Victory In Christ

“Do you want to continue to live in defeat? Why not claim the victory you can have in the Lord? You can live a victorious life! God wants you to live a life of prosperity and happiness.”

The “victory message” we hear proclaimed by some within Christianity is often more self-help, self-confidence, pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps hype than it is a biblically sound, Christ-centered message. Many “victory messages” preached in church or religious settings have far more in common with motivational infomercials presented by a slick promoter than they do with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Do we want to have victory? Of course we do. For that matter, if we are in Christ, do we already have the victory? Yes we do. Do we need someone other than Jesus to tell us how we can have spiritual victory if we will only follow certain spiritual “principles” or “laws”? No we don’t – we already have the victory. Jesus gave it to us.

But what if we don’t experience the kind of victory the religious salespeople are promoting? What if we are sick, suffering, in debt, or dealing with family problems and difficulties? Does that mean we don’t have victory in Christ?

When it comes to victory in Christ, let’s realize some things.
Jesus Christ won the decisive victory of all history on His Cross. Then, in His resurrection, He rose triumphantly, with His resurrected life being an eternal sign that He has triumphed over death and the grave.
When we accept Christ, trusting and surrendering to Him, God, by His grace, gives us the victory.
What is “victory in Christ” exactly? Is it a victory that allows us to “get” anything we want, any time we want? This is obviously not true.
The victory God gives to us looks different to God than the victory human beings naturally desire. Humanly, we naturally desire fleshly, external, sensory-related victory. We want to be victorious over our aches and pains, over our debts, over our family problems. That’s normal because we have human bodies. We want God – and if not God then someone who seems to authoritatively throw His name around – to assure us that we can have victory now, in the way we want it, on our terms.
Many people misunderstand the nature of the eternal kingdom of God, a kingdom God gives to all of us Christians, as His born again, transformed children. The kingdom is already here, but it is not here in its fullness. We might say that it is already, but not yet. The primary way in which the kingdom is now here is spiritual.

So WHAT IS “victory in Christ”? The answer comes in those two words “in Christ”. These two words are used throughout the New Testament to describe the state of Christians. I recommend that every time you read those two words, that you substitute this phrase: “in a living union with the indwelling Christ”. That is what “in Christ” really means. Jesus Christ comes to live right within the Christian in a Spirit to spirit union. See Galatians 2:20, Colossians 1:27, 2 Corinthians 13:5, Ephesians 3:17.

Christ will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Never! Never! Never! We are children in God’s eternal family. THIS IS VICTORY!

We can talk all we want about human victories. They will come in some areas and they will not come in other areas. God is in control and we are not. We can’t see around the corner from what we are going through. But God sees.

I would like to suggest two corollaries to “victory in Christ” that we should ponder when we humanly doubt.
1 Corinthians 10:13 – “God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
Romans 8:28: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

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