Week 17—Monday Revelation 3:20-21
Revelation 3:20-21
“I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD”
So the Word of Victory is not the word of victory become word—an idea, a doctrine, a hope, an expectation—it is the Word of Victory become flesh, an accomplished Fact.
Jesus summed it up in these graphic and important words: “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). “In the world you have tribulation”—realism, a courageous facing of the hard facts; “but be of good cheer”—an optimism won out of those hard facts. “I have overcome the world”—“I have overcome”—not will, but “have.” We are dealing with accomplished Fact. So when temptation, difficulties, sins, and problems confront me to bully me, I say to all of them, “Bend your neck.” And when they do, I point in triumph: “There, I knew it, the footprint of the Son of God is upon your neck.” So I overcome in his overcoming; I am pure in his purity; I am victorious in his victory. I work out from his Wrought-Out Victory to my being wrought-out victory.
I identify myself with him, with his victory, by surrender and obedience, and my faith then is largely receptivity and response. Receptivity and response are the alternate beats of the Christian heart. Not all receptivity, not all response. It is both. I face a defeated foe, not here and there, but in every realm of human living—“I have overcome the world”—“the world” with all its problems and pains and sins—all included. I accept his accomplishment and work it out with him. This is not quietism—it is dynamism. For Jesus is alive and at work. I join him in his cosmic re-creation. I am a part of an exciting movement—exciting because I know the outcome. The outcome has already come—“I have overcome the world.”
O Jesus Lord, I thank you that I see the end, for I see you. You are the Omega—the Christ of the final Word. Therefore I live in you with a sense of security and adventure. I know that my Redeemer lives and because he lives, I live also. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I live on Accomplishment, so I accomplish.