Victory in Jesus
The word “victory” is not a prominent biblical word. It is only found six times in the New Testament. Of those six times, three are in 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 where Paul quotes Isaiah 25:8: “He will swallow up death forever” but Paul changes it to: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Then he quotes Hosea 13:14: “O Death, where are your plagues?” But, again, Paul changes it to: “O death, where is your victory?”
Death’s sting is sin, Paul writes, and sin’s power is in the Law as it condemned men to death due to their sin. But, he writes in verse 57: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But the passage I want us to consider this afternoon, drawing on the thoughts from this song, is found in 1 John 5:4: “everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” Our faith. Our conviction. Our confidence that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died for our sins, that He rose again on the third day, and that He ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father and that He continues to reign this very day, and that He is coming again to take us home.
Victory. John gives two reasons why he wrote that letter. First, he says he wrote it: “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (2:1). How can we be victorious over sin?
John gives four things we need to do to be victorious over sin, victorious in Jesus Christ. First, we must renounce sin (1:8-2:2): “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (vss 8-9).
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Second, we need to be obedient to Jesus Christ (2:3-11): “by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (vss 3-6).
Third, we must reject worldliness (2:12-17): “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (vss 12-17).
Finally, we must keep the faith (2:18-29): “I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.”
That’s how we have victory in Jesus: renounce sin. Be obedient to Jesus. Reject worldliness. Keep the faith. Then, we have the second reason John wrote that letter: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13).
–Paul Holland
