Our victory is in the death and resurrection of Christ. Because He put Himself in our place as a Substitute, to suffer our condemnation for our sins.
Our redemption and deliverance
Jesus suffered our condemnation, which was death, the wages of sin ( Rom 6: 23), but God resurrected him, breaking the shackles of death, for it was not possible for him to be held back by it ( At2:24), And He destroyed death, and brought to light life and immortality by the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10), and having crossed out the debt writing who was against us in his ordinances, which was contrary to us, removed him from among us, nailing him to the cross (Col 2:14); And having stripped principalities and powers, he exhibited them publicly and triumphed over them on the same cross (Col 2:15). If Christ paid our debt, we are no longer guilty before God, and our enemies have lost their hold on us, we now belong to Christ.
Our victory in Jesus Christ is complete and final. He annihilated every force that held us, freed us from our sins, and regenerated us to a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead(1Pe 1:3).
...and who brought us out of the power of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son; in whom we have redemption, namely, the remission of sins; (Col 1:13-14)
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; and they did not love their lives to death. ( Rev 12:11)
The way to victory
There is only one way to victory, the Cross of Calvary , where Jesus was crucified; it is there that humanity's hope is centered, because there the door opened for everyone to lead them back to God.
Every winner has to go through the Cross, this means to be crucified together with Christ. Just as He won by the cross, we also win together with Him; and just as He is risen, so shall we one day rise with Him.
For, if we have been joined to Him in the likeness of His death, we shall certainly be joined to Him in the likeness of His resurrection; ( Rom 6:5)
Jesus, before passing through the Cross, faced Gethsemane , the place of crucial decision, where he had to renounce his own will to fulfill the Father's will. The price of our redemption was very high, and that for this reason I would have to suffer the most terrible agonies of Death; beyond the affront, contempt, rejection, humiliation, mockery – only on the way to the Cross; and who would have to bear our infirmities, bear our pains, be wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, receive the punishment that would bring us peace, and be trampled underfoot to be healed (Is 53.4-5 ) . He resigned himself in our favor and gave himself up to be killed in our place.
...who, subsisting in the form of God, did not regard being equal to God as something to cling to, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming similar to men; and, found in the form of a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, and death on a cross. ( Phil 2:6-8)
Like Christ, every Christian has to go through Gethsemane , the renunciation of himself, the surrender and consecration of his life to the Lord, even though we no longer belong to ourselves; and the decision to take up your cross and go after the Lord, following your same path of sufferings and tribulations, even though the price has already been paid by the Lord. However, to be a winner it is necessary to have faced a fight, so the Lord left us his career as an example for us to follow. This does not mean that we have to die on the Cross, for Christ has already done it, and only he could do it . What has to be crucified is our old man, because that's where selfishness lies, the desire to want everything for himself, to live for himself and not for God.
For if we live, for the Lord we live; if we die, to the Lord we die. So, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. ( Rom 14:8 )
The victory over sin
To understand what the Lord meant by taking your cross we have to consider this: – our old man is the one that was crucified, the carnal nature, the body of sin was left on the cross; – this body has to be mortified, it no longer lives by itself; – we must subdue him by the Spirit and subjugate him to slavery (1Co 9:27) (to serve God, not sin).
...knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be undone, that we might no longer serve sin. ( Rom 6:6)
Therefore, taking up our cross means taking this physical body and following the same steps as Jesus, walking as He walked (1Jo 2:6), because while we are in the Earth we are dwelling in the physical body. And just as the cross was heavy to the Lord, so this body becomes heavy with its weaknesses and with its resistance to serve. But the Lord greatly strengthens us, so that even in our weaknesses we are strong. And since our sins were left on the Cross, they no longer have dominion over us; we have the victory over sin. It is in the physical body that the old carnal nature remains, and now we have a fight: the spirit (inner man, the spiritual) against the flesh (outer man, the natural).
Because the flesh fights against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these oppose each other, that you do not do what you want. ( Gal 5:17 )
The natural man (generation of Adam), is inclined to sin, and is corrupted by the lusts of deception ( Eph 4:22b), concerning this, the Word of God commands us to to plunder us ( Eph 4:22a).
Jesus has given us power to overcome the nature of the flesh, by the power of the Holy Spirit with the spiritual man (generation of Christ), who is inclined to righteousness and holiness as he was created ( Eph 4:24 ), and which is renewed to full knowledge, according to the image of him who created him (Col 3:10). For this we must rebuke the desires of the flesh and not satisfy them . The works of the flesh are identified in Galatians 5:19 -22:
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, jealousies, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Contentions, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. ( Gal 5: 19-21 )
Let us note Paul's warning: those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God; Christ regenerated and sanctified us in the Spirit, if we walk in the flesh we walk towards death ( Rom . 8:13). And only by the Spirit can we overcome the flesh; for it would be useless to try to repress these desires only by force of will, because sooner or later one ends up giving in. We must strive, but being dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome, it is the Lord who gives us the victory, when we trust in Him.
Let's look at the fruits of the Spirit:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. ( Gal 5:22 -23)
These fruits are manifested in a holy life and right, and in practice; not to be righteous, but because we have already been made righteous in Christ. The fruits of the Spirit are only the manifestation of the inner man, who is a new creature, born of the Spirit – The tree is known by its fruit ( Mt 12:33). This is God's standard of living, which is pleasing to you; and not even human laws can contest it .
The overcoming Christian is the one who walks in the Spirit, in a life of sanctification and surrender of himself to the will of God, no matter the price that one has to pay, “for I have the afflictions of this present tense cannot compare with the glory that is to be revealed in us ( Rom 8:18).”
Thanks, however, to God who in Christ always leads us in triumph... ( 2Co 2:14)
The victory over Satan
We were imprisoned in the kingdom of darkness, of which Satan is the prince; this subjugated us to his power and to do what he wanted. Jesus even said to some religious who thought they were righteous : You have the devil for your father, and you want to satisfy your father's desires ( John 8:44); Satan has come to dominate man by sin since the fall of Adam, because whoever commits sin belongs to the Devil; because the devil sins from the beginning (1Jo 3:8); one more explanation for so much wickedness in the world. When Adam sinned, he surrendered the dominion of the world to Satan ( Luke 4:6), who proceeded to foment a kingdom of rebellion against God; and to such an extent the wickedness in the world reached that God resolved to destroy the human race, which was barely saved, through Noah, who found favor in God's eyes and was spared ( Gen. 6:5-8).
Jesus came into the world precisely to redeem the human race, He destroyed the power of Satan and bring man back to God. For this the Son of God was manifested: to destroy the works of the Devil ( 1 John 3:8). The man was condemned because he had a debt, but Jesus paid the man's debt, with his blood shed on the cross, so Satan lost his right to mankind and was cast out of his position and lost his authority. Now is the judgment of this world; now the prince will be expelled from this world. ( John 12:31 )
Thus, Jesus destroyed the one who had the power of death, the Devil ( Heb 2:14), and triumphed over Death itself. He then quickened us, because we were dead in our sins ( Eph 2:5), and gave us the power of the Holy Spirit to fight against the hosts of darkness.
In addition, the Lord Jesus placed all the power of darkness beneath our feet ( Luke 10:19), giving us authority over Satan and the demons.
Spiritual Struggle
Despite being defeated, Satan's kingdom still continues to operate on Earth, dominating men who remain incredulous and alien to the Gospel of Christ.
But if our gospel is still shrouded, it is in those who perish that it is shrouded, in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, that the light of the gospel of the glory of God may not shine upon them. Christ, which is the image of God. ( 2Co 4:3-4)
Satan is not the lord of the earth, nor do the souls of men belong to him, however unbelievers, but he governs the present system established in the world, because the whole world lies in wickedness. 1 João 5:19 (1 John 5:19).
So now hangs a great spiritual battle in the heavenly places on earth, the kingdom of God against Satan's kingdom. The victory of the kingdom of God already took place on the Cross, when Jesus destroyed the power of darkness, but the fight continues until the time of the end, For it is necessary that he [ Christ] reigns until he has brought all enemies under of his feet (1Co 15:25). We understand then that this fight belongs to Christ, and consequently His Church also participates in it, because the Church is the Body of Christ ( 1 Cor 12:27), being Christ the head of the Church ( Eph 5:23). Therefore, every Christian is called to participate in this fight, which is in the Field of Faith, to maintain submission and obedience in the Paths of Light, because he is a member of the Body, and must fight as a good soldier of Christ ( 2 Tim 2:3).
...for it is not against flesh and blood that we have to fight, but against principalities, against powers, tell the princes of the world of these darkness, against the spiritual hosts of iniquity in the heavenly regions. ( Eph 6:12 ) "Fight the good fight of faith, take possession of eternal life, to which you were also called, having already made a good confession before many witnesses." (1 Tim 6:12)
1. By faith: ... fighting together with one soul for the faith of the gospel ( Phil 1:27); – Satan employs the most subtle means to try to destroy the believer's faith: Turning away from the truth (2 Tim 2:18); Turning interests to the things of the world (2Tim 4:10); Perverting the Gospel ( Gal 1:7), infiltrating in it things that go beyond what Christ announced ( Gal 1:9); Misrepresenting sound doctrine ( Rom 16:17). The Christian must be strengthened in God so that his faith does not weaken in the hour of trial.
2. Against sin: Various temptations come upon us, but we must remain firm and not yield, knowing that no temptation has come to you, if not human; but faithful is God, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you can resist, but with temptation will also give the way out, that you may endure it ( 1Co 10:13). and resist the devil, and he will flee from you ( Jas 4:7 ) .
3. In afflictions: The believer must endure with perseverance the afflictions that befall him, because of the gospel and for the love of Christ ( Phil 1:29 ), knowing that He never forsakes us and that He will be by our side in anguish ( Ps 91:15) and will comfort us (2Co 1:4).
...but if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but rather glorify God in this name (1Pe 4:16).
4. Against the forces of darkness: It is a spiritual struggle in the celestial regions, against the power of the spiritual forces of evil, although for us it only develops in the Field of Faith, and the armies of angels of the Lord are the true agents who fight this fight for the saved. This fight is only possible through spiritual weapons, which are virtues such as Faith, Justice and Truth: for the weapons of our militia are not carnal, but mighty in God, for the demolition of strongholds ( 2Co 10: 4); and the believer must be strengthened in the power of Christ and clothed in the armor of God ( Eph 6:10-11).
5. By preaching: The main mission of the church: Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15 ). This is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit:
But ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit descends upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria , and to the ends of the earth. ( Ac 1:8)
To announce salvation in Christ Jesus to all people, to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified through faith in me. ( Ac 26:18 )
The Career of the Christian
God has for each of his children a plan to be carried out on earth, and proposes a career to be followed. In it are the struggles that the Christian will have to face, but God guarantees the victory for everyone who remains faithful to the end, even in the face of death ( Rev 2:10).
Therefore, we too, because we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us leave all the embarrassment and the sin that surrounds us so closely, and run with perseverance the race that is proposed to us, looking at Jesus, author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that is proposed to him, endured the cross, despising the ignominy, and sitteth at the right hand of the throne of God. ( Heb 12:1-2)
The Lord Jesus makes many promises to those who overcome: He who overcomes, I will give him to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God ( Rev. 2:7). The one who wins will in no way suffer the damage of the second death ( Rev 2:11). To the one who conquers I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new written name, which no one knows but the one who receives it ( Rev. 2:17). Whoever overcomes, and whoever keeps my works to the end, I will give him authority over the nations, and with a rod of iron he will rule them, breaking them as the potter's vessels are broken, just as I received authority from my Father ( Rev 2:26-27); The one who wins will thus be dressed in white robes, and I will by no means scratch his name from the book of life; but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels ( Rev 3:5). Whoever wins, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, from which he will never leave; and I will write upon it the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which descends from heaven from my God, and also my new name ( Rev. 3:12). Whoever wins, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne ( Rev. 3:21).
The Christian who remains faithful until the end of his career will then be able to say the triumphant words, as will Paul: I fought the good fight, I finished my career, I kept the faith. ( 1 Timothy 4: 7)
But thanks to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1Co 15:57)
