Read John 19:30

 

 

I played enough competitive sports in high school to know that victory is far more pleasant than defeat. Victory is sweet, and defeat is agonizingly distasteful. What is true in sports is also true in business, life, and love. But I have also lived long enough to know that some things are not always as they seem. We can easily snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and victory from the jaws of defeat.

 

Some say Jesus was doing battle for our souls on the cross. They see a cosmic war where His archenemy and ours, Lucifer, the fallen angel, thought he had won when he killed Jesus the Son of God. The devil did not realize until it was too late, that Jesus went to the cross willingly. From the beginning, the cross was part of God's victory plan (Genesis 3). What looked like a win for hell was actually a triumph for heaven.

 

When Jesus uttered the words "it is finished" from the cross, it was in every sense a victory cry, not the lament of a loser. Otherwise, He might have said, "I am finished." Instead, he said, "It is finished.” Matthew 27:50 indicates that Jesus spoke His last few words in a "loud voice," ending with a bang, not a whimper. 

 

"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? ... But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:55-56). This cry from the cross of Jesus makes me want to sing, “Oh, victory in Jesus!” Be encouraged that as a child of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a victor, not a victim. 

 

Reflect

 

In what area of your life do you need victory? What sin still enslaves you? List the reasons why the victory Jesus won for you on the cross might not be your present experience?

 

Pray

 

Father, thank you for the victory Jesus won for me on the cross. I ask you to help me live in the present reality of that victory over sin and the fear of death so that in Christ, I am a truly a victor and not a victim. Amen.

 

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“Every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”

Romans 8:28 MSG