Jesus Will Give Us Power to Overcome

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

Jesus Will Give Us Power to Overcome

Today's Text: To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Revelation 3:21

The Message:      Satan is wrestling and battling for our souls. He casts his hellish shadow right athwart our pathway.... Look away from his power to the One that is mighty to save to the utmost. Why doesn't your faith plow through the shadow to where Christ is? He has led captivity captive and given gifts unto His followers. He will teach you that Satan claims every soul that does not join with him as his property.      Satan is the author of death. What did Christ do after He brought Satan under the dominion of death? The very last words of Christ while expiring on the cross were "It is finished" (John 19:30). The devil saw that he had overdone himself. Christ by dying accomplished the death of Satan and brought immortality to light.      And after Christ came up from the resurrection, what did He do? He grasped His power and held His scepter. He opened the graves and brought up the multitude of captives, testifying to everyone in our world, and in creation, that He had the power over death and that He rescued the captives of death.      Not all who believed in Jesus were brought to life at that time. It was only a specimen of what would be, that we may know that death and the grave are not to hold the captives, because Christ took them to heaven. And when He comes again with power and great glory, He will open the graves. Again the prison house will be opened, and the dead will come forth to a glorious immortality.      Here are the trophies that Christ took up with Him and presented to the universe of heaven and the worlds that God had created. Any affection that they ever had for Lucifer, who was the covering cherub, is now destroyed. God gave him a chance to work out his character. If He had not done this, there might have been those who felt the accusation he [Lucifer] brought against God, that He didn't give him a fair chance, was justified.      The Prince of life and the prince of darkness were in conflict. The Prince of life prevailed, but at an infinite cost. His triumph is our salvation.... Did not our Saviour have something to overcome? Did He not keep up the battle with the prince of darkness until He was a victor on every point? Then He left the work right in the hands of His followers. We have something to do.-Manuscript 1, 1889.

Commentary: My friend, the battle that the Prince of Life, waged against the prince of darkness was a real one.  Though Christ was the Divine Son of God, He was also the Son of Man; fully human with the possibility of sinning.  If one sin stained His life here on earth, there would not have been a resurrection and we would have been lost in our sins.  The battle that Jesus fought in our behalf was a real one with real consequences.  In His divinity He was perfect and could not sin; in His humanity He was as weak as we are and could be tempted to sin.  Had he committed even one sin, His humanity would not have been resurrected from the grave, and His divinity would have lay dormant for all eternity. The power that He used to overcome sin is the same power that is available to us.  He relied solely upon the power of God to overcome sin.  The victory that Jesus wrought out on this earth, is the same victory that He offers to all that would take hold of it by faith. We are all born under the banner of sin.  When Adam was created, he was made perfect and was fully righteous, but when he sinned by eating of the forbidden tree, he lost that righteousness and fell under the dominion of death, for God said " for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:17).  No longer could Adam pass on to his posterity the righteousness that he was created with.  All that have come after him were born with an unrighteous character and under the sentence of death, for the Scriptures declare "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" (Romans 5:12). The problem that we have with sin is not just a matter of breaking the law of God, but that we are inherently sinful, our very natures are sinful.  Christ came that we could be freed from the condemnation of sin and to give us life.  "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." (1 John 5:11).  "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." (Romans 5:19).  The life that is offered to us is not just a Divine life, but the life of the Son of Man, who "... was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15).  The victorious life of Christ, lived here on this earth, is offered to all that would be saved. My friend, it is not in us to overcome sin.  There is nothing that we can do in and of ourselves that can make us righteous, for "There is none righteous, no, not one:" (Romans 3:10).  We cannot overcome sin, we can only surrender our lives to the One who has overcome sin and that is Jesus Christ the righteous, and by Him we are made righteous.  "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:" (Colossians 1:27). May you surrender your life to Him today. God bless,

Video of the Week What is Righteousness? - Nader Mansour What is righteousness according to the Bible? Does it mean right doing only? Is there something that precedes that? Why does it matter? Nader Mansour explores this important and practical topic in this study.  Presented in Toronto Canada, June 2018.