Overcoming – Four Principles in Revelation 12 (Part 9)

  

“And they overcame him because the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.” Revelation 12:11.

 

To have a testimony that overcomes the enemy, we must be convinced of the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul writes to Timothy (2 Tim. 1:12) that in the midst of his suffering he is, “not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him [Paul’s life, his soul, his very existence] until that day.”

 

The context of 2 Timothy 2:12 is suffering for the Gospel, the context of Revelation 12:11 is suffering for the Gospel. If we are convinced of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, then we will not be ashamed of the Gospel or of our Lord. Jesus says that whoever is ashamed of Him and His words, that He will be ashamed of that person when He comes in the glory of the Father (Mark 8:38). There is a reproach associated with identification with Jesus Christ and we do a great disservice if we teach Christians to think that they can escape conflict and reproach if they witness in “such and such” a manner; when in fact Jesus teaches that if the world hates Him that it will hate us (John 15:18 – 6:4).

 

The Gospel is a stumbling block to some and foolishness to others, but to the “called” it is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 18 -31). We want to persuade others of the Gospel, we want to see others come to know the wonderful grace of Jesus Christ, we want this so badly that we will lay our preferences and agendas and comforts down for others – we will learn to “suffer all things for the sake of the elect” (2 Tim. 2:10), laying our lives down for the brethren (1 John 3:16). We live this Way in Christ knowing that it entails difficulty and rejection and misunderstanding. We do not look for rejection, but if we follow Christ and His Cross we know that rejection will come in any number of ways; we learn to hunger for the “fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10). We learn to embrace suffering and death so that others might live (John 12:24).

 

Peter writes, “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of his time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1 – 2).

 

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1 Peter 4:12 – 14). Compare this with Romans 8:12 – 17.

 

We must be convinced of the love of God for us if we are to speak and live the testimony of Jesus Christ, because if we are going to live and speak the testimony of Jesus Christ we are going to suffer – and it is the certainty of the love of God for us in Jesus Christ that will enable us to overcome.

 

Any system or method or approach to witnessing for Jesus Christ that does not emphasize His love for us and others, and does not emphasize suffering for Him, falls short of Biblical teaching – I write as someone who has previously been down this pathway, and I deeply regret it.

 

When Paul writes that we are “more than overcomers” in Romans 8:37, he writes this in the context of God’s love for us in Christ and our suffering for Christ. Consider:

 

“…if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him, and I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us…For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered” (Romans 8:17 – 18, 36 – 37).

 

It is in this context that Paul writes that we are the sons of the living God, that we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that we are coheirs with Christ, and that in all our suffering we are “more than overcomers” or are “super conquerors”. Paul leads his readers to this dynamic conclusion:

 

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angles, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38 – 39).

 

Now that we know what Paul was convinced of: What am I convinced of?

 

What are you convinced of?