The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:56-57
I love my church. Our leadership (and hence all the worship—in teaching, song, activity) is Bible-based and Gospel-centered. We constantly celebrate the amazing gift of saving grace through faith alone in Christ alone. And we live in the freedom that comes through His Word. Plus, every week, the Lord ushers more and more people into His family through the Good News being preached. It never gets old.
In recent months, the pastor of my church has commented within various sermons that, although the moment of salvation is about surrendering to Jesus as Lord and Savior to experience the transformative freedom in Christ, the Christian life is also war. This is fact. When we join team Jesus, we become enemies of this world, of Satan, and of our own flesh. So, at salvation, we join the fight. This sent my mind reeling to human war, especially as the current geopolitical scene heats up. Then my mental trail led to how men and women enlist in the military to serve our country…or how men (currently only men) may also be drafted to fight, should the situation warrant it. I won’t share my cerebral meandering to the “election” versus “free will” theological chasm, and how one would mean Christians are “drafted” and the other would mean we “enlist”—that is a digression for another day. Suffice it to say that one way or another, believers are at war.
And this is where it gets interesting, Biblically speaking. Is the battle ours to fight? Or does the battle belong to the Lord?
Throughout the Old Testament, we find exhortations to trust the Lord with the fight (of course, in these verses, they typically referred to actual war). See 1 Samuel 17:47 when David trusted God to fight for him against Goliath and 2 Chronicles 20:15, when the Lord assured Judah that the battle was His, and sure enough, the enemy actually defeated themselves—check it out! And in Exodus 14:13-14, before the Red Sea parted, Moses told the Israelites to stop freaking out and be quiet—the Lord would fight for them. These verses can certainly be applied to the proverbial battles of our lives as well.
The battle does belong to the Lord…and so does the victory (1 Corinthians 15:56-57). On this side of the cross, we are privileged to understand that the Real Battle has also been won on our behalf—the Victory that all those other miraculous victories pointed to. As Jesus said before He gave up His life, “It is finished” (the debt is paid, the war is over). If you haven’t heard it yet, listen to the Shane and Shane song, You’ve Already Won, which speaks to our spiritual fight through this world from the vantage point of the Lord’s victory…
…because, although the battle is won, We. Still. Must. Fight.
And as we do, the Lord is with us (Deuteronomy 20:4)! He gets our weakness, pain, and temptations (Hebrews 4:15-16), and He will never leave us or forsake us in the battle (Isaiah 43:2). And He will strengthen us (2 Thessalonians 3:3). But we must also be prepared for the inevitable battles! The Apostle Paul reminds us who our real enemy is and gives us the full battle plan in his letter to the Ephesians (6:10-18).
So, are we to fight—and keep fighting the good fight until the end (as Paul wrote time and time again)? Or does the battle belong to the Lord? The answer is YES! We do fight! However, we fight not for victory, but from victory! Jesus Christ has overcome the world (John 16:33), and because of His victory, we who trust Him in that victory, are more than conquerors (Romans 8:35-39)! So, friend, enlist in God’s army, put on your armor…and join the victorious fight.
Lord, until You return or call us Home, this is war. May we hold fast to Your victory and fight the good fight until then.
encouraged by grace 