Jesus Christ has finished every victory that will ever need to be won for humanity. This finished victory, however, is not given to us as a THING. It is not merely a legal status. No. God gives us the finished victory IN the Person of the risen Jesus Christ Himself. All victory is found IN HIM – it is HIS LIFE. And if we are born from above, Jesus Christ is IN US.
God has given us all things freely IN Jesus Christ. (Rom. 8:32 and Eph. 1:3) Notice: IN CHRIST. God has not given us separate or additional, “things,” BECAUSE of Christ – that is, God has not given us, “things,” added to Christ. No. God has given us Christ Himself — IN WHOM are all things. Indeed, God has given us NOTHING in addition to Christ or apart from Him. Again — God has freely given us ALL things IN HIS SON.
Fundamental to what we receive in Christ is HIS resurrection life. But again — we do not receive a THING called, “resurrection life.” No. We receive Christ Himself Who IS resurrection life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” (Jn. 11:25)
How has God given us life in Christ? By making us One with Christ in spirit. At salvation, Jesus Christ freely joined us to Himself – making us one spirit with Himself. (I Cor. 6:17) Thus, if we are joined to Christ; if Christ is in us, then we are alive IN HIM — for He IS the resurrection and the life.
But note: Spiritual union with Christ does not obliterate our natural man. Rather, it creates a separation between that natural man and our union with Christ. This is the separation of soul from spirit. It likewise creates the need for the work of the Cross upon our natural man making it possible for us to be delivered from the control of the natural man — so that Christ in us might be realized and manifested.
So what is the Christian life? What is the overcoming life? It is Christ manifested and expressed. It is a Christian holding fast by faith to what God has freely given — against all that is contrary to Christ — including all that is contrary to Christ in ourselves. The Christian life IS Jesus as Lord over us — His resurrection life becoming our life; the life that governs us. In His resurrection life there is all victory.
It is a waste of time to continually cry out to God for victory, or to go around claiming, proclaiming, or declaring victory. Christ alone is the victory. And it is only as we live in, and out from Him, by FAITH that His resurrection victory is realized and manifested.
David DePra