We’ve Overcome the World!
We’ve Overcome the World!
5/26 Reading Portions: Numbers 35; Psalm 79; Isaiah 27; 1 John 5
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
5/26 Reading Portions: Numbers 35; Psalm 79; Isaiah 27; 1 John 5
Listen to the audio devotional above, and/or read the written devotional below.
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. 1 John 5:4
GRACE
Faith is the gift of God (Eph 2:8-9) because Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of faith (Heb 12:2). Our victory over the unbelieving world is all of grace. This is incredibly wonderful, good news! It is liberating because we don’t have to get bound up by works we’ve accomplished or failed; and thus, it helps remove anxiety. It is Christ-exalting because He has given us the faith whereby we believe.
“How can this be?”
…someone has asked me a few years ago.
My answer: if the unbelieving world is overcome by our righteous deeds, then we’d have something to be concerned with since there are corruptions still remaining in our mortal flesh. Works are a problem, because one day we may overcome the world and another day could be different (and often is). True biblical, saving faith, to believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, confounds the world. It overcomes because true faith, faith given by God through Jesus Christ, is as stable, eternal, and unchanging as Christ Himself (Heb 13:8). The unbelieving world cannot change it. Certainly, doubts may arise in the very best of us (1 Tim 2:8) because of the corruptions of flesh which still remain. Surely, saints can backslide like Simon Peter (Gal 2:11-14). Nevertheless, faith itself, a gift God will never revoke or repossess (Rom 11:29), endures victoriously because it is fueled and powered by Christ. Can the world overcome Jesus Christ? Of course not! He has overcome the world (John 16:33).
Therefore, the world can press against you, trouble you, beat you down, and even take your temporal life; yet your soul will never be condemned by it (Rom 8:33-34) or conquered in it (Rom 8:37). Hallelujah! What a Savior!
And everyone who’s born of God
Has overcome the world:
Faith’s victors on this mortal sod—
On Christ our praise is hurl’d.