In non battle of His has ever even considered retreat or had to rethink His strategies. On the contrary, His mere silhouette appearing on the horizon of the battle-field sends a chill down the spines of His enemies and strikes dread in their hearts. The very glint of His sword spells their doom.

Every Christian is therefore a prisoner-of-war set free by this Commander and given the privilege of being His soldiers. How unworthy we are and yet He grants us knighthood not for our feats but because of His victory on the cross where He "disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him." (Colossians 2:15). If you have believed in Him, you have become a knight of the order of the cross! Let us be vigilant then because we are, as one preacher put it, "behind enemy lines in this world." warring against the prince of this world: the devil and his ranks of sin. Furthermore, this world loves his wicked reign, he has sown traitors even in our midst (Matthew 13:24-30) and his weapons are subtle and deadly. But praise be to our King and Commander, we fight a battle in which victory was assured from before the foundation of the world, and we war with a weapon that never fails: the Bible.