Tag Archives: overcome the world

HOW DID JESUS OVERCOME THE WORLD?

Christian Life, ,

HOW DID JESUS OVERCOME THE WORLD?

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

What did Jesus mean by “the world”? How did He experience the world? The world represents everything that people say, do, think, and react to that is the fruit of unbelief in Jesus and falls short of God’s perfection.

It was prophesied that Jesus would be “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”. Why was that, especially since He was also “anointed with the oil of joy…”? We must remember that, as the God-man, He fully experienced both the perfect joy of heaven and also sorrow for a world of people without God.

Therefore, He could rejoice with His disciples when they experienced tiny glimpses of God’s kingdom at work when the demons were subject to Jesus’ authority through them.

Hebrews tells us, also, that it was the anticipated joy of a mission accomplished and His consequent return to His heavenly existence together with the reward for His obedience, a new family just like Himself, that enabled Him to “endure the cross”.

“… Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honour beside God’s throne.”

Hebrews 12:2b NLT

He also grieved over the unbelief of His people and  their failure to understand what He came to reveal about the Father, His grace and mercy. He wept over Mary’s disillusionment when she thought He had apparently failed to come in time to save Lazarus from death.

He felt the full might of the world’s sin in His day-to-day interaction with people. The common people were fickle and unpredictable. His opponents. the religious leaders whom He exposed for their hypocrisy, hated Him. Even His own disciples vacillated between trust and unbelief. Most of all, He was aware of the daily conflict with the devil who used every subtle trick to try to undermine Him.

“Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people…”

Hebrews 12:3 NLT

How would we cope with such “stress”?

Peter gives us the answer, in one jewel of a statement.

“When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”

1 Peter 2:23 NIV

Despite every form of abuse Jesus endured throughout His life, He lived the life of a perfect Son, in perfect obedience and submission to His Father. Never once did He react or behave like a “sinner” in thought, word, deed, or attitude. So, He could ask of His opponents….

“Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?’

John 8:46 NIV

No matter how people in the world treated Jesus, they could not induce Him to behave like them. He was always the perfect man, as Adam was before the fall. Therefore, He proved that He was sinless, and eligible to be the perfect atoning sacrifice. He also made it possible, through His grace and by His Spirit in us, for us, also, to live the life of trust and obedience that does not give in to the flesh but overcomes the world.

Since He overcame, we have no need to fear anything the world can produce against us or do to us. Therefore, we can rejoice. Hallelujah!!!!

IN THIS WORLD YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE

Christian Life, ,

IN THIS WORLD YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (1 John 16:33, NIV)

Where did believers get the idea that we are somehow immune to the bad things that happen to “other” people? Why do we think that we can escape the troubles that afflict the rest of the world? When we experience sorrow or suffering, the first questions that often burst from our lips are, “Why me? What have I done to deserve this?”

Let’s examine the reasons for this unbiblical regard to trouble as an intrusion.

Firstly, Jesus said that in this world we will have trouble. If Jesus warned us about it, how can we think that He was mistaken? If we belong to a fallen race and an imperfect world, trouble will be part of our experience.

Secondly, trouble is God’s way of maturing us. “…We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us.” (Romans 5:3-5, NIV). Peter recognised trouble as, “trials…that your faith, of greater worth than gold even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine…” (1 Peter 1:7, NIV).

James, like Paul, calls us to “consider it pure joy, my brother’s, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4, NIV).

Thirdly, if we view trouble as punishment from God, we have not understood the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Wrongdoing can only be punished once. Since Jesus took the judgment for all our sin on Himself, for God to punish us again would be unjust, and God is always perfectly just. Jesus paid for all sin for all time. There must be another reason for the troubles we endure.

Fourthly, our hardships are not punishment, but discipline. “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?” (Hebrews 12:7, NIV). Discipline is intended to diagnose and treat everything that hurts our relationship with God as His sons. God wants us to obey Him and, when we disobey, we run into problems that expose our stubborn and rebellious attitudes.

Jesus offered His solution to trouble – His peace. He said, “Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (John 15:4, NIV). Peace is part of the fruit of the Spirit and real peace in trouble comes from remaining in Jesus, trusting that He knows what He is doing. (LAC)

Overcoming Faith

Bible Study, , , ,

OVERCOMING FAITH

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith (1 John 5:1-4).

The teachings of Jesus filled John’s mind. One can feel his love for his Master pulsating through every word he wrote. He had taken Jesus’ instruction seriously about the Holy Spirit and His role in their lives. John had built his life on the foundation of Jesus’ words, and it was now his task to pass them on to his readers so that they would also have a solid base on which to build their lives.

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

Jesus spoke these final words to His disciples before they left the upper room and made their way to Gethsemane. He had taught them about the Holy Spirit and His role in their lives after His return to the Father. He had assured them that He had overcome the world and that they would have victory over sin and Satan through their faith in Him.

What did John mean? This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Without the background of Jesus’ teaching, John’s encouragement would make no sense to his readers. He must have taken for granted that they knew what he was saying because he had already inspired them with Jesus’ words.

But what did Jesus mean by His words, “I have overcome the world”? Jesus’ world at that moment was the world of God’s people, the Jews among whom He lived. Their religious leaders, who tried slavishly to obey the teachings of Moses, demanded that they also keep their unreasonable requirements. His people’s “world” was the burdensome system of religion as well as the oppression of their Roman overlords. The Roman government taxed so heavily that many of them lived in poverty. Their fellow-Jews who served Rome as unscrupulous tax collectors, added to their burden, demanding more tax than Rome required to enrich themselves.

The world had overcome them. Instead of responding, like their countrymen Jesus’ disciples reacted to the oppressive world system in sinful ways; with resentment, anger, rebellion, hatred, bitterness, adding to their burden of guilt.

Jesus modelled the response that would not permit the world to overcome Him. He did not resist arrest. He submitted to the soldiers’ torture without threat or complaint. He accepted injustice without accusation. Peter’s summary accurately describes Jesus’ attitude to the “world” which rejected Him and treated Him unjustly and cruelly despite His innocence.

When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed (1 Pet. 2:22-24).

How did Jesus overcome the world? He absorbed in Himself everything evil that people levelled against Him. The worst that human cruelty and hatred did to Him could not move Him to retaliate. He forgave and prayed for His tormentors. He proved both to the powers of darkness and to the world of sinners that it was possible to live in obedience to the Father and without sin in spite of what the world did to Him.

In His life, He demanded of His enemies, “Who of you accuses me of sin?” to which no one could reply. In His death, He remained unaffected by those who hated Him. He steadfastly trusted in His Father’s love. His resurrection proved that He had no sin because death could not hold Him.

Jesus provided both a model for us under unjust suffering, and he also provides the power to overcome the sin of others against us. What was His secret? He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. By entrusting Himself to the Father, Jesus turned His attention away from His suffering to the one who sustained Him. The assurance of His Father’s love enabled Him to endure the cross.

Likewise for us who have given Jesus the right to reign over us, we are free to trust the Father to bring good out of the worst of circumstances. It is true that we will suffer in this life because human suffering is part of this fallen world, but God works for our good in all things for one reason – He is restoring in us the image of His Son.

Jesus loved the Father and trusted in His love to the extent that He submitted to the Father’s will and obeyed Him in everything. Submission and obedience are to be the hallmark of God’s children, based on confidence in His perfect love.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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