A couple weeks ago, I was pondering the significance of being an overcomer in the Bible. I was amazed to see how many times the phrase "to he who overcomes" and the word "overcome" are used. I realized that being an overcomer is not so much something we do, but it is who we are. As Christians, it is our true spiritual identity. The only way to truly overcome is to live out of that identity. We are overcomers by faith, it is our inheritance as children of God.
1 John 4:4 teaches that every believer is an overcomer. This victory is something that every child of God partakes in. It is not based upon what the believer has earned or achieved, but it is based on WHO indwells the believer!
1 John 4:4
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
1 John 5:4
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
The issue of our identity:
Genesis 32:28
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
Interesting that Jacob was given a new name because he had overcome. Receiving a new name is a symbolic and prophetic way of communicating our true spiritual identity as a child of God. There is great power in learning who we really are, what our true names are.
Revelation 3:12
He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
We need to see ourselves as overcomers, not as those who are overcome.
2 Peter 2:20
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
We have the spiritual DNA of Jesus Christ, THE overcomer. Since he has overcome the world, so have we.
John 16:33
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Why is it significant for Jesus to say that we can have peace and be of good cheer because he has overcome the world? Because it was his plan that we would live "in him", "abiding in him". As long as we abide in THE overcomer, Jesus Christ, we are also overcomers by default.
Every generation and every culture has it's issues and struggles to overcome. In the seven churches of Revelation, Jesus points out issues he sees with each church, but then he concludes with a promise to those who overcome.
- Revelation 2:7
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”’ - Revelation 2:11
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”’ - Revelation 2:17
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”’ - Revelation 2:26
And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations— - Revelation 3:5
He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. - Revelation 3:12
He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name. - Revelation 3:21
To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Ephesians 2:6
and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
You are not defeated! You are victorious, triumphant!
2 Corinthians 2:14
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
I like the way Ed Tandy Mcglasson says it in "The Difference a Father makes".
Ed Tandy McGlasson Ministries
He says you are either a "Survivor" or a "Thriver". A survivor does his best to just get through the day, but a Thriver is one who squeezes everything possible out of Life, making the most of every opportunity. That is how Jesus lived, and that is how he desires each of us to live.
Jesus lived under the smile, blessing, and approval of his Father, he was not living out of a desire to gain his Father's approval or the approval of others. If we can also live out of this kind of identity as ones who are beloved by the Father, we will also understand our identity as an overcomer, a "Thriver".
However, the enemy has labeled many of us and imparted to us a false identity. Many of us were cursed by parents who didn't know their identity either, survivors. When we really understand who God has created us to be, receive the Father's blessing and purpose into our lives, we will not want to settle for just surviving any more. We will begin to live as Paul described in Philippians 3:12-14.
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
When we communicate with our children, it doesn't do a whole lot of good to berate them and beat them up for their failures and mistakes. But it does a tremendous amount of good to remind them of their true identity. When they are complaining, remind them of the fact that they are overcomers. When they make a mistake, we can say something like, "That's OK, you'll get it next time - because you are an overcomer, you are a Champion, you can do all things through Christ, you have what it takes to succeed!" If we keep speaking like this in faith to ourselves, and to our children, we will eventually get it. Something will change deep inside of who we are, and we will truly see as God sees. Instead of seeing ourselves and others as failures or survivors, we will see overcomers, champions, thrivers, victorious, able to do all things. We will see ourselves and others through the eyes of Faith, we were born to overcome!
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Disclaimer: I haven't read anything off the web-site, I just searched for and liked this painting.
Well said Chad. Too many people are living defeated lives when Jesus said that he came to give us life to the full, his life!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim - that is exactly right. I have also been thinking of another possible post that biblically confronts the false idea that a new covenant believer is just a poor, miserable, wretched sinner. This false theology is an old covenant concept. We have new hearts, good hearts, made alive by the spirit of God. We are overcoming, conquering, victorious, new creations, sons of God, etc, etc. We have the favor of God smiling upon us.
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