0921. The Cross and Victory
The Cross and Victory
"And they overcame him, by the Blood of the Lamb" (Rev_12:11).
Few believers, perhaps, have ever studied the Cross of Christ beyond the blessed fact that on the Cross Christ died, the Just for the unjust. We always think of the Cross as Christ's Cross. We think of it in its blessed relationship to our salvation. Have we ever studied the Cross as the keynote to the life of victory? Let us observe a few Scriptures.
1. The Cross is our victory over sin. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom_6:6). The Adamic nature is not annihilated in the believer; but the Adamic nature, the old man, is made powerless. It is made of none effect, by the Cross of Jesus Christ. The believer who knows the victory of the Cross will never be in bondage to his sinful self. Sin will not have dominion or lordship over him. "We thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again" (2Co_5:14-15).
2. The Cross is our victory over satan. In Rev_12:11, we read, "And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb; and by the word of their testimony." What is their testimony concerning this?
When we turn to John's Gospel, we read in chapter 12: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. This He said signifying what death He should glorify God." It was on the Cross then, that Jesus Christ met satan and wounded his head.
When Jesus Christ went to the Cross, He "spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col_2:15).
Saints who would overcome satan, therefore, must plead the Cross. There is the victory.
We do not meet satan as Christ met him in the power of His own sinless self. We plead Christ's victory–Worthy is His name!
3. The Cross is our victory over the flesh. "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Gal_5:24). The flesh stands for all the carnalities and the sinful fruitage of the self-life. When Christ went to the Cross, He went in the effigy of sinful flesh. "He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Therefore, whenever the flesh seeks to press itself to the front, let us quickly say, "I am Christ's and my flesh has been crucified with Christ, therefore I deny and denounce the flesh."
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR