Good News #297: By Believing in Jesus, I Have Overcome the World; I Am Victorious in Him!
Some Christians today believe they need to do a list of things to become overcomers. This is unfortunate because this is not what the bible teaches and Jesus definitely did not come to add more to-dos in addition to the 613 commandments found in the old covenant.
Some point to the words of Jesus to the seven churches in the book of Revelation as basis for this belief because of His closing lines:
Revelation 2:7b — “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”
Revelation 2:11b — “He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”
Revelation 2:17b — “To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”
Revelation 2:26-28 — “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—
‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron;
They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’
— as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.”
Revelation 3:5 — “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”
Revelation 3:12 — “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. and I will write on him My new name.”
Revelation 3:21 — “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
Yet when we look at the promises that Jesus said in these are blood-bought inheritances of those who are already born again the Spirit the moment they believe in Jesus as the Son of God who came to die for the remission of their sins…and confess Him as Lord and Saviour of their life.
Also, the John who wrote the book of Revelation also wrote the gospel of John and the three epistles of John…all under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
And in 1 John 5:5, he wrote:
Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
In other words, the one who overcomes the world is the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.
Besides, Jesus Himself said in John16:33b:
“In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”
The gospel is this — we know that we are because Jesus is…
We know that we live because Jesus lives…
We know that we have passed from death to life because Jesus conquered and defeated death…
and in the same manner, we overcome because Jesus has overcome.
We are overcomers because we believe in Jesus who is The Overcomer.
Jesus did not complicate it.
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Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:5
