Friday, July 18, 2014

War In Your Heart # 8

Background of Victory (continued)

The Biblical Scope of Victory (continued)

Stop for a moment for one short look into your own soul, saved by His infinite grace. Then take a long look around the whole wide world and see the church spires in nearly every land; the Bible printed in more than a thousand tongues; the Christian institutions, the homes, the seminaries, the Bible schools and colleges making, training, and sending out Christian men and women into all walks of life, at home and to the ends of the earth. Then take an upward look to the innumerable company of the redeemed from every kindred and tongue and people and nations, and listen to their paean of victory. All this and infinitely more - the fruitage of one Man's one obedience!

Oh, dear reader, victory is not merely a personal thing! The victory in just one life  is immeasurable in its extent. Victory in your life today will be felt in the life of Christians in the islands of the sea. It will reverberate throughout the entire Church of Christ

A man who had been a Christian for twenty years was living in defeat. For seven years he had not been to his church. Over the radio he heard the announcement of a series of meetings to be held there. He was utterly miserable and under conviction, and the Spirit drew him to the meetings where he was brought into a marvelous personal victory. Was it his alone? No, indeed. Very shortly his wife and three children, his mother-in-law and aged father-in-law were saved. The Lord used him to bring one after another of his business associates to Christ and was laying upon him a great burden to carry the message of salvation and victory through Christ to the ends of the earth.

Are you convinced that personal defeat spells collective defeat, and that personal victory means collective victory? Then in which are you living: in defeat or in victory?

But we have not yet exhausted the scope of victory. God has not made this marvelous provision primarily for your sake or for the sake of others through you; but for the sake of His dear Son and for the glory of His name who, at such infinite cost, voluntarily  covered the black trail of sin with the red trail of His own precious blood, blazing the path to victory by way of the Cross. Your victory and mine is primarily for the Victor's sake. Through it God celebrates His victory over His enemies. Paul, who was one of the greatest enemies of Christ and the greatest opponent of His gospel, was now a captive by his own will, following in the train of His triumphal procession ( Corinthians 2:14). He was there as Christ's trophy, celebrating Christ's victory over satan, sin and self. Oh! What an incentive to live victoriously to know that every victory in one's life registers before a sinning, scoffing  world the victory of the Christ of Calvary!

Thirdly, the plan is to present victory, not as an experience in the Christian life which might be regarded as optional, but as the essence of the Christ life, and s something obligatory. It is to present victory, not as the specialty of the more spiritually minded of the Body of Christ, but as the very warp and woof of Christianity itself, so that one can scarcely merit the name of Christian - that name which stands for the great Overcomer (Phil. 2:9, 10) - who is living in continuous defeat. It is to present victory, not as an unattainable ideal but as a life based on the divine principle of obedience to and dependence upon God.

Lastly, the plan is to present the Lord Jesus Christ as the Victor, whose victory we share through our union with Him. In Him is both our provision and our pattern. In John 8 Jesus gave a second signpost on the pathway to victory. Truth merely as truth cannot set us free. Victory is not a creed, nor is it a special teaching, nor a pet doctrine of a few extremists and fanatics, nor is it a set of rules merely to guide one's conduct.

Victory is a Person. If you are in the Victor and the Victor is in you, then you have victory, and in no other way. Our Lord rang the liberty bell when He said:

John 8:36: "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 9 - "Defeat Through the First man in Eden")

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