”You all out of God are, little children, and have conquered them, because greater is the [One] in you than the [one] in the world.”
-Nike. Niké in the Greek. It means victory. Just win, baby. And that’s what we did. Through Jesus. Our Rescuer. Our Deliverer. Our glorious incomparable spiritual MVP. He is the One Who has carried us - our whole team - to victory. Victory over sin and death - and over all those pesky antichrists, every last one of them, over any and all those who oppose. “We shall overcome” is a popular refrain, but whoever wrote that isn’t telling the whole story. In Christ, we already have. We HAVE overcome - because Jesus has overcome the world (John 16.33). It’s not future tense, something which remains to be seen - it’s perfect tense - a completed action in the past, with continuing results in the present. This victory was won at the cross and the empty tomb. And the results stand until this day. John has already told us twice that we HAVE overcome the evil one (1John 2.13-14). In that passage it was young (brave and strong) men who had conquered the evil one, but here it is the little children. Even the little children are more than conquerors in our all-conquering Christ (Romans 8.37)! All of the assembled forces of darkness, they were summarily trounced by the King of kings, along with all the naysayers and skeptics, all our would-be foes and any and all who consider us fools for following Jesus to begin with. And there is the wonderful irony. The very opposition we take on when we take up our stand in Christ has already been defeated - by Christ! They may disrespect us, they may avoid us, they may try to silence us and persecute us and even try to kill us, but we’ve already won. In Christ. We’ve won the battle. And it was a rout. They were all thoroughly vanquished. Sure, there are skirmishes to be fought, and it may be tough sledding at times, but we’ve already triumphed! We’re on our victory lap, we in the ticker-tape parade to end all ticker tape parades, even as we speak (2Corinthians 2.14)! AND there is no shame at all in jumping on this bandwagon! Because as soon as we get on God’s side, the moment we trust in Him, that puts God on our side, and if God is on our side, ain’t nobody gonna be able to handle that. You know that’s right. (Romans 8.31).
-But the way to be on this winning side, the way to be “out of God”, as John puts it, is to be IN Christ. Believing IN Him. Not just knowing facts about Him. The devil knows facts about Jesus. And he’s convinced that they’re true. But there’s no way he’s going to humble himself and turn from self to trust in Jesus’ death on the cross as the all-sufficient payment for His sin. He’s not going to fully follow and devote himself to Christ. But this is what we must do, if we want this victory. If we want to be on the winning side. Please, if you haven’t already, put your trust IN Jesus and what He did on the cross for you today. Make sure you have done that. And then follow Him. He’s a great follow...! The Best!
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