36. Ultimate Victory
"… thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57). What is ultimate victory? To fully understand the answer to that question, and to fully live it, it helps if the warrior of the Way understands an ancient Greek word used of combat and warfare. Actually, it's a word most believers already know, but one with a significance they don't always realize. The word is nike.
In ancient Greece, Nike was the name of the goddess of victory. It's the word we all know, of course, from the athletic shoes of that name (though the Greek word is actually pronounced "nee-kay"), and those with military background will know that Nike is also the name of a number of the United States' antiaircraft missiles.
But what does any of this have to do with understanding the concept of victory in the Bible? Simply that many believers who are all too aware of their present failures read biblical verses which talk about victory (translated from nike) and see it as a somewhat ethereal concept – a distant victory, perhaps only fully realized in a future life in the Kingdom of God.
But it helps get things in biblical perspective to realize that Christian victory is something experienced in the present just as much as in the future. The words translated "overcome" many times in the New Testament are actually forms of nike, and these words are usually in the present tense. So when we read, for example, in 1 John 5:4: "… everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith" (emphases added), the words "overcome," "overcomes" and "victory" are all from forms of nike.
This verse shows that our overcoming – our victory – is largely a present occurrence, not some future event. John is telling us that everyone who has been "born" or "begotten" by the Spirit of God is now victorious through faith in Christ.
Just as Jesus told his disciples "… In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33), our faith in Christ's conquest is the basis for our conquest, too. When we become spiritually one with Christ and become a part of his righteous life, his death and resurrection (Romans 6:4-5), so we also become part of his conquest, his victory.
Spiritually then, the believer is already a victor! This does not mean that we do not have to keep fighting and struggling, that we will not have failures and downfalls – as Christ said "In this world you will have trouble," – but we can still "take heart" because the ultimate victory is already won and we are part of it.
That is exactly what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote: "…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). Notice the present tense – that we are victors. The context of this transcendent statement is one of the most encouraging sections of the word of God:
"Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies … Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" (Romans 8:33, 35).
These thoughts regarding the battles and skirmishes we may occasionally lose at this time (vs. 33), just as much as any other problems we may experience (vs. 35), are the real-life backdrop to Paul's words that "…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (vs 37).
We see this principle throughout the New Testament. In the climactic Book of Revelation, each letter to the Seven Churches closes with a promise that "The one who is victorious" will be richly rewarded, and toward the end of the book we also read that "Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children." (Revelation 21:7). In all these cases, the word to be "victorious" is not future, but a present active verb – it is something happening now. John stresses that this present-time victory is not winning a one-time battle, however. The reward of the true victor is given "To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end…" (Revelation 2:26). Our part in true overcoming, true victory, true nike, is persistent obedient faith that continues despite temporary setbacks, defeats and downfalls.
The victorious warrior of the Way understands that although the battle may sometimes seem to never end, persisting in the struggle is all that matters – because, as long as we never give up, the ultimate victory is already won.
AFTERWORD
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