Evidence of Victory

For the Christian, a belief in Christ and a dedication to his teaching is the most fulfilling possible life to be lived. It is through the sacrifice of Christ that we can claim victory over sin and death. And it is through the sacrifice of Christ that we are established in relationship with our Creator. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we can share in the triumph over evil in evident ways in our lives today. While God knows the beginning from the end and has a full perspective on what His victory truly looks like both in eternity and in our short life, we don’t have that perspective. We are, instead, left to discover what this victory looks like through the passage of time, day by day, event by event. Our consciousness is restricted by time and experience, and we have no way of knowing the future we will see, but we can learn to anticipate an expanded view of what living in victory looks like as we see evidences of it in our own life. In light of this idea, how do we learn to see the evidences of this victory in our life? What ways do we blind our self to viewing and feeling this victory? How do we learn to anticipate the promise of this victory even in times when it may seem like we just can’t win in the circumstances that are in front of us? How can we better encourage those around us to see this the same way? And finally, what role do we actually play in that victory?

So, if we are trying to grow in our ability to see the evidence of victory in our life, it begins with understanding exactly what that victory is. What is it to say that the victory is won? This takes us to a simple Scripture that explains so much.

Romans 8:31-32. What then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things.

This passage is at the center of what it means to live in light of Victory. For those of us who call themselves followers of Christ and claim Him as Savior and no one else, this passage is for us! The message is so simple; that the all-powerful, all knowing and all loving Creator of the universe has seen fit to have such regard for us within His will, as to sacrifice his only Son on our behalf, thus securing our place in eternity and graciously blessing our life now. If this is true for the Christian, then this victory should and will permeate our existence. If we have been spared from the just punishment for sin that we deserve, then we will come to see anything above punishment as undeserved blessing and evidence of victory. Again, what each of us deserves is the wrath of God. We have all sinned and are incapable of paying that debt. But through the sacrifice of Christ we are granted mercy for them. But the victory is so much more powerful than this; we are not only granted mercy for our sin, but we are showered with blessing above that. Every prized possession, every good day, every day I am healthy, fed, clothed, employed, a part of a family...are all evidences of this victory in our life. If we truly grasp the weight of the blessing God has unloaded on us, we will grow to see even the smallest provision in our life as evidence of victory and as immense blessing. Can we see a glass of clean water as evidence of victory? Can I see being able to sit in a chair as evidence of victory? Can I see a romantic evening with my girlfriend as evidence of victory, or a quiet dinner with family? If I were to list everything that could come to mind, that is all I would do for the rest of my life. But the message is this; fill your mind with understanding of the gospel of Christ to truly know the victory that is contained within it.

There are times however, when we are blinded to this victory aren’t we? It may be the case that we have not yet fully grasped the gospel, or are believing some lie about ourselves or about God. Sometimes it may be the sin within our own life that creates this gap in our mind. We can create our own blindness to the victory. I recently had a student confess a sin to me that he had been holding in secret for quite some time. After talking it through we agreed that it was something that should be brought out into the light and confessed to his father as well. This was an incredibly difficult thing for him to do and there was a lot of uncertainty about how his father would respond to this confession. Regardless of this, he went ahead and confessed it to his father. His father responded in a very calm and cool way, not in the explosion that this student was worried would happen. This student came to me the next day beaming. He said he felt like such a weight was lifted from his life, that he was closer to his Creator than he was before, and felt like he could do anything. Bringing his sin out into the light and trusting God to sort out the details of it, allowed him to free his mind of the guilt that was blinding him to the victory that was right in front of him. The truth is that his sin has already been accounted for in the grand plan of redemption, and now he was able to embrace that freedom in his own life as he released it from that weight and blindness. Holding our sin in dark and secret places short circuits our ability to rest in the victory that is already there. What he was celebrating was the fact that he could now see just a little more of the victory that already existed in his life. This situation showed him more of that, and made him eager to see more. See, it is not God who pulls away from us, or removes his blessing from our life, it is our own sin, our own misunderstanding and our own actions that provide that distance. The natural consequence for willfully living in a sinful way, is that we will refuse to access and therefore miss out on seeing this victory for our self. This is why it is so important for us to develop the discipline and skill to look in the mirror and be honest about what we see. If we see some sin in our life, drag it out in the open and let victory take it over. If we see some belief in our life that is contrary to gospel truth, fight it with that truth and it will be overcome because as we read above He will “graciously give us all things”. The thing that separates us from living in victory is our own quenching of the spirit in our own life.

Beyond this, there are many circumstances that are outside of our control. Sometimes we experience loss, pain, tragedy and hardship that are beyond any of our means to deal with. There will be times in life when it seems like God has taken a break from demonstrating this victory in our life, and has allowed the devil to take his course with us. As we read in the story of Job; Job was allowed to go through an extremely, completely miserable season in his life. From the outside, this seemed so unfair, so unjust and so impossible for a loving God to allow to happen, but He did. I have been through some seasons of loss and grief in my life as well, not as dramatic as Job by any means, but in the context of my life it may as well have been. The lie that creeps into one’s mind is that God has forgotten me. We think that God does not have a plan for me, that He has been beaten by my circumstance. We can come to resent Him for his apparent inaction and shake our fist claiming that it is unfair of Him to lay dormant. But there is one passage of scripture that is key for us to remember as we consider this. It is later in Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose

If this is true, it should change the way we endure hardship. We have to know that, again, the all-powerful, all knowing, totally loving God of the universe has not forgotten us, not forsaken us and not been blind to our hardship. Rather we must expand our perspective to know that this God can see the end from the beginning, that He is not surprised by our circumstance or blind to it. He does not ever scratch His head wondering what He will do, somehow blindsided by our problem. Rather, scripture will show us that, though our circumstance is current and crushing, God will remain faithful in His will to keep His promise. We can count on the fact that we will see the good that will come out of our current circumstance weather it is in our lifetime or weather we must wait until eternity to gain that perspective. The point is that we can know that our God is who He says, that He will do what He says, and that we can count on victory to be evident even through our current or prolonged sufferings. The hardest thing in the world to do is to begin to thank God in advance for the good that will be seen through our current circumstance.

This is the point when community becomes crucial. No one is expected to endure this life alone, grasp the fullness of the gospel alone, or truly live in victory alone. God will use our relationships with other believers to press His truth in. He will use parents, friends, significant others, teachers and mentors, children and others all to both expose and refine different areas in our own life. The relationships we have with other people act as mirrors for us to see yourself-better, but also act as sources of ideas, information and encouragement for us as well. No one is expected to simply sit alone in the dark and just magically understand everything they need to. God has gifted everyone differently and has placed us in community for this and many other reasons. When I am down, there are people I can lean on and look to help me both overcome this sin or false belief in my life, but for whom I can do the same for them at another time. Community is both an incredible evidence of victory in our life as well as a huge tool that God can use to show that same victory to us.

There is a phrase that one of my pastors uses routinely which i have adopted in some form as well. In the morning he will often greet you with the enthusiastic question; “are we winning?!”. And I have come to use it a bit differently. As I am struck here and there with more evidence and realisation of the victory in my life through the grace of Christ, I will often say “let’s keep winning!” But the win is not the kind of win that allows me to point at myself as being some kind of victor the way one would feel after scoring the final touchdown in a championship football game. This kind of winning is different.

The man in the picture below is named Dick Hoyt. In 1977 Rick, his son, asked his father if they could run in a race together. The trouble was that Rick was paralyzed and could not run. His father, determined to give his precious son his dream of being in a marathon, trained every day for it in a radical display of devotion. He would run while pushing his son’s empty wheelchair around with bags of cement in it, to train for the race. They ran that race, and then another and another and kept on running. As of 2017 the father and son team has participated in 1,130 endurance events including 72 marathons and seven Ironman triathlons. Rick cannot contribute to these events at all. He can’t walk, swim or ride, and it would seem that he only presents a burden to his father, dragging him down and limiting his potential to run faster and do better. Granted they have never won the events they enter but for Dick, he wins every single race, because he has the chance to show his beloved son how much he is worth to him. And he gladly shoulders the burden of his son’s weight because his son is worth the trouble to love. And Rick, though he has nothing to offer his dad, except his presence, feels like he has won every time they race. For Rick, It’s not the tangible victory of winning races he is seeking, but the victory of knowing the love of a father. And every single race that goes by makes the victory of a father’s love for his son that much more real to both of them. That’s winning. I feel so often like Rick. I am helpless to offer my Creator anything. I feel, so frequently, like I am just a burden to Him, dragging Him down, an inconvenience. But this Father pushes me into victory. I get to experience what it is to win, in spite of my shortcoming, and the win I have is found in the evidence of the unconditional love of a Father in heaven. And like Dick and Rick, every single “race” i am in with my heavenly Father reveals more of just how profound this victory is. Through the gospel of Christ, the answer is yes; we can keep winning.

Though compared to the immense work Christ has done in me I contribute nothing to the equation, the fact is that even Christ himself is clear that we have work to do. Though the victory is won, and our position secure in the grace and mercy of our Savior, He has set aside certain things in our life to be as works to us. In a way, our works in this life are a part of the mechanism for revealing the Victory that is won for it already. I have experienced this in my work in ministry thus far. I wake up early, stay up late, give so much of my time and energy to serving those around me and i do it gladly. I do this not to show the world my own Glory, but to display that of my creator. My work, brings me into the front row to be able to witness what God is doing in this world and in my life. Every time i see a student grow in their faith, or a child baptised, or a man confess a sin he has kept secret, i am not just seeing the fruits of my own labor, but i am discovering more and more about the love of our Father. It is not my work that is winning the race, it is Christ winning through what he has given me both the desire and the ability to do for Him.

In the end, it comes down to one simple statement; to be in Christ is to live in Victory. We win because He has won. We can take joy in discovering what that victory looks like for each of us as we charge through time, discover more about Him, ourselves, look in that mirror and lean on each other. To live in Christ is to live in Victory.