J. J.
May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable in Thy sight,
O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
“Victory in Jesus”
V is for Victory. Victory is the focus, the goal, of every athlete and every warrior. Soon our high school boys, the (name of local team) will be on the practice field. They will be practicing their sport because they are seeking victory. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines drill, and train, and drill some more. They seek victory in their mission. For them victory, or the lack of it, can have life and death consequences. So too for us. Victory in the Christian life can have life and death consequences. It is in our best interest to reflect briefly on our “Victory in Jesus.”
In this reading, Chapter 8 of Romans, St Paul tells us about the victory we have in Christ Jesus about that victory that we may know it and live in it, more fully and more deeply. Today we will look at three aspects or qualities about the victory we have received in and from our Lord.
First, we see that the victory we have in Christ is a completed victory. Paul writes, "those He called, He justified, and those He justified, He glorified." Notice the word is He glorified, past tense. Not He will glorify, future tense. What does that mean? It means that God’s redemption of us and our victory in Jesus is not something to come. We do not have to wait for our daily walk of faith to improve to be gloried. Nor do we have to wait until this life is ended, as if we are only glorified when we “enter into glory” as it is sometimes called. No, it is a victory now. It is a completed victory. As baptized and redeemed sons and daughter of God, living under Christ in His kingdom, you are already victorious. You have victory in Jesus.
Let’s look again at Paul’s words. He writes that God foreknew, (past tense), that He predestined, (past tense), He called, (past tense), He justified (past tense), and He glorified (past tense). All of these are past tense. They are all completed actions. You were and are called by the Holy Spirit. How do you know? You were and are baptized into Christ. For we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. (Sm Catechism, Third Article) Yet, You believe. Why? The Holy Spirit has called you. You are called and you are justified. It is a completed victory. You need not work your way up a ladder to justification. Christ cried out from the cross, “It is finished.” You are fully and completely justified in Him. Your calling, your justification, and your glorification are simultaneous. They occurred together at the same time. You were justified in baptism, and in that baptism you entered in glory – the glory of victorious life in Christ.
Let’s look at the text again. It does not say, those He called He will then justified, and those He justified He will later finally glorify. It is not a case of first this, then that. All are past tense. Your victory in Christ is a completed victory.
Well then, if this is all past tense, all completed, why do I see sin in my life? Why do I not feel glorified? Because you and I live in time in this world. God is eternal. His Word is eternal and His promise is sure. Look at a flower. See how the flower grows, and then it buds, and then it blooms. You and I don’t see the beauty, the glory of the flower, until it is fully blossomed. But we also know that the glory of that flower was fully there in that unopened flower bud. It only needed to grow and unfold. In fact, the glory of that flower was fully complete, fully there, in the flower seed. We could not see that glory when it was only a seed. It surely didn’t look glorious. But the glory that God created in and through that flower, was already complete and done, before it was even planted. That seed was predestined to be a flower.
I do not always act as one already glorified by God. But you and I live in that victory of glory in Christ. It is a completed glory, one that continues unfolding day by day as we live in the love of Christ.
Our victory in Jesus in not only a completed victory, it is a confronting victory. Life is full of confrontations. Paul tells us that we will have confrontations. His question, “Who can bring a charge against God’s elect” does not mean there will be no confrontation, no charge. For the adversary confrontation us daily, trying to charge us with our sins. He seeks to condemn and destroy us. But we live in Christ, and in Him we have a confronting victory. Paul’s questions, “Who can charge?” and “Who can condemn?” are not seeking information. Paul knows who the condemner is, the old evil foe. Nor is Paul saying there will be no charge or condemnation hurled by that foe, our flesh, or the world against us. Paul is saying that those charges and condemnation are a nothing. For God has justified. No charge or condemnation by the enemy or by the world, or by our own flesh can overcome God’s justification. We are justified by the death of Christ. “Wait,” Paul writes, there is more. Lest any false prophet claim that he died for us – for any man can die – we are justified by the Christ who died, and who rose again, and is at the right hand of the Father. The Creed that we confess is not made up words. It is Scripture in condensed form. It is from this text and others that we say, “He is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
Our Christ is not a dead Christ of the past. He is a Living Christ of the now. Christ is not a paper Christ of an ancient book, but the One who lives and reigns. He confronts the charges and condemnations which assail us. Our victory in Jesus in not a paper victory. Our victory in Him is a confronting victory.
Our victory in Jesus is a complete victory, and it is a confronting victory. It is also a conquering victory. A victory that does not conquer is not much of a victory. The World Series is a best-of-seven championship. A team can win a game in the series. They may even win three. But those three victories over their opponent will be hollow and empty if they do not win the essential fourth game. It is only there that the championship is won. Only then do they conquer, and win the trophy.
Christ’s victory for us is a conquering victory. It is not hollow or empty. Paul says we are even more than conquerors. Well, why then does life beat us down? Life does not feel very conqueror like.
The “more than conquers” phrase is quoted often, printed on greetings cards and coffee mugs. And it is true. But we should see it, read it, and understand it in its context. For Paul writes, “we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” Hardly the role a conqueror. It is in the midst of “all these things,” he writes, that we are more than conquerors. All what things? “Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword.”
So Paul reminds us that our victory does not mean the absence of difficulty, cruelty, worry, pain, or strife. It is not us, but Christ who is the conqueror. We are not the conquerors, but the more-than-conquerors. A conqueror must fight to win the victory. We are better off than a conqueror, more than a conqueror. For by His grace, Christ has fought and won the victory for us, and given it to us. The song is not “We are the Champions” but “He is the Champion.” We enjoy the victory, the battle is the Lord’s.
And it is not an empty victory. The poem about the horseshoe nail shows the difference between the battle and the war:
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the war was lost.
For the want of a war, the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
We live out our lives on the battlefield of light and darkness, of good and evil. The battle rages on around us, but we have victory because the war is already won. We are secure in His kingdom.
Christ has won victory for us -- over sin, over death, and over the power of the devil. He has triumphed over all:
neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In Him, we have victory, a victory that is completed, confronting, and conquering. And so it is, Church, that we have
Victory in Jesus, our Savior forever. He sought us and bought us
With His redeeming blood; He loved us before we knew Him,
And all our love is due Him, He plunged us ‘neath the cleansing flood,
And gave us the victory.*
Amen.
S. D. G.
* "Victory in Jesus", Eugene Bartlett, Sr., altered.
