What a Victory We Have in Jesus! Part One
I Corinthians 15: 57, 58
Jesus wants you to be a winner. All you have to do is become His team mate. Often in a team victory there are members of the team who have little to do with the actual victory. The team may be carried by a superior player. That only hints of the victory we enjoy as members of Christ’s team. He is solely responsible for our victory. He, and He alone, won our victory. Yet, it can be your victory.
Our victory is “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is, by the instrumentality of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is based on His victory.
In the award winning novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee one of the main characters is a little girl named Jean Louise Finch. Her dad, Atticus Finch, calls her Scout. Her dad, a lawyer, is a man of character and integrity. One day Scout comes home and shares some problems she is having with a teacher and some students. In an effort to help her understand and get along her dad gives this advice. “First of all, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
That is exactly what Jesus Christ did. He left His celestial body and crawled into a terrestrial body composed of human skin to become Immanuel, God with us. As God with us, He was in reality God for us. His birth, life, death, and resurrection was as our proxy.
In the Old Testament is the story of a young lad named David, representing the nation of Israel, in battle against the Philistine giant, Goliath. David defeated Goliath. He was the only one on that battlefield that day facing the giant. Yet, it was a victory for all Israelites.
Jesus Christ as the “only begotten Son of God” died alone on the cross of Calvary. Three days later He alone arose from the grave. It was His victory over sin, death, and the grave, just as David’s victory was his conquest of Goliath. Likewise, as with David, so Christ’s victory is a shared victory. His victory is our victory. God gives us the victory through Jesus Christ. The moment we invest our faith in Christ as our personal Savior the victory is won.
After peace was declared in Europe at the end of World War II, there were German holdouts who fought furiously against the Allies. The war was over, but there were battles to be won. Jesus has won the war over sin and has left us here to win the mop up battles which at times are ferocious. The challenge is for us to fight daily as a winner and win our battles through Him. Don’t be surprised when you encounter a strong enemy.
Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.