Living Victoriously

2 weeks ago as I sat in the office of my lawyer, he showed me a photocopy of a handwritten letter from Abraham Lincoln that was written to my lawyer’s great-great uncle. The uncle happened to be the president of the University of Pennsylvania at that time. He was involved in writing a pamphlet on the furtherance of this country. Lincoln commended the man for the pamphlet and thanked him for his great insight into the betterment of this country. What a privilege it was to see the actual handwriting of one of our greatest presidents.

When he was in his thirties, Abraham Lincoln went through some dark days. Instead of the personal and professional success he had hoped for, he was facing financial struggles. According to some, he even broke off a romantic relationship because of those difficulties.

On January 23rd, 1841, Lincoln wrote this to a friend, “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell. I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better, it appears to me.” No doubt Lincoln would have said in 1841 that he had faced the hardest thing of his life, but within 20 years, he would confront the far more difficult days of leading a divided country at war.

We, too, can look back to hard days that we've experienced, but we don't know what lies ahead. How do we know what suffering is coming our way? We don't. But as we will see in John's writing and in Jesus's words, Jesus has already secured victory for us, no matter what we face. How privileged we are to have a Savior who has won the war for us. Prayer.

*****

Listen to this testimony of a young father. He says, “My wife has given birth twice, and I'd say witnessing a baby coming into the world might be the scariest thing I've ever seen. Both births were near death experiences for her. Both times, the tears of fear and pain turned into tears of joy. So, yes, witnessing a baby coming to the world might be the scariest thing I've ever seen, but it was also the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. The concern, terror, and pain were replaced with the joy of new life.”

Jesus painted a similar picture for His disciples in John 16. He had told them he was leaving, but they had every reason to be joyful because of the victory He had won. Let's look at what Jesus said.

John 16: 19-22 - Jesus knew that they wanted to question Him, and He said to them, “Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you are not going to see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’? 20 Truly, truly I say to you that you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy!

**********21 Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one is going to take your joy away from you.

Jesus had told His disciples on multiple occasions that He would face death in Jerusalem, but they didn't understand what it would entail or what it would accomplish. Jesus was clear on one thing. His death would be painful for them. His death would break their hearts. But with Jesus, resurrection follows crucifixion. Reunion follows separation. Joy follows sorrow.

And that is the Gospel. Jesus’ joy was taken from Him so that our joy never can be taken from us. He was taken from His followers so His followers couldn't be taken from Him. He did the painful work so that we could be born to new life and so that our sorrow could turn to joy. What a mighty God we serve!

There's no doubt that for all of us, the death of Jesus must be sad. Not only was His death an awful brutal injustice, but we are the ones to blame. The prophet Isaiah said it this way

Isaiah 53:5 – “But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed.”

For those who understand it, the cross represents sadness and pain. But thankfully, the cross was not the end of the story. The cross leads to new life. Look again what Jesus says.