Appropriate Christ’s Victory As Your Own
By F. J. Huegel
The victorious Christian must stand where the Saviour stood when He said, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me" (John 14:30).
Oh, how the enemy fought in an effort to provoke something in Jesus that would give him ground to work on. Back of the mocking, the spitting, the cruel scourging, the reviling, the blasphemous jeering and all, was the prince of darkness of this world whose works the Saviour had come to destroy. But it was all in vain. The wicked one found nothing in Jesus.
Satan Is a Defeated Foe Reckon Your Victory on Calvary’s Finished Work
Now we must be able to say: "The evil one hath nothing in me." If he can find something in you that he can exploit – some ill-will, some envy, some unwillingness to forgive a brother who may have wronged you, some secret pride, some unholy prejudice, some unclean lust after the praise of men – in a word, what Paul calls "flesh" – you will surely go under in the hour of conflict.
But you say, "How can I stand where Jesus stood?" I answer: By a recognition, and a full appropriation of what He wrought for you on Calvary. He took you with Himself to the Cross that the old man might be destroyed. You were raised up and made to sit with Him in heavenly places (Rom. 6; Eph. 2).
Over the new creation life Satan has no power. It is the old man who is his workshop. If you are living on the ground of the uncrucified, old creation, you are as vulnerable to Satan’s fiery darts as a cotton rag to machine bullets.
The Battle over Self, Sin and Satan Has Already Been Won
Christian victory is nothing more nor less than an Amen of faith to the great all-comprehensive victory which Christ consummated at Calvary.
To enter into this victory all you need to do is to say "Amen" to that which God declares a fact in His Word – that it was your humanity which Christ took to the Cross, and, by the way of the empty tomb, to the throne.
We must learn the Scriptural lesson of affirmation. We cannot go wrong by affirming what God affirms. We need not ask God to seat us in heavenly places far above all, in a victorious Christian life. If we are true believers in Christ we are already there. We need only affirm our position. This is faith.
This was Paul’s method. Listen to his affirmation of faith! "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13). "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).
"We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Rom. 8:37). This looks like presumption – but there is no presumption in faith. We get nowhere imploring God for something we already have in Christ Jesus. Appropriate His victory NOW – as your very own.
Live on resurrection ground! The new creation began with the Saviour’s resurrection!
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).
– Reprinted from a past issue of Herald of His Coming.