More Than Conquerors

In my mind, 2018 will go down as the year of the offended, the “year of the victim.” How many people I heard lament that they were offended by this, that or the other thing. By something. By everything. By Someone, by everyone. Everyone seemed to be crying “foul!” “I am a victim.”  “Ouch! I am hurt.” “Somebody was mean to me! I didn’t get what I wanted.”  “It was somebody else’s fault.”

On social media. In the news. In the coffeehouses. There was the lament that life had simply gotten the better of them. I wish I could say that it ended on December 31^st, but it didn’t; that victim status lingers and has oozed right on into 2019.  To be honest, I for one, have heard enough. 

I wish I could say that Christians were exempt from this sort of talk, but we are not. I am becoming increasingly concerned the evangelical witness is absorbing the posture of the secular world; one of victimization, rather than conqueror. 

True, Jesus said that we would be persecuted (John 15:20). And though it’s not bad to understand that, when we let it steal our hope, when we stride with heads down, we miss what the good Lord has for us.

When presented with adversities, we can respond along a spectrum of ways.  On one end is what I would call the Constant Victim Status (CVS)…Simply stated this is the mindset of looking through the lenses that life is out to get you, has gotten you, and will continue to do so; sort of an Eeyore mentality. At the other extreme is knowing and believing that we are more than conquerors, that the “game,” the battle has already been won. God is the Victor, and we are on the winning side. 

In Romans 8:31-39, Paul asks a flurry of questions regarding the indisputable, truth which is still a reality even in the face of adversity, truth of our security in Christ. 

Rom. 8:31  “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³²He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? ³³Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; ³⁴who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

³⁶        Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”

³⁷But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Though we live in a fallen world, though we are dying – being put to death, we are not victims, never will be, never victims. We are no longer separated from God, but are enveloped in the love of God in Christ. We have never been called to be victims of culture. We may be persecuted, but we are not victims of anyone; let us walk in that truth. Choosing to live in another posture is choosing to live below our privileges in Christ. 

Even in the midst of adversity, God has His hand upon us, and He uses those “abrasions” as implements in the Potter’s hands – as articles to refinement. Earlier in Romans Paul confirms that God is always at work in the great process of our sanctification, and sometimes trials are a part of that course.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30).

Sometimes discomfort. Sometimes pain. Undergoing the process of sanctification, but never victim.

Brothers and sisters, the war has been won; we are simply engaged in the peripheral battle. The supreme prize has already come our way, at least in part as we are the recipients of a restored relationship with God through the blood of Christ. And, nothing! Nothing will be able to chisel a division between Him and us.

I don’t mean to degrade the difficulties of life, any pain or loss, but when we have a choice to waddle in the mire or not, we should choose to identify as those who overwhelmingly conquer. What sets us apart, or what should set us apart is the assurance, the confidence of being in the camp of the redeemed.

Next time you feel a bout of the selfies coming on, roll around in these verses a bit; they are like catnip for the soul. They remind us of all that is already ours in the heavenly places. We are more than conquerors, we are sons and daughters of the King, the victorious King.

The victory is already yours. Seize it!