The Victory Through Jesus Christ!

‘“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.’ – 1 Corinthians 15:55-58 NIV

The whole context of 1 Corinthians 15 is about the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15 is divided into three parts-the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of the dead and the resurrection body. Apostle Paul have proclaimed that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. After that, he simply states, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19) I believe the main reason that if Christ has not been raised, all of His followers are lost and pitted is following Jesus Christ until the end of the age can be hard road to most of us (Matthew 7:13-14). We have to deny ourselves to follow Jesus (Mark 8:34-38) because the ways of the world and the ways of the heavenly Kingdom do not match. James declares,

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? (James 4:4-5)

If we go back to the beginning to God’s creation, the Bible says that sin has been created because the first couple ate the fruit in the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-19). I think this is related to the ways of the world. The world prompts us to deny God and create independence to ourselves since we have our own wisdom. However, God has wanted us to depend on Him because He is the Creator of everything (Genesis 1:1) and He has created us in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). David wrote, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” (Psalm 24:1) This is probably the main reason that God sent His beloved Son, as the image of Himself (Colossians 1:15), into the world to crucify Himself on the cross for our sins (Colossians 2:13-15). Thus, God is able to bring us back to Himself (Hebrews 2:14-15).

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18)

Therefore, we ought to believe in Jesus Christ until the end of our physical lives, even though we are sinners. We are already won the evil, Satan who wishes to control and destroy us, if we belong to Christ. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Apostle Paul proclaims, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57) When Jesus was crucified and resurrected, God has poured His Spirit into us to accompany us to the ways and purposes of God (John 16:7-15). Revelation 3:20 explains that God’s Spirit is Jesus. The Holy Trinity-God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit-is one Person who is God because all of them are exactly alike. These mean that we are never alone, despite of Christ is at the heavenly kingdom and sitting at the right hand of God. To put these simply, we have to follow the Holy Spirit if we want to follow Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul states, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” (Galatians 5:24-25)

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:15-27)

What happens if we disobeyed the Spirit of God but realised that disobeying the Spirit was a biggest mistake of our lives later on? God is “… compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Psalm 103:8) and therefore, God would forgive us if we realised that disobedient to the Holy Spirit was a worst mistake and if we repent to Him wholeheartedly (Acts 2:22-41; Acts 3:17-20). This does not mean that we could play God around with, such as doing our selfish desires and passions and repenting it afterwards. God knows our hearts and He can determine whether we belong to Him or not (Hebrews 4:13;1 Samuel 16:7).

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

Although I am a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, falling into sin would be easy because of desires to watch television. It is not that watching television is sin but I am afraid that I might get addicted to television, especially of cartoons. Thus, I am trying not to watch television as much as possible. Addictions would hover me if I stay in focused on anything, I believe. I want my satisfaction to be on God through faith in Jesus Christ. I think I have to resist my temptations not to watch whatever I feel like but I also do not want this to be legalism. Nonetheless, I am thankful that God has His steadfast love to everyone. If He does not have His steadfast love toward us, I would have been dead a long time ago. Other than my temptations to watch television, I have learned to depend on God through a computer course. I felt that doing a computer course was a biggest mistake I made but I persevered until the end. My mentor and one of my friends told me that it was God’s hidden will and I have been believing that God has not been doing things for nothing. I believe I passed a computer course because of the contentment in Jesus (Philippians 4:11-13). In addition to this, I think I learnt to depend on God for my theological studies as well. I used to ask my mentor to guide me on everything until I could understand what I have to do completely. However, my mentor did not reply every messages. Hence, I tried my best and realised that I did not have to depend on her for every assessment.