What is the Victorious life?
The follow post is an excerpt from a sermon preached on 1 John 5:4-13. You can listen to the sermon here.
1 John 5:4-5
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
When we think of overcoming the world, we think of a life where the victory is apparent for all to see. If we’re honest, we find ourselves asking: Lord, I have faith, but where’s my victory? And this is why the prosperity gospel is so tempting. It says we’ll have victory right here and now if we just have enough faith.
The problem is that the prosperity gospel defines victory down. The prosperity gospel is a worldly gospel. It’s all about what we can see here and now, about easy relationships and wealth. It’s a self-centered message that leads us to treat God like a means to an end. Prosperity gospel preachers love to promise the victorious life, but they’ve missed the victory. But there are ways that Christians can and should talk about living the victorious life, the life of faith. This victorious life is not a victory we achieve by our own efforts, but Christ’s victory in us.
Trust that God is working (even when we don’t understand)
Christians live the victorious life by remembering we are God’s children, even when the world jeers at us. Do you remember who the crowds jeered at Christ when he hung on the cross? “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” We overcome the world by clinging to Christ’s victory, trusting that we are in the world just as he is. Even when we suffer, we are God’s children. The Scriptures would tell us that suffering is a special sign that we belong to God, because the Lord disciplines those he loves. We live the victorious life by faith that God is working, even when we don’t understand it.
Fight sin
We live the victorious life by fighting sin. We remember that we are no longer dead in our sins and slaves to sin. Christ has freed us in order to fight sin. Sin is powerful and it remains with us, but it is not our master. This means repenting of your sin. Be honest about it to God and to others in order to kill your sin and in order to magnify the grace of God. Few things demonstrate that sin has lost it’s grip on you like confessing your sins and resting in the grace of Christ’s forgiveness. By faith, we repent of our sin.
Obey God
Another way we live the victorious life is by obeying God. If we’re tempted to think that trying to grow in holiness is pointless, we’re believing a lie, we’re following back into worldliness. Remember how John keeps calling us to this supernatural love in this letter? He says we should love others by loving God and obeying him. And this requires faith. Faith and love may lead us into challenging unknown places, like Abraham being led to the promised land. We may love others and be rejected or persecuted. We live the victorious life by following God in obedience, trusting that his way is better than our own way or the world’s ways.
Share the Gospel
Christians live the victorious life by telling the gospel to others. In God’s wisdom, he decided that he will use his children to speak his word to the world. Since we know that those around us will die if they remain in sin, we tell them about how God has provided salvation in Jesus.