“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor.1:30)
Greetings Friends!
You may have read me mention this term, victorious life in Jesus, or, living victoriously in Jesus. What does the term mean? I will answer that in this post.
Victorious life in Christ means the righteous, sinless, conquering, life He lived when He was in His human form, which He continues to now live in the life of the believer through the power of the Holy Spirit. But one may say, how is that possible, I live a sinful life. Even when I try my best to live uprightly, I still sin. I sin inadvertently, and the Bible speaks of secret sins I am not even aware I have. (Psa.19:12) How then is it possible for the victorious life of Jesus to become reality in me? Yet, the very contradictory circumstance of Jesus’ perfect life and man’s imperfect existence, is the very rationale for a worthy substitute to stand in our defense – that, gives credence to our argument.
One reason we fail to see the truth of the victorious life of Jesus is because we place Jesus into the mold of our fallen, depraved, and evil existence looking out, instead of the other way round. We are seeing Jesus through the pair of eyes of our human frailties and shortcomings instead of the eyes of the Holy Spirit whose purpose is to sanctify man. We ought to be exchanging His life for ours. And the power of the Holy Spirit makes this happen, Jesus said, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father–the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father–He will testify about Me. He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you” (John 15:26; 16:14). The role of the Holy Spirit is to sanctify the believer by realizing the victorious life of Jesus in the believer. Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal.2:20).
Another reason we cannot see the reality of living the victorious life of Jesus is because we fail to understand the full effect of what the saving role and work of Savior entails in its scope and meaning. It means Jesus not only saves believers from past sins, but from present and future sins as well. In order to do that, Jesus is not a Savior who remains dead on the cross, but was resurrected and ascended to God the Father’s right hand, and lives as man’s High Priest in order to mediate continuously in every second of man’s existence to make His victorious life possible. Paul said, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Cor.15:14). Jesus’ mediation for sinful man in heaven “completes” man. (Col.2:10)
Yet another reason is we fail to fully grasp the victorious life is because we fail to fully grasp the truth of Jesus existence and Being. When Jesus became human, He was also God in the human flesh. This makes Him the only human qualified to be Savior and Mediator of man. In other words, it has to take God Himself to save man, for man is a fallen being, and cannot save himself. Jesus came forth from His eternal existence in the Triune Godhead – the Trinity, as it is commonly called. He was no ordinary human, yet, He was human in every way, shape, and form, and knew what it was like to be a human. The Bible tells us, “For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet He did not sin” (Heb.4;5). Man cannot say God does not know what it is like to be human. He was human like us, yet sinless. As God, He took our imperfect humanity, warts and all, and sanctified us in Himself, and brought humanity into God’s presence forever.
The Bible gives a unique name to reflect Jesus’ existence as God who took our human form: Immanuel, which means “God with us.” (Matt.1:23: Isa.7:14). This unique name reveals where He came from and that He existed eternally in the Triune Godhead. By taking man’s fallen, sinful, immoral and corrupt humanity into Himself, He effectively cancelled all human failings, sins, and depravity, in Himself through His perfect life and death on the cross. And by His resurrection and ascension, He glorified our humanity and took it into the very Being of God the Father. So, in a genuine vicarious sense, in Jesus man now exists in the perfect life within the divine Godhead in heaven in Christ. He is our elder Brother. It is from this vantage point that the victorious life is lived and experienced by the believer. It is a life of faith which gives us the confidence to live victoriously in Jesus through the divine Spirit.
The final reason I would like to share is we fail to understand the work of the Spirit in bringing about the victorious life of Jesus in the believer. Jesus said, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing” (John 6:63). By “flesh” it means the fallen “condition” of man, not the human body per se. Jesus glorified His, and by extension our human body, in His resurrection from the dead. The Spirit proceeds from Jesus in heaven and brings the victorious life into the life of the believer. Paul said man becomes God’s temple where the Holy Spirit dwells, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor.3:16, NASB).
Imagine this for a moment, if the Spirit dwells in you, while He simultaneously dwells in the Triune Godhead in heaven (for He cannot be separate from but is one substance in the Triune Godhead) then in reality the believer dwells in heaven with God through the Spirit, although bodily he walks the earth. In effect, this means the believer is in a saved “condition” in the Spirit, as opposed to an unsaved condition in his fallen flesh. As we read, the flesh profits nothing, it is the Spirit who saves. If the Spirit lives in man as a temple, then no sin can enter the life of man, for the Spirit is Holy and sinless. The Spirit is applying the eternal sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf through the surrendered life to keep us in the Father’s presence forever. Yes, sometimes we overtly give the body more credence than it deserves, when we ought to afford much more credit to the work of the Spirit in sanctifying us in Christ.
If we were to re-read the above quote of Jesus, it would say, “The Spirit brings the victorious life, the flesh counts for nothing.” What you experience in your fleshly life amounts to nothing, it’s the life we live in the Spirit in heaven that counts, and He now lives on earth in His temple – the life of the believer. Paul’s words sums up the victorious life, “But by His (the Father) doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor.1:30-31). Effectively it means if we do not have a complete Savior in Jesus, then He is no Savior. That is the essence of the victorious life we have in Christ. (Col.2:10)
When our faith is founded upon the “Triune Life” we will better understand the victorious life of Jesus because all three Persons of the Triune Godhead are involved in human salvation. Hence, this ministry has adamantly advocated the “Triune Life” so we’ll always have our spiritual bearings right. Go to our “Mission Statement” at this link and find out more about the meaning of “Triune Life”: http://bulamanriver.net/?page_id=3381
If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to write to me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.
Blessing:
Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life” as a Bulamanriver.* Be strong in the Lord’s joy.
Kiang,
* Bulamanriver” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bulamanriver, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book.
All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.
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