Victory Time

The Jesus follower is not fighting for ultimate victory. “If Satan gets the best of me, then I will lose.” No. The victory was secured at the cross. Nothing can take away the believer’s victory.

I am struck by the fact that this passage was written post-cross. The cross meant that the Sacrifice Lamb was slain and victory over sin—and all forces of evil—was secured! Abundant life is now available and operational. The Enemy is defeated.

“Well, if that is true, then why are we still struggling and fighting and feeling like we have to overcome in this spiritual conflict? From what I see going on around me, the Enemy doesn’t act like he’s lost! Are we talking about the same guy?!”

Yes, we are. Though the victory has been won, the conflict is ongoing. Let me being with a scenario to describe what I’m saying. Imagine we are watching our favorite sports’ team on television, wondering how the big game is going to come out. It looks like we are going to win! But are we? Or will defeat snatch away the victory at the last second? I’ll keep glued to my TV tube. I’m so nervous! I don’t know if I can watch or not! We might lose after all!

Here’s some relief for us. Or put in a common phrase of the day, Spoiler Alert, “I’m telling you the ending and that will spoil the surprise for you.” The Body of Christ is not going to wake up one day and say “Oh no, we didn’t see that coming! Didn’t think we were going to lose with all that God has done! I thought that Jesus’ death on the cross handled all of this, but I guess I was wrong. Must be more to it than I imagined.” No, it doesn’t work that way.  We aren’t sitting on the edge of our chairs to find out the news on whether the Body of Christ is victorious or not. We are! We aren’t going to wake up one day and discover that the Enemy has overcome us.

So, what is the Enemy doing? He’s trying to make us think that Jesus has not been victorious. To make us think that we don’t know how this will come out in the end, and that we should fear, because we are about to lose. He is a Ferocious Foe, and when he roars, we might just throw up our hands in surrender.  We are hanging on by a thread, and it looks like we aren’t going to make it through. He does that by engaging us in an ongoing conflict. He tries to blind our hearts to be ignorant of what God has done, or forget the full effect of His work and victory, or cause us to focus on our puny power rather than the infinite power of the Creator God. And I do not hesitate to say, the Enemy is really good at all that. He’s trying to get our eyes off our Victorious Savior, and confuse us into thinking that the eternal score is not yet settled. Even though the victory is secure for the believer, the Enemy is trying to make us think there is no triumph, we have no hope, and we will be doomed after all. That there was no cross, there was no resurrection. That we can keep watching to see how it’s going to come out, but the shocking, overwhelming reality is that we really do lose in the end.

Remember who’s saying all that. It’s good to combine this Whole Armor passage with other Scriptural references about the Enemy. I keep going back to the words of Jesus in John 8:44, which read, “The Devil has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.” The NIV translated this bit about “consistent with his character” with “When he lies, he speaks his native language.”

We are living in the post-cross era, which means that  victory over the Enemy and his ways of sin and lies is real and secure—but that fact does not mean that there is no ongoing conflict. We get mixed up thinking that we have to fight to win; no, we have to fight to stay on course.

This Whole Armor passage is about staying on course in the midst of continued attacks and lies by the Loser. Paul does not want us to give in to him or suffer setbacks because of him. I’m convinced that the Enemy counts as a win for himself anything he can do to rob our joy. To get us cross-ways, even temporarily, with a fellow Jesus-follower, friend, or family member. To get our eyes off our Savior, and on to us and our problems, and be washed, whether long-term or short-term, with a feeling of hopelessness. The Hopeless Loser wants to take us down to his level and convince us that we have no hope. That we have no future with Jesus. That we have no present worth living for. That we lose in the end.

Another trick of his is to accuse the Eternally Good God of eternally bad behavior. He whispers, “If God was real, then…” Or, “If God really loved you, then this wouldn’t have happened…” Or, “Have you read the Old Testament? About the God of the Jews who sanctioned war and commanded his people to slaughter families, including babies? You want to follow a God like that? You are kidding, right? I thought you were smarter than that. Your friends certainly don’t believe in Him.” We will take up the discussion later in this study, but we would do well to remember that the Enemy has demonstrated a very strong intelligence, and uses a variety of strategies—built on pride, lies, deception, and twisting of the truth—to try to move us from an assurance of victory. He’s very good at appealing to our flesh, weakness, pride, and vanity, and to our lack of intelligence. While victory is ours, the Foe is still active, is very smart, and is looking for any opportunity to disrupt our peace and to keep us from relishing God’s triumph.

Paul says that God has given us what we need to stand firm and move forward in our faith. The starting point in all this is to realize that we are not fighting for victory. The ultimate victory over the Enemy and all his ways has been achieved! The cross settled that. We are fighting to continue to stand strong in God’s position of victory and enjoy the outcome that has already been provided for us.

“Father, we rejoice in the ultimate victory which you provided at the cross! We ask for your help in not forgetting what you have done or in allowing ourselves to be deceived, thinking we have no hope. Teach us how to live and thrive in the triumphant outcome that you have achieved for us.”