Articles
Victorious!
If you are a fan of college basketball, as I am, then you probably have enjoyed the last few weeks. If you are a fan of a particular team, it is likely you have, by now, watched them lose a game and have to go home in defeat. If you are a fan of one of the remaining teams, you have reveled in the victories that have allowed them to continue to play. Maybe you have watched one or more games where the victory was not clearly achieved until that shot, made just before time expired, swished through the net. Remember that feeling when you realized your team had won the game?
Keep that thought in mind.
The coming of a Savior to earth was prophesied many years before He came (cf. Isa. 7:14; Mic. 5:2), His birth was announced by an angel to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-11), and an angel told Joseph, “that which is conceived in [Mary] is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20-23) as a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. Simeon was told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he saw the Savior, and he did see Him (Luke 2:25-35). Jesus declared Himself to be the fulfillment of prophecies concerning the Christ, too (cf. Luke 4:16-21).
For those who anticipated the coming of the Savior, the feeling of imminent victory must have been sometimes overwhelming. As God's people, the Israelites were told of His coming centuries in advance, and some were greatly anticipating His arrival and the deliverance He would bring them. Though some had misconceptions about who He would be and what He would do, when the arrival approached, they must have greatly anticipated it, and when the gospel message began to be preached and they understood what had happened and how He was their Savior, some must have rejoiced greatly as they followed Him without hesitation. They knew, as had been foretold and now preached in the revelation of God's plan for our salvation, that Jesus the Savior meant certain victory.
But victory over what — or whom?
The World. Shortly before Jesus was to be taken away, tried, and crucified, He met with the apostles and told them of some of the things that were to come. One of the last things He said to them was, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). One of the things they would face was persecution, and He had already told them they would be hated, put out of synagogues, and even be put to death — and this from those who thought they were serving God faithfully even as they did these things (John 15:15-16:4)!
The promise of persecution was not limited to just the apostles, though. Paul would later write, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12); and Peter would also write, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you” (1 Pet. 4:12). Persecutions would come to the faithful, but that was no reason to think the persecutors had the upper hand, or could claim victory over them. As long as they stood with Jesus, they would be victorious in the end. Jesus would overcome the world by His death, burial, and resurrection, and would bring victory over those who would oppose Him and His people. This fact was what Paul used to remind the brethren of Thessalonica to stand firm in the faith and not worry about those who troubled them (2 Thess. 1:3-10).
Sin. When Jesus came to this earth and lived as a man, He was both God and man, but He faced temptations just as every man faces them. Note the words of the writer of Hebrews: He “was in all points tempted as we are” (Heb. 4:15), and, “He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted” (Heb. 2:17, 18). Jesus [as man] was tempted “as we are,” but He did not sin. In this, He overcame sin!
In the clearest record of His temptations, we find the devil coming to Jesus after He had fasted forty days and nights (Matt. 4:1-11). It was there the devil tempted His physical hunger by commanding He turn the stones to bread (Matt. 4:3), challenged Him to throw Himself off the temple pinnacle (Matt. 4:5, 6), and offered all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down and worship him (Matt. 4:8, 9). Each time, Jesus answered, “It is written” and did not allow Himself to be drawn away by the temptations into sin. He answered every temptation and, thus, overcame sin.
Furthermore, Jesus overcame the power of sin by His blood that was shed on the cross. Before that sacrifice, there was no answer for sin because there was no sacrifice that could cleanse its stain, and nothing that would pay the price God demanded. It was when Jesus offered Himself — the sinless sacrifice — that the price was paid, and when He offered Himself as the “one sacrifice for sins forever” (Heb. 10:12), He redeemed us [made forgiveness possible] and overcame its power over us. Now we could be forgiven!
Death. And, finally, Jesus overcame death itself. The writer of Hebrews again reminds us it was when Jesus became a man like us, in “flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14, 15). Through His death, and by the resurrection wherein He did not die again (cf. Rom. 6:9), Jesus overcame the power of death and the one who held its power: the devil. When He conquered death, the devil could no longer hold that power over us or anyone who is a believer, for His resurrection gives us hope of a resurrection from the dead in the end. Jesus was merely “the firstfruits of those who have” died, and has given us hope that “in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:20-22).
While the devil held the power of death, and since all men had sinned (Rom. 3:23), the specter of death hung over all mankind, for it meant certain condemnation to all. Now, because of the death and resurrection of Christ, we who are in Christ can look forward to the time when Christ comes again and “the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” and death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:52-54). Sin had brought death into this world (cf. Gen. 2:17; Rom. 5:12), and since all were guilty, all faced the same condemnation; but now — in Christ — we do not face that condemnation and death is merely a transition from this life to the next. Death does not have the power of fear over us anymore, and we are released from that bondage. The sting is gone, and we can rejoice in saying, “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:56, 57).
Did you notice the common thread in all these victories? In each case, Jesus defeated our spiritual enemy, the devil. His realm [the world] was overcome; his weapons [temptations] were overcome; and his greatest terror [death] was overcome. Our enemy was soundly defeated by our Lord, and we can say without hesitation, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).
Victory in Jesus! —— Steven Harper
