March 12

Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 15:57.

VICTORY supposes warfare. Various are the metaphorical characters under which Christians are held forth in the Scriptures of truth. Sometimes they are labourers in God’s vineyard, sometimes they are travellers, sometimes they are merchants, sometimes they are racers, sometimes wrestlers; very frequently they are soldiers, good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and they fight not as one that beateth the air. The combat in which they are engaged is not an imaginary one, but a real, and a strenuous one too; but they have this incomparable advantage,-they war a good warfare, and in it “no weapon that is formed against them shall prosper, and every tongue that riseth up against them they shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.”

Victory, we have said, supposes warfare, and so warfare supposes enemies. The enemies of the Christian are sin, the world, Satan, death, and the grave. Let us notice the acquisition. How is this victory obtained? In other cases winning a victory is gaining a victory; but here observe: First, It is given:-“Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is true we gain it, but he giveth it. It is true we fight, but it is equally true that he “causeth us to triumph.”

He not only furnishes the crown, but he also gives us the capacity by which we acquire it: therefore, Secondly, It is dispensed through the mediation of the Lord Jesus. From the beginning to the end of our salvation, the propriety, the expediency, the necessity of Jesus as a mediator is not for one moment left out. Is God well pleased with us? “In him,” says God, “I am well pleased.” Have we “exceeding great and precious promises”? They are all “yea and amen in Christ Jesus.” Are we redeemed? “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Are we heirs? “In him,” says the apostle, “we have obtained the inheritance.” Are we blessed? In him we are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.” In him “it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell.” Thus we see that light is around us, but not a beam is transmitted through any other medium. All is goodness around us, but there is not a blessing that comes to us through any other channel. He is ALL, and in ALL.

Not only is this victory; a divine donation, and dispensed through the mediation of the Son of God; but, Thirdly, It is gradually exemplified and accomplished. It is not said that he will give us the victory, though this is true, for that is already promised, but he giveth us the victory; and this is true, because it is gradually conferred and experienced. It is not the effect of an hour or a year. This victory is not achieved at once; it is carried on through the whole course of a believer’s life, and is perfected in death, or rather in the resurrection of the dead. The apostle tells us that the good work is begun in us in the day of conviction; but he says, it is not performed “until the day of Jesus Christ.” Already the Christian has many a time overcome, and he says, as David said, when he thinks of the victories, he has obtained, “By thee I have run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped over a wall.” And this encourages believers, with regard to the future, to say, “Through God we shall do valiantly, for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.”

This victory, therefore, is both present and future: the future is the complete accomplishment; the present is the earnest in its gradual and partial accomplishment even now.