Victors in Christ

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory though our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not vain." - 1 Corinthians 15:55-58
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character: and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:1-8


Have you ever felt defeated in your faith? You became a christian and you were so on fire and passionate about God and wanting to learn more about him by reading his word, then all the sudden you get too busy to read your Bible and you forget to pray and you feel yourself slipping away. Soon a mission trip or conference or great worship night comes up and you attend that and the passion comes back and you're so on fire again, but soon the busyness and forgetfulness returns. It's like this never ending pattern of "ugh".

You know, before we knew Christ, we were slaves to sin. Destined for an eternity separated from God in hell. But as soon as we accepted Christ into our lives, the chains of sin and death and separation from God were broken and we now have victory over sin and death through Christ's death on the cross! How totally amazing is that?

So you realize this, you repent and you feel bad because God is so great and you're... well, so not. Instead of feeling renewed and refreshed you feel even worse because the fact is you're a terrible sinner who constantly screws-up and that's all you can think about right now.

You then proceed to attempt to "fix" things, thinking that will somehow make amends for your terrible human/sin nature. You've come up with a few things that you "KNOW" will make God happy and in turn will make you feel better. Like; reading your Bible 20 times a day, praying before every meal, snack and drink you have, volunteering at a homeless shelter ON a Saturday morning, and watching the kids in the nursery during 1st service, listening to the sermon during 2nd service and working the info desk during 3rd service.

Shortly after you have accomplished this, you begin to realize that it didn't really make you feel any better, you still sin throughout the day and you still feel defeated.
But God tells us in his Word that we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness. And that we are not defeated, but victorious in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Bible tells us to stand firm and do all things unto the Lord to give him glory, honor and praise.
And above all else God tells us about his love.

Why is it so darn easy to focus on the negative? And forget about God's amazing love for us? Sure, we are sinners who deserve hell. Sure, we screw up multiple times and yes God is perfect and totally amazing, but shouldn't that make us all the more excited and filled with great love for our God, the God who first loved us and showed his incredible love through his son dying on a cross for us?
We need not feel defeated in our faith because of our sin. We should instead feel victorious in our faith knowing that the battle of sin and death is already won by Jesus!

We repent our sins, turn from them and we rejoice that we have a Heavenly Father who casts our sin as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more!
I can still remember when I was younger, my old pastor physically showing me how far the east is from the west. I had heard that term many times, but never actually knew what it meant (geography has never been my thing =P), he took a globe of the earth and told me to start at America and go to the right, east. He said keep going and tell me when you get to the west. So I spun the globe to the right and realized I kept going east, once you started going east, unless you turned the other direction, you couldn't possibly go west. Then, just to prove his point even further, he told me to start at the top of the globe and go down, south, until I reached north. So I did, and sure enough after going south for a while, my finger that was tracing the globe ended up going north. I was fascinated by the fact that north and south somehow touched, but east and west couldn't. It was then that I discovered the true meaning of that verse I had heard so often in church.

Victory in Christ.
Victors in Christ.
Children of God.
Think about it.

Photo credit given to Annemarie Jaquith.*