Gaining the Victorious Life
As much as I tried to focus on doing a Father’s Day message, the Holy Spirit kept bringing me to this passage for our message this morning. So, I hope you’ll indulge me as I spend time talking about our heavenly Father more than I talk about us dads today?
It is unfortunate that many believers live their life muddling through, waiting patiently for the coming of the Lord, or their graduation to heaven beyond death’s threshold. The reason I say it is unfortunate is because I believe God would have us to experience a victorious life in Christ even now.
Heaven will be a sight to behold for sure. As we cast our eyes for the first time on the streets of gold and the pearly gates, we will be awe struck by its beauty. The Bible says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Yes, Beulah Land will be a wonderful place to experience someday. But, we don’t have to wait till then to experience victorious living. We can experience it now. Look with me at just two verses in Philippians chapter 1. Paul is writing this prison epistle to this warm hearted church to encourage and thank them for their generosity, prayer and faithfulness. As he greets them and speaks of his current condition we hear him say beginning in verse 20:
20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Paul writes from a perspective many of us have never, and will never experience. He is in prison for his faith in Christ. He knows his ultimate fate at the hands of Caesar, but at the time of writing he is unsure when it will happen. He has hopes that he will be delivered from prison and that in fact he might visit once again with the church at Philippi. His overriding hope is that whether in life or death that Christ would be exalted. I want us to look at the few words he writes in verse 21.
First, he writes, “For to me, to live is Christ.” What does that mean to you? For me I see someone that has surrendered. He has surrendered all that he was for what he could be.
Paul was a well educated Jew having studied under the great scholar Gamaliel. He was well known for his understanding of the law and his devotion to it earning a reputation of being a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was so well respected by the Jewish leaders of his time that he was given warrants to arrest and imprison any Christians he could find. From the outside looking in, Paul had it made. He was living the good life. Yet, something happened that would change his life for all eternity. On the road to Damascus, Paul encountered the Lord Jesus Christ. When you have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ it changes your life!
This same man that went about putting Christians in prison now finds himself in prison. Strangely, he doesn’t count this as something that is to be ashamed of or discouraged about. He sees it all as God’s plan to work through him for Christ’s sake. And so he writes in verse 21, “to live is Christ.”
Paul feels an obligation to live by faith, a life that exemplifies a victorious spirit. I wonder if we understand that concept of living. What does it mean “to live Christ?”
It means that we die to ourselves and dedicate our lives to living for Christ (Romans 12:1). Folks, that’s more than just sitting in a pew on Sunday morning. That’s more than putting your name on a membership book. That’s more than placing an offering in the plate on Sunday. It means that we give up our selfish attitude and put on a selfless attitude that lets Christ shine through us. I can’t put it better than Paul did in Galatians chapter 2.
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Jesus gave his life to redeem us from an eternity in hell. When we put on Christ, we are dying to self and living in Christ.
It means that we live a life that demonstrates the love of God for our neighbor. 1 John 4:16 says:
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
We can’t say we love God when we don’t love our neighbor. If we are to live Christ, we must demonstrate a love that was willing to go to the cross for those that hated Him. If we are to live Christ, we are to demonstrate a love that was willing to say, “Father, forgive them they know not what they do.” We are to demonstrate a love that was willing to look on the penitent thief and say, “This day you will be with me in paradise.”
That’s a love with which we may not be familiar. Yet it is the love we must have if we are live Christ and the victorious life.
When Paul said “to live is Christ”, I believe he was referring to living a godly life, a life that testifies of God’s grace when it isn’t popular to do so. Our faith is lived loudest when we trust God in the difficult times, in the tempting times, in the persecuted times. Peter exhorts us to live such a life when he said:
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.
We do not have to wait until we get to heaven to live the victorious life. Some people think that the victory for us comes when we get to heaven. That is wrong. The victory came for us when Jesus rose on the third day, overcoming death, hell and the grave!
Our faith in Christ gives us the victory in life now and forever more!
On every hand the foe we find
Drawn up in dread array.
Let tents of ease be left behind,
And onward to the fray.
Salvation’s helmet on each head,
With truth all girt about,
The earth shall tremble ’neath our tread,
And echo with our shout.
Faith is the victory! Faith is the victory!
O glorious victory, that overcomes the world.
(John H. Yates & Ira D. Sankey)
Your eternity started the moment you were conceived. You are living it now. When Christ became your Lord you began living it in Him. That’s why Paul said, “to live is Christ.”
Not let’s look at the second part of that verse, “to die is gain.” To the world that phrase sounds fatalistic. Why would someone be looking forward to death? The world cannot appreciate the Christians hope of heaven. To the world it is a flight of fancy, a myth and fable for the foolish. I’ve said it before, this earth is the only heaven the sinner will ever see and the only hell the Christian will ever see. Paul found a comfort in knowing that he would one day be with the Lord. For him, it was a plus to die because he would be with the Lord face to face. Paul had a special understanding of what it meant to die in Christ. Part of this may have come as he witnessed the special peace that was on the face of Stephen when he was stoned to death for his faith in Christ. Nevertheless, Paul had a special grasp on understanding the two worlds the Christian lives in. Bear with me as I read to you what he wrote to the church at Corinth. As I read 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10, listen as Paul describes how glorious the reward is for those that gained the victorious life:
4:16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 5
1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7We live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Dying isn’t hard. Dying is hard on the living left behind. For the believer, death is not an end to living, but a transformation from mortal to immortal. As I just read, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. There is a great resurrection day coming for all the saints of God when our body and soul are joined together, incorruptible and eternal to dwell with the Lord in the New Heaven and New Earth.
1 Thess. 4:13Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.
And so we see that even in dying we gain the victorious life. Paul knew he was a winner either way. We have gained the victorious life if we have died to sin and been made alive through Christ.
If you’re here this morning and you’ve never experienced new life in Christ, I want you to pay particular attention to what I’m saying today. If you die without Christ it is not gain, but loss. To the world, it may appear you have it made, but deep down inside nothing the world has given you has brought you satisfaction. There is an emptiness inside that things cannot fill up. You certainly don’t feel like you’re living a winning life. You could be living the victorious life right now. There is no need to wait till death’s door to make that decision; you can make it this morning – on Father’s Day. It will be the best Father’s Day gift you could give to your heavenly Father. Listen to what John said in Revelations 20:
12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
The grave is not the end my friend. There is an eternity ahead of you. It is your choice on how you spend it. God made a way for you to escape that horrible end. He lovingly gave His Son to die for your sin and for mine. By simply putting your trust in that sacrifice you can be saved today. Why not surrender and enjoy the victory Christ has prepared for you?
Fellow Christian, perhaps you’ve not been experiencing the Victorious Life God wants for you because you’ve not been living Christ in your daily walk. God is calling us to live a Victorious Life. In order to do that you may need to repent of the self-centered life you’re living and surrender it to Christ. Christ said He came that our joy may be full and overflowing. Is that how you’re living today?
I want to pray for those that are lost this morning and for those Christians that want to experience victory in Jesus. And as I pray, if you feel the need to pray, just repeat with sincerity the words I say and by faith walk in the victorious life.
Bow your heads and heart with me. If God has spoken to you this morning, pray with me as God speaks to you.
Dear Jesus, I have not lived the victorious life you want for me. I know you died that I might have life and have it abundantly. Forgive me of my sin. I want to live for You. Take away my selfishness and help me to love God and my neighbor more than myself. I thank you for your love and forgiveness. In Christ’s name I believe it. Amen.
