KwaSizabantu Ministers’ Conference
7 – 9 March 2005
We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Rom. 8:37
The Children of the Kingdom
This passage raises a question. The question is, who is this “we”? Or who are we? I personally feel that is not easy to understand this passage or this theme and answer the question unless we first look into God’s purpose for each one of us. This takes us back to the creation story.
And God said, “Let Us make man in our own image” (Genesis 1:26). The first Adam, the head of human race, was made in God’s image, in the realm of personality, intellect, emotion, love, will, righteousness, faithfulness etc, so that there could be communion, fellowship and co-operation union between God and man. With God sovereign, and man subject, subject to his will, this is perfect freedom. Yes, indeed man and God had intimate relationship. They lived in fellowship. God shared His kingdom with man and there was harmony. And this was perfect life, life in its fullness. Then came a tragedy, man sinned, he chose his own way in preference to God’s way. As a result, he was separated from God. He immediately became self-centred instead of God centred; he was dead to God who is the source of all life, dead in trespassed and sin.
In this condition, Adam begot a son in his own likeness, after his fallen image (Genesis 5:3) thus, he brought forth a sinful, ungodly, self-centred race, born dead in trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:1). But sin failed d to cause man not to be loved by God.
“For whilst we were still sinners God loved us.” Says St Paul (Rom 5:8). “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son so that whoever believes in Him might not die but have eternal life. “ Out of this love God sent his Son Jesus Christ to rescue us from the raging waves of sin and to save us from perishing and to restore us again to the kingdom, where we belonged. Here is the image of God, back to earth. This time in the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, God’s last Adam (1 Cor 15: 45-47). So therefore, we means the saved, the restored, the children of the kingdom. Our natural birth made us members of fallen, sinful, first Adam’s race. Our transition from the old sinful race, to the new godly race, is known as the “New Birth”, when we were born again, through repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. “(Act 20:21). We were born into Him – He became our life.” Col 3:4.
When Jesus become our life, we become more than conquerors. We become more than conquerors through Him, We become more thanconquerors when we live his life. We are more than conquerors by having the power of the Holy Spirit, in our life, with total dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ. We become more than conquerors as we come to surrender more and more of our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and read, and believe the Bible as the true word of God. By so doing we find that increased power, strength and authority is given us by the Holy Spirit ( For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love and sound mind (2 Tim 1:7) says St Paul.
Here we see that our Heavenly father is still carrying out His purpose of making man in His own image. All now is centred in the last Adam our Lord Jesus Christ. Being born into Him through faith we become partakers of the divine nature, (11 Pet 1:4) and Jesus is allowed to express Himself through our personality this sin – sick - world, will see “ Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). Each and everyone of us need to be aware of the power, strength, and authority that Jesus Christ has given us. We are more thanconquerors by yielding ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and surrender to His will. We are more than conquerors for we have come to Knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and our mind is renewed and we have received the mind of Christ.
In this way our life and actions should be governed by the Holy Spirit. “ I will dwell in them” (2 Cor 6:16). Being more than conquerors implies a deliberate commitment to copy Christ, as well as the loyal obedience to His commands. He then becomes our commander in chief and us, His soldiers. This is achieved by becoming much closer to God in our day to day activities. It is through faith in Jesus Christ that we become more thanconquerors, faith that rules our lives. Our road to perfection of Christ is faith. We need to and we must give ourselves totally to God, and our happiness, should be from doing God’s will, whether it brings us pain or pleasure. We need to be faithful even in times of hardships. In fact it is during those difficult times (and dry spells) that God tests our love for Him. It is during those times when we should take advantage of practicing our determination and our surrender and commitment to Him. This of course will bring us to maturity further on, in our walk with Him. And we will recognize God as being intimately present within us.
To achieve this, it is important for the heart to be emptied of everything that would annoy God. Emptied from whatever is contrary to God’s will. God wants to posses your heart – He wants to posses my heart, our heart completely. We become more than conquerors through Jesus Christ, when God is totally in control, and when we are living in the continuous communion with God. We are more than conquerors only because we have adjusted our lives to his will, and have a complete relationship with God. We are more than conquerors by sharing Jesus Christ divine life. Life abundant, has its source in Him, and He bestows that life on all who put trust in Him.
This is Jesus, the Son of God, who cannot be bound by death or tomb. He conquered death and sin when He rose again. So the restored, the saved, the children of God, have a victorious leader to follow. It is the will of God that all who are saved by Christ that they should be conquerors or over comers. We have to defeat the enemy through Christ our commander in chief. Jesus rose from the dead and is victorious, and we who believe in Him, and are joined to Him, are also victorious, through Him who loved us. With Christ, in Christ and through Christ our leader, no enemy can stand before us. For in His name there is a victory. Through the risen and victorious Christ, we are more than conquerors.
In Christ we are more than conquerors and His love will protect us from any force – no matter what happens to us, God is always with us, and we can never be lost to His love. Jesus said to His disciples, “In the world you will face tribulations, but take courage I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33). We need to believe the word of God. Believing means to make Jesus Christ in charge of your life. We are more than conquerors because our life is hid with Christ in God. That we are more than conquerors also means that Jesus Christ is alive and He manifests His victorious acts through His church, the children of God, the saved, and the redeemed.
It is through our hiddiness with Christ in God that we are victorious. It is by letting Christ act and speak in us that makes us to be more than conquerors. He shares His divine power with us and nothing can stand before us, but we have to grow towards the stature of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who remakes us in His own moral and spiritual image.
Brothers and sisters, all we need is to believe that God is saving us, He is saving men and women through His Son Jesus Christ. It is our faith in God that restores the relationship between us and God that sin had broken. It is within that restored relationship that God works in and upon us, to renew us in the image of Christ, so that we are conformed to (His likeness) the likeness of His Son Jesus Christ. (as Paul says Rom. 8:29) Thus we become more than conquerors through Christ and in Christ, for our salvation involves Christ dying for us and Christ living in us, projecting God’s glory through us – hence we are more than conquerors through Him, which means the life of God in human soul that is hid in Christ with God. It means Christ’s life within us, flowing, and this is the victorious life. And the kingdom of God is fully established on earth and His will done, for God has taken over and is incharge over every soul.