We Have Overcome!

John writes in verses 4-5,

4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Everyone born of God overcomes the world. When Christ comes to live within us, His life lived out through your life and mine overcomes the world and all that Satan would seek to throw at us to lead us away from God. The strategies of Satan are as many as the sands on the seashore, but God can thwart them all through His victorious Son living through you and me.

John understood this fact so clearly and that is why he told his readers in chapter four,

4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4 NIV)

John was not an eternal optimist who always looked on the bright side of life because of some Pollyanna complex. He had heard Jesus, his Lord and Savior speak of things to come and the power He would give to His followers in John's Gospel. Jesus said,

33"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33 NIV)

You and I are in a battle every day. If you are not aware of the battle that rages against you by the Enemy of the people of God then that is ample evidence that you are losing ground. The battle is being waged and the troops are growing weary because they have not been told that the battle is won. It's not won by intellect, cunning, brute strength, or the power of the will - it is won because of the victory of the Son. My friend, whatever battle you are facing today you need to know that through Christ Jesus you are more than a conqueror! Charles Haddon Spurgeon once wrote,

Men usually swim with the stream like a dead fish; it is only the living fish that goes against it. It is only the Christian who despises customs, who does not care for conventionalisms, who only asks himself the question, "Is it right or is it wrong? If it is right, I will be singular. If there is not another man in this world who will do it, I will do it; should a universal hiss go up to heaven, I will do it still; should the very stories of earth fly up, arid stone me to death, I will do it still; though they bind me to the stake, yet I must do it; I will be singularly right; if the multitude will not follow me, I will go without them, I will be glad if they will all go and do right as well, but if not, I will despise their customs; I care not what others do; I shall not be weighed by other men; to my own Master I stand or fall. Thus I conquer and overcome the customs of the world." Fair world! she dresseth herself in ermine, she putteth on the robes of a judge, and she solemnly telleth you, "Man, you are wrong. Look at your fellows; see how they do. Behold my laws. For hundreds of years have not men done so? Who are you, to set yourself up against me?" And she pulls out her worm-eaten law-book, and turning over the musty pages, says, "See, here is an act passed in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and here is another law enacted in the days of Pharaoh. These must be right, because antiquity has enrolled them among her standard authorities. Do you mean to set yourself up and stand against the opinions of the multitude?" Yes, we do; we take the law-book of the world, and we burn it, as the Ephesians did their magic rolls; we take her deeds, and make them into waste paper; we rend her proclamation from the walls; we care not what others do; custom to us is a cobweb; we count it folly to be singular; but when to be singular is to be right, we count it the proudest wisdom; we overcome the world; we trample on her customs; we walk as a distinct people, a separate race, a chosen generation, a peculiar people. (C.H. Spurgeon, March 18, 1855)