Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? . . .No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us (Rom. 8:35-37).
We are told that we are more than conquerors, and so we
are. Yet, we may not grasp the depth of that statement and we may never, but we believe it
to be so. For we know that the Christian life is one that is meant to be lived
victoriously--having victory over sin and the world, having victory over our
circumstances, and having victory over self.
Many times do the words, "There's power in the
blood," roll off of the tongues of the spiritually anemic. There are many who hold on
to a "name it and claim it" faith as though it is some kind of
lifeline--tightly, and afraid they may lose their grip. And though our salvation is
something that is to be worked out with fear and trembling, it is not something meant to
cause anxiety within us for fear of losing it.
Christ has brought to us victory over sin--sin that
blocks us from experiencing the power of God, and sin that would lead us to feel severed
from God in the emptiness of times we fall short of His glory and are distant from His
presence. But our victory is sure because it is in Christ, and not of ourselves, but in
the all sufficient work He has accomplished. And this is our hope in His victory: that we
may not always fall to the sin that seems to so easily beset us.
Our hope is alive because our hope is in Him who has made
us alive through His resurrection--He who is the resurrection and the life. The closer we
draw to Him, the more tasteless sin becomes. We are then compelled to draw even closer to
Him, and release the sin that we think holds us. We draw ever so near to our Lord and with
that, we learn to abide in Him. We find our strength in Him through which we can daily
overcome sin, for as we remain in Him and He in us, we will bear much fruit--"apart
from [Him we] can to nothing."
In Him there is hope for victory over the circumstances.
Not that the circumstances may change, but that we may be encouraged within our
circumstances. The circumstances can no longer hold power over us and cause us to move
frantically within uncertain times. Instead, we can hold fast and remain at peace. For as
life becomes full of turmoil, we can fix our eyes on He who is stable, and we can rest
assured that He is still in control.
In Him there is hope for victory over self. For many
times we are our worse enemy. We are full of selfish motive and ambition. We gravitate
toward what is beneficial to the self. Even some of our good toward others is laced with
ulterior motives. But this is not our lot in life, and we can have something else. We can
have victory over our own childish and selfish concerns by drawing near to, and remaining
in Christ our Lord. For as we spend time with Him, we will begin to take on His nature--we
will learn how to love as He loves, how to give expecting nothing in return and how to
sacrifice for the good of another.
Sometimes it is so very hard for us to realize that
Christ has already brought to us a victory over all of these things--but He has. But that
victory is not handed to us as such that we can take it, name it and claim it, and use it
outside of the purposes of Christ. The victory is only found in Christ and it is only
fully realized through walking closely with Him. His victory does not change our
circumstances, but it will always help us to rise above them. It is, after all, His
promise to us--signed in His blood, and sealed through His resurrection.
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