Living in Victory

Sometimes I get the feeling that we're all defeatists.

That's kind of ironic for pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps Americans.  But it's also inevitable for a generation that prioritizes a feelings-based model of self-identification.  Boiled down, life is a continuous series of divinely ordained pass-or-fail challenges, and in this current frame of mind, we don't so much miss the mark as fail to even show up.

Here's how the formula works: I feel, so I do, so I am.

I don't feel like going to class.  So I barely achieve.  I'm an average student. 

I don't feel like having that conversation.  So I never address that relational problem.  I'm a cloistered, independent soul who needs no one.

I hate my job and my co-workers.  So I hang out on Reddit during work hours.  I am a fun-loving slacker (and proud of it).

I feel strong romantic connection toward a member of the same sex.  So I pursue a relationship  with that person.  I'm homosexual.

I'm twenty-six, still live at my parents house, keep a retail job and play video games, and don't know what I want to do with my life.  So I wait for an undefined opportunity to come along.  I am.... ?

This is how feelings-based living works.  I allow my notions and emotions to dictate my behavior, first in the moment, then as a habit -- a practice which, in turn, supplies me my identity.  That's how we're defeatists: we allow what we feel to control us, and allow those decisions to create an identity for us.  It's not proactive living, it's self-victimization.  And the only person I can blame is myself.

I just want to state the reminder -- a reminder that I constantly I need myself -- that what we feel does not need to determine our behavior.  Peter's words on this point are so poignant, that "whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved" (2 Pet 2.19).  In other words, if the voice that I answer to is my own desire, then my desire is my master.  If the notion seizes me to do something and I obey it, then that notion is my ultimate authority.  Even if I have my doubts, I must obey that imposition.  That thing becomes my master.

And ultimately, we all have a master.  We all subject ourselves to something.

As David Powlison puts it, "Human life is exhaustively God-relational."  In other words, all of our behavior stems from what we worship.  Even an atheist practices a form of worship -- devotion to what he/she perceives to be the inherint functionality of the evolutionary system, the laws of science, and the evolution of human reason.  Worship is inevitable for human beings.  If you perceive yourself as your own authority, then you worship your own logic, the relationships that give your life meaning, the desires that compel your decisions.  These masters are cruel, dictatorial, and unforgiving.  If, on the other hand, you are a follower of God, then Jesus Christ is your master -- but He's also your benevolent Friend, your joint-heir, and He is always leading you in victory over the things that formerly enslaved you.

Being enslaved to my own inner turmoil of doubts, fears, and wants is being a defeatist.  That lifestyle comes with a deluge of obscenities and regrets that, though I might pretend otherwise, I desperately want to escape.

On the other hand, being freed from those desires to voluntarily and wholeheartedly serve a gracious and merciful Savior is to be victorious.

This year, I want to live with that constant mindset.

Paul captures this idea by way of the following imagery:

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing... (2 Cor 2.14-15)

I grew up in South Jersey going to the Pitman parade every year for Independence Day.  Compared to something like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, the Pitman 4th of July celebration is pretty dinky.  Admittedly, there's only so many times you can watch firetrucks creep past blaring their horns and "God Bless America" before the novelty wears off (or before the township tells them they can't play that kind of music anymore).

The Christian walk isn't a dinky Pitman 4th of July parade.

The Christian walk isn't even a gigantic Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

The Christian walk is a march, a massive triumphal procession with glorious fanfare and angelic escort and soaring morale and the warm, rousing harmony of unanimous victory hymns -- all with Jesus Christ leading the way.  Once, He was the humble Lamb who died in our place; now, He is the conquering King who has returned to claim what He rightfully deserves!

We realize that this vivid scene has not yet literally occurred, but Paul speaks of it in the present tense -- as if the celebration has already started.  One day, it will be brought to this kind of literal completion.  But the total victory I will taste then is still mine now, in foretaste, through Jesus.

If Christ leads me in victory now, then that means I can overcome the sin that still besets me.  Jesus gives me the power to overcome -- His power.  That means I am free from my sinful desires, no matter how strong they might appear.  Through Christ, I have total mastery over them (Rom 6.14).

For the believer, sin is a choice, not a compulsion.  Sin isn’t something I “can’t help,” but something that I wrongfully choose to pursue instead of Christ.  It's a tooth-and-nail struggle with the flesh that requires constant vigilance, certainly, but it's a battle I can win should I choose to rely on Christ's strength rather than roll over and succumb.  Whether your struggle is laziness, gossip, pornography, same-sex attraction, self-pity, or any other item in a seemingly endless list of flaws, Christ through the Holy Spirit enables us to overcome them.

Victory might take time -- time spent unraveling my own motivations and tracing my patterns of behavior back to their source and ultimately reaffirming the truths of God's righteous character in my heart -- but it is not elusive.

It is not just out of reach.

What makes it feel far away is the emphasis and focus we place upon sin itself.  Is it a big deal?  Sure.  Is it compelling and desirable?  Unquestionably.  Will we ever be fully free from its influence?  Not this side of heaven, no.  However, we do need to replace it daily -- hourly -- with a deepening love of and adoration for the person of Jesus Christ.  I can't just shut down a negative desire: I have to replace it with a positive one.

The Puritan preacher Thomas Watson is accredited with saying, “Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.”  I believe strongly that his equation was backwards.  Christ must first be sweet in order for sin to be bitter.  In other words, my sin isn't going to be abhorrent to me until what I value more is my Savior's holy character, coupled with His love and mercy.  Sin doesn't become bitter on its own -- not unless I replace it with something else.  I will always want sin until I replace that desire with an ever-deepening love for something of eternal substance.

As a child of God, I have the opportunity and the responsibility to pursue righteousness.  That's a Kingdom-oriented attitude -- a focus on His Kingdom, not mine.  This means living for eternity: magnifying my Savior and minimizing the allures of this fragile, temporary existence.

That's living in victory.  That's leaving behind a lifestyle of defeat.

Praise be to the only One who makes this possible!