More Than Conquerors

Robby Knuck wrote an excellent article in 1980 describing how we are victorious by the Victorious One:

"Have you ever experienced victory over a problem in your life, only to later lose that victory?

"Did you ever praise the Lord for freeing you from this or that wretched sin, and then find yourself right back in it? Have you puzzled over why deliverance appears to come for a time, only to end in a lapse back into old ways?

"Most of us have wrestled with this enigma. We generally speak of failure being swallowed up in victory. But the fact is, sometimes God has a vital lesson to teach through victory being engulfed in failure! There are insights that can only be gained through the school of hard-knocks. Because of this, God is willing to let us take blind alleys as an investment in 'the perfection of the saints.'

No Corner on the Market

". . . The ability to overcome is not unique to believers. We have no corner on the market of victory over problems. A believer may proclaim that he is free, free, free, but the Proverb rightly says that much vocalizing is a roadway for transgression. In our pride, we are quick to deal out harsh judgment on others who cross our path with the same problem, whether it be smoking, drunkenness, or a problem of a sexual nature. Because we are walking in the power of our own deliverance, our attitude is 'I did it, so why can't you?' And we have done nothing more than the politician, author, or painter--in fact, chances are we overcame a lot less.

"So God has to show us that we really can't do it. You can't, I can't, no one can. Sooner or later the path of self-deliverance will run its course. The victory of self-discipline will be swallowed up in failure. And then we will see that self improvement is not what God intends for our lives.

"God certainly wants us to be overcomers. We are His heirs, joint-heirs with Christ of all that He owns. It is only to the overcomers that the crown of rulership can be given. If a man can't rule himself, he certainly can't be turned loose on God's universe.

"But how are we to overcome? Surprisingly, not by trying harder, exercising self-discipline, or exerting willpower. Though this is how most of us set out, and though there may be victory for a time, this kind of overcoming is a long way short of what God has in mind for us.

"The Colossians began to fall into the trap of trying to be overcomers. Listen to what Paul told them:

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as 'Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!' (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using)--in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. (Col. 2:20-23).

"The world's way of overcoming is through self-help techniques. Library shelves are loaded with 'how to' books. People want to know how to 'change' themselves, how to improve the image. And a lot of believers have fallen into the same routine.

"There is a popular concept among God's people which says that Christ has certain things to dispense among us so that we can be better people. If we lack peace, we plead with Christ to make us more peaceful. If we need love for an individual, we ask the Lord to help us to love. In a sense, Christ is viewed as a sort of apple pie, with so many pieces marked this and that. One piece is marked 'peace,' another 'patience.' To be delivered from a problem, such as lack of patience, we want God to give us a piece of the pie labelled 'patience.' Then we can be patient.

"Instead of receiving 'seven keys to patience' from the self-help experts, we seek our self-improvement from Christ. He has simply taken the place of the psychologist. But it is the same worldly system of overcoming that Paul told the [Colossians is of no value].

A Replaced Life

"The sum total of our life in Christ is in the Person of Christ. Anything outside of Him is completely foreign to this life, and of no use to us even though it may have an appearance of value. There is nothing we can possibly need aside from Christ.

"What is the answer to our problems? It is to recognize that in Christ Jesus we have been crucified; the independent 'I' is dead and buried (Gal.2:20). Only as we recognize this fact can we know true deliverance. So too our resurrection life is Christ: 'I am the resurrection and the life.' And instead of living by a set of concepts or principles which we espouse as truth, truth for us is no longer doctrine but knowing and experiencing the life of a Person: 'I am . . . the truth.'

"Do we need nourishment for this new life? Christ is the One who sustains us: 'I am the bread of life.' Do we require guidance? 'I am the light of the world.' " Indeed, He is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). These are His attributes, and therefore ours because our life is now His. They are not things He gives us so that we can become something of ourselves; they are Him expressed through us.

"This is the replaced life. Deliverance is no longer receiving help from God as though from a psychologist or counsellor so that we can overcome a problem; it is a Person, Christ Jesus, living His life through us. Overcoming is His life replacing our life. How different this is from the common conception that we must overcome. We are overcomers because He is The Overcomer, and we are joined as one with Him. As Paul said, we are more than conquerors through Him.

It is no longer I who overcome, for I am crucified with Christ. But I am an overcomer, because The Overcomer lives as me!

A Purpose for Failure

"Why is it that full deliverance is not generally experienced at the time of the new birth?

"The spiritual rest which we have entered was shadowed by the possession of the Promised Land under Joshua.

"When God gave Israel inheritance of the land, they were told: 'And the Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly' (Deut. 7:22). The entire land was theirs, but their problems were to be cleaned out little by little.

"Perfect deliverance comes via the route of imperfect deliverance. God has a place for failure. He uses it to bring about good.

"There is a law of opposites. A positive needs a negative to express itself. The creation is built on contrasts. For instance, we only know light in terms of darkness: it is only appreciated when it strikes a non-light surface. The universe would be dark except for the light emanating from stars and the reflection of that light on planets.

"God manifests Himself by contrasts. We know Him as life, love and light; but we only understand these qualities when we have known their opposites--death, hate, darkness. Before the creation came into being, there was only God, and He knew Himself. It only became necessary for Him to manifest Himself through opposites when He as an infinite being chose to create and relate to finite man.

"Evil serves a good purpose in that it reveals God. Many believers have a hard time with this. They have swallowed a neo-dualism which fails to see that God is using evil. Dualism is the belief that there are two powers in the universe of equal strength. In Chinese thought this is called Yin/Yang. (A brilliant rebuttal of dualism is presented by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity.) But the concept of an evil being who is almost as strong as God, and who occasionally 'gets one over' on God, is unscriptural.

"Far from painting a scenario of the forces of good vying with the forces of evil, with good only barely prevailing, the Bible reveals a God who is in full control of His universe. Satan exists only by His express permission. God uses Him to His advantage. He 'works all things after the counsel of His own will' (Eph. 1:11).

"Because Paul proclaimed God's use of evil to bring about good, some accused him of advocating that we ought to sin all the more. He denied such a heinous conclusion vigorously. The fact that we learn by taking negative detours was never intended as an excuse to reek [sic] havoc in our lives.

"Yet it seems to be a law that at some point we all must know failure in the person of self in order to know victory in the Person of Himself. The Lord is very gracious in how He lets us 'run our course' until we find the end of ourselves. Along the way is the experience of deliverance in the power of the flesh--the power of self laying down rules and laws 'which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.'

Ready for Battle

"In the sixth chapter of Ephesians Paul describes a soldier fully equipped for the fray. But one thing is strangely different with this man: his instructions, repeated no less than three times, are to stand firmly where he is! A more ridiculous statement to a ready-for-battle dude I don't think I've heard. Yet this is how we are to overcome.

"What a contrast this is to the fighting we are encouraged to do by fellow believers, in the face of so much evil. Or the much praying urged by so many who ask God to 'sock it to old Satan.' Much the worse are they, losing a perfect rest in knowing all things are in God's hands! Satan loves to get us into a battle of self-discipline and willpower. But God's way is for us to recognize that we have entered into the Promised Land of rest, and all we have to do is stand, assured of victory in Him.

"The apostle John's listing of three stages of growth--little children, young men, fathers--shows us that it is the young men who are concerned with battling evil. The fatherhood outlook moves beyond this. Doing battle with the evil one becomes standing still in a perfect rest.

"A personal incident may help illustrate this point. I had received an emergency phone call to contact home as soon as possible. Well, I tried and tried, but to no avail; there was no answer. So back I went to the office. Another brother in the Lord came over and asked me if I had turned the situation over to the Lord. As I thought on this, I realized how unnecessary it was to 'turn over' anything to God, who already has the entire matter in His hands and has actually purposed it for a good end!

"How my outlook has changed from one who would have turned a situation over to God, asked Him to move this object or that, pleaded with Him to 'please break down the barrier,' and agonised to get Him to put things into a configuration that seemed right to me.

"Instead, my position right now is one of praise, thanksgiving, and affirmation. I praise Him for the wonderful Lord and giver of life He is. I thank Him for the abundance of love and compassion He is. I affirm that His hand is in all aspects of His creation, of which I am a part. In that sure knowledge I stand.

"So I no longer try to deliver myself from problems or sins. Deliverance has become recognition of what is already true in Christ Jesus. And even if I do take a blind alley of self-effort at times, I know that God is working all things together for good, no matter how evil they may seem at the time (Rom. 8:28). The 'good' is the Deliverer manifest in us; the roadway to that manifestation is the weakness of the flesh.

"Paul had a firm grip on this liberating truth when he said, 'Therefore I am well content with weakness . . . for when I am weak, then I am strong.' Weakness is the means by which strength--the Strong One--is manifested."