Not Living In Defeat, But Living As An Overcomer

Feature 3 –December 2017 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Not Living In Defeat, But Living As An OVERCOMER

It is wonderful to see fish moving forward against the current of a stream. For this purpose, God equipped them with scales and fins, which He gave for our instruction in that He allowed His earthly people to eat only those fish (Lev. 11:9). Salmon, for example, not only swim against the current, but they also jump over obstacles to journey to their destination. God equips the believer in a similar fashion, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to rise above the surrounding corruption.

In addition to the battle against what is outside of us, there are two others:

The flesh versus the Holy Spirit in us, which is a subject in Galatians; andOur indwelling sin-nature versus the new nature we receive the moment we are born again, which is our present topic.

The new nature does not and cannot sin: “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God” (1 Jn. 3:9 NKJV ). “His seed” refers to what is born of God, which is always good and sinless. When the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, was rejected by His own people, we read that “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:12).

Here we touch a mystery. There is not one who is good, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), but individuals who believe in God receive by faith the One He has sent, apart from self-effort, succession, privileges or position. This implies God’s intervention, yet it does not exclude our own involvement: putting our trust in Him, believing in His Son and receiving Him. He enters into our lives the moment we believe and starts to grow in us. John the Baptist said of this, “He must increase, but I must1 decrease” (Jn. 3:30). All that is not of Him must go, and at the same time the Lord Jesus will become greater in our lives.

The Overcomer In Romans
God’s law is “holy” – as is each one of the Ten Commandments – “and just and good” as well as “spiritual” (Rom. 7:12-14). But how can something so good, given by God, cause us so much trouble? The answer is that the law functions as a mirror to show us what we should be and do.2 It cannot bring any change or give life; it only condemns what is not according to the Old Testament law.

That law provokes man’s indwelling sin-nature, as it were, to do its best to keep God’s commandments. The flesh says, “I will.” Yet God’s Word states in effect, “You can’t, despite your best efforts.” This process is something every believer has to go through in order to learn to trust God, for this nature will only leave a believer when he has “fallen asleep” or is “caught up together with” the saints at the rapture (1 Th. 4:13-17).

What the apostle Paul described in Romans 7 as to the conflict between the two natures is God’s instruction for us, it is not simply there to tell about Paul’s experiences. By following the apostle as he followed Christ (1 Cor. 11:1), we learn lessons from his struggles. Through them, Paul was taught to put his trust in the Lord Jesus who is in heaven, the One he had met on the road to Damascus.

The same Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit as our Guide and Helper. Through struggle we learn to judge ourselves and to put our confidence in Christ, not only as our Savior but also as our Leader. Despite the fact that He is now in heaven, He helps us through His Spirit.

Some Background
Romans systematically presents many doctrinal issues, but its main theme is God’s righteousness. Chapters 1-5 show God’s righteousness in:

• Exposing and condemning sin and every sinner, and
• Declaring “just” the repentant sinner who believes God, such as Abraham, the father of all believers. God has forgiven all the sinful acts of believers (4:7,25-5:1; consider 1 Jn. 1:9).

Beginning in the middle of Romans 5, we see that God dealt with the root of the matter, the sin-nature, and showed that it is beyond remedy. He forgives confessed sins on the basis of the sacrifice of His Son and because of our faith in Him. However, God does not forgive the sin-nature; He condemns it forever since nothing good can come from it. As long as we put our trust in ourselves when trying to please God we are working from the wrong base and under the wrong leader.

Romans 6 shows that we have been set free from the power of sin and death, having been bought by a new Master, our Lord Jesus Christ. This implies:

• An individual’s real exercise of faith, identifying with Christ as expressed in baptism;
• God’s work of love in our hearts that we would reckon ourselves dead to sin, thereby preventing the old master from having influence on us; and
• The Holy Spirit’s intervention as we yield ourselves and our members to give Him full control, so He can lead us.

We are no longer under the control of the flesh, self or the old master. Romans 7 provides more details and shows the flesh with its best intentions and efforts, even in the believer is completely helpless to “fix” things by himself or please God.

Romans 8 teaches how the Holy Spirit mobilizes fresh resources to lift us above defeat. He does this by engaging us with Christ and what He has accomplished in His death and resurrection. Thus, focusing on Him, our faith, will and hearts – our all – are drawn to Christ and filled with Him. Paul showed from his own example and the lessons he learned to look outside of self. Doing likewise leads us to confess our helplessness and cast ourselves on Him who gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20). We belong “to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God” (Rom. 7:4). It is a matter of relying on the Lord in glory – in learning, walking, following and obeying – and doing all in the strength given by the Holy Spirit.

The Overcomer
Instead of being overcome by self-pity, despair or a trick of the enemy, the Lord prepares us through difficulties to become overcomers. In place of “O wretched man that I am” (7:24), we can say victoriously, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (v.25).

I read the story of a man who fell overboard. His rescuer, hearing the drowning man’s cries of despair, waited until the victim was going under. Then he quickly saved the man. Why the wait? The rescuer waited because otherwise both would have perished. Similarly, as Romans 8 shows, the Lord waits until we have reached the point of total surrender to Him and to the Holy Spirit, and then He helps wonderfully. Remarkably, verse 28 links these experiences to God’s ways with us, sometimes in discipline and chastisement, which ultimately lead to the fulfillment of His counsel (vv.29-30). These verses summarize God’s dealings with us in the context of the love relationship between Him and us as He makes everything work together for good to those who love Him. He is in perfect control and leads according to His purpose, transforming us in the image of His Son that we may be like Him, conformed to Him.

Let’s return to the fish at the beginning of this little study. We understand now that it takes not only scales for protection and fins to move, but energy as well. There are two competing forms of energy. First the flesh tries to do God’s will but can’t, making many efforts but without any good results. Then the Holy Spirit in us, identifying with Christ in heaven and the new life in us, gives the strength to overcome. This second energy is what we need in order to be overcomers.

More About Overcomers
The Lord Jesus taught His disciples to be overcomers, and through the Epistles He teaches us today to live as such, although to be one is a struggle. The first time this concept is mentioned in the New Testament shows what this word means: “When a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils” (Lk. 11:22). The one who overcomes has control. The Lord Jesus used this word for Himself: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33). To be an overcomer we must put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, identifying with the great Overcomer. By looking up to Him, learning from Him, casting ourselves on Him, drawing from Him all that is needed while not expecting anything of self, the Holy Spirit can help.

We will be faced with all kinds of challenges as long as we are in this world. Paul summarized them as follows, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21). He also gave the remedy: “Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light” (13:12). Together with this last instruction, Paul wrote, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (v.14). This is an ongoing commitment and necessitates vigilance, self-judgment, confession of wrongs and casting ourselves on Him. It implies praying just as the father in Mark 9:24, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” In fact, the Lord desires to help us to be overcomers. “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37) suggests we can be super-overcomers through Him.

John’s writings give us much help to be overcomers.3 The other apostles had already disappeared from this scene when John wrote. In fact, he was left here for quite some time as the only one of them who survived (consider Jn. 21:22-25). What John wrote in his gospel in many settings and ways, and in the rest of his writings as commands and instructions, shows the need for us as believers to put our trust in the Lord in order to survive. Everything in this world system, under the god of this age and the ruler of this world, is designed to wipe out every testimony of the Lord, everything that represents Him and honors Him. In such a difficult context the Lord shows how powerful He is, by enabling His disciples who belong to Him to go on and survive, simply through their trust in Him. Even when they die they die as martyrs, which means they are victors. May we cast ourselves on our beloved Master, following and honoring Him until He comes!

END NOTES
1. “Must,” of absolute necessity, is used three times in John 3. First, “You must be born again” (v.7, literally “from above”). Next, “The Son of man must be lifted up” (v.14), which refers to His crucifixion, for without His sacrifice we would be lost forever. John the Baptist’s statement of the third “must” is based on the first and second, providing the only means of growth or progress. The need of constant self-judgment, removing what hinders growth, is implied, with ongoing commitment and devotion to Christ.
2. We are not under the law that was given to Israel. However, when we seek to do God’s will in our own strength we place ourselves in a similar way under law and fail. After we have learned the lessons referred to in this article we will find ourselves under the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2), able with His help to do God’s will. This parallels the teaching of Romans 8.
3. “Overcomer,” “overcome,” “conquer” and “victory” occur seven times in Paul’s writings (Rom. 3:4, 8:37, 12:21; 1 Cor. 15:54,55,57). In 1 John the verb form occurs six times (2:13-14, 4:4, 5:4-5) and the noun “victory,” from the same Greek root, occurs once (5:4) – together seven times in that epistle. In the Lord’s messages to the seven churches the same term is used seven times of victorious believers (Rev. 2:7,11,17,26, 3:5,12,21) and once of the Lord (3:21). In the rest of Revelation the term is used nine times altogether: of the Lord, the Lamb, the faithful and the enemy.

By Alfred Bouter