Introduction
Heb 2:3
How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
Today I’ve been given the privilege to preach and honour on the final installment of the series on the way of the cross. And I hope you stay with me this morning because I think this is a very important message for every Christian because so many of us have an incomplete picture of the victory that was won for us on the cross of Calvary.
So many Christians live defeated lives today, they are not walking in the victory the cross has won for us. It is a very well known statistic that 95% of all Christians struggle with some form of condemnation. They feel that they not accepted before God. That they have not done enough to please God. That they are inadequate before God. This is something we see quite common place not just outside the Church but in FCC itself.
In FCC, if you have been here for a while. You will notice and see around you that there are many people here who are struggling. There is no joy and no peace in them. Peter mentioned last week that the trademark for the Church was how people liked to go on a “sabbatical” or “hiatus” from church and they leave the church for a period of time. Take a break from Church – that’s FCC’s trademark.
We have more problems than praise reports. How many times have you heard anyone stand up here and testify of the goodness of God. No! As leaders, if we are not causing the crisis, go from managing one crisis to another crisis. Going from one problem to another. We say we want to be a thinking church. One that is theologically inclusive. But for many people here, you think and think and think, and don’t find answers. You will end up leaving the church. Even if it means going back to a mainline church that doesn’t accept you. Why? Because these people have no victory in their relationship with God.
When there is no victory, how do you attract people to want to know your God? You know, we have experienced almost zero growth in our church so far this year. How do you attract people, when after becoming a Christian, and walking with God for some time, you have even more problems that threaten to overcome and are more defeated. The Bible says: we will not defeat the accuser (Satan) because of how intelligent we are, how theologically sophisticated or how many projects we complete, but by two things, and two things alone – the blood of the lamb and the (consequential) word of our testimony.
So, we witness by our testimony about how God has worked a transformation in our lives by the blood of the lamb through the victory that was won through work of the cross. That’s what Christian witness is about. In fact, that’s what the entire Word of God is – a collection of testimonies! You have the Old Testament and the New Testament.
So if before and after you have become a Christian, there’s little transformation, you still live a life where problems overcome you, where you have no relationship with God – there’s no change outwardly or inwardly with you, then what testimony have you got? Where is your victory?
I’ve met many Christians who can trust God for our spiritual salvation. We can trust God that after we leave this Earth we’ll be going to heaven to be with the Lord and that we have registered our names in Heaven’s Book of Life. But we find it very hard to trust Him with our day to day lives like our career, our marriage, with our health, our family, our finances, our jobs. And we set a limit on how much we believe that God could do for us.
Being born again is more than just a one-time event. You need to know that salvation is really an ongoing life changing process.
If we don’t know what the cross has bought for us, and who we are in Christ to claim the promises, or the fullness of our salvation, we will not be living a victorious life!
The verse from book of Hebrew that we’ve just read says: it is a salvation “so great”! Other translations say it is a perfect salvation, a complete salvation. It is called “so great” because it includes every aspect, every area of your lives! And it is centered solely on the cross of Jesus Christ.
So today, we are first going to look at 7 victories that the work of the Cross bought us. “7” is the Bible numerological number for perfect or complete. So it is a perfect victory. A complete victory that the work of the cross has bought us. And then we’re going to look at how we position ourselves to claim the victory for ourselves!
The main text for today is taken from Isa 53. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Isa 53.
Now, Isaiah is often called the little Bible within the Bible. Why is that? Because there are 66 chapters. And there are 66 books in the Bible. Coincidentally, the first 39 chapters in Isaiah correspond with (or parallel) the first 39 books of the Bible – the Old Testament, and the remaining 27 chapters, 40 to 66 correspond to the New Testament portion of scripture.
If you take the New Testament half, chapter 40 to 66 and cut it down in the middle, you will come to chapter 53. Now this is no coincidence. This is the center of the new covenant revelation. So today we’re going to be reading from Isa 53.
This chapter is read usually during Easter because it talks about the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross. By the way, Isaiah in Hebrew means salvation. So the cross of Jesus is central to our salvation. Very interesting right?
So let’s start reading from verse 3.
Isa 53:3
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
The first victory the cross won for us is ACCEPTANCE.
Here we see in verse 3 that Jesus was despised, rejected. He was not given any honour as the son of God. If you watched the movie, the Passion of the Christ, you saw the high priest spat at Jesus. They mocked at Him. They beat His head. They shamed Him publicly.
Friends, on the cross, Jesus looked so grotesque and so offensive, we turn our eyes away from Him! “Like one from whom men hide their faces.” People who went to watch the movie couldn’t look at Jesus in the Passion movie had turn their eyes away from Him. Why? It was so offensive and grotesque! So gross the censors had to give it an “MA18” rating.
Verse 3 says he went through all that to bear all the shame and rejection we have to go through in a fallen world. We are living in a world today that doesn’t understand the unconditional love of God. This is something many of us can identify with. Being rejected by our friends, family members, society because of our sexual orientation.
Today, children grow up feeling rejected because parents didn’t want them. Parents view them as inconveniences to their career. We have teenagers growing up feeling rejected. Because they don’t measure to society’s expectation in their studies, in their work performance. Women feel rejected by men when men cheat on them. Commit adultery and divorce them. And men feel as deeply the wound of rejection when a marriage doesn’t work out.
You know that in our world today, shame and rejection has become the Number One cause for depression and suicide.
I recently saw a study done by the Amercian National Institute of Mental Health and they reported that 18% of all people suffer clinical depression. That is one in five people suffer some form of depression.
But I want to let you know today that the good news is that on the cross Jesus bore the wound of rejection for us.
I want you to now put a bookmark in Isa 53, and go with me to Matt 27:45. This was the scene from the Cross of Calvary when Jesus was being crucified.
Matt 27:45-50
Now from the sixth hour (twelve noon) until the ninth hour (three pm) there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.
The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.”
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
Based on the Gospel evidence, medical doctors and scientists all agree that Jesus died of massive bleeding and a cardiac arrest from a loss of blood. In other words, He died of a heart failure. But more than that, Jesus Christ died of a broken heart. A heart that bore all the rejection and shame for you and I. The most agonizing of all the rejections was a rejection by Father God. He said “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” And for the first time in the history of the Universe, Jesus, the Son of God prayed and there was no answer.
And immediately after that, Jesus gave out a loud cry and gave up His spirit. But let’s look on to verse 51 and look at what was the result:
Matt 27:51
Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.
So the veil of separation in the Holy Temple was cut asunder, and that was symbolic that now there’s no distance, no more separation between God and sinner, that through Jesus Christ we are no longer rejected by God. We can come near to Him and be accepted.
Eph 1:6
To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Can we all say: “I am accepted in the Beloved!”
The second victory the cross won for us is HEALING
Isa 53:4
Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
If you look at your Bible, next to “infirmities” and “sorrows” you see a mark indicating that there’s a footnote attached to it. The footnote says infirmities and sorrows literally mean sicknesses and pains. The European language and even Chinese language Bibles all have the right translations.
So verse 4 and 5 should read literally:
Isa 53:4-5
Surely He has borne our sicknesses
And carried our pains;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes (wounds and bruises) we are healed.
There are many Christians today who don’t believe in divine supernatural healing. Maybe before you came to FCC you were from a Church that doesn’t believe in supernatural healing or where this isn’t talked about very much from the pulpit. Or you say: I’m not a charismatic. I’m not a Pentecostal. But whatever your theological persuasion is, it doesn’t cancel the word of God.
Physical healing is the second victory the cross has won for us. This is not just something limited to the Old Testament, it is confirmed in the New Testament as well. We see this in Matt 8:16:
Matt 8:16
When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.
This was the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. The first time Jesus ministered in public. Notice how many people he healed. All who were sick. And all means all! Not some! All! Maybe you may have prayed for people in the past and nothing happened. You may have many disappointments you come to healing or maybe you’ve not seen someone who has experienced supernatural healing. But it doesn’t mean Jesus cannot heal all who were sick!
Matt 8:17
This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
"He took up our infirmities
and carried our diseases.”
So the first thing Jesus did in His public ministry was to fulfill the prophesy in Isa 53.
What are infirmities? Infirmities mean physical weakness. Birth defects. Allergies. Asthma. Exema. Weaknesses you have in your body.
And not only infirmities he bore, He bore our sicknesses. All kinds of diseases. Heart disease. Tuberculosis. Cancer. What ever sickness you can name.
“Infirmities” and “sicknesses” means nothing is too hard for our God to heal and make whole because of the cross of Calvary.
I don’t know about you but I get excited about this verse. Why? This healing revelation changed my life!
You know I wouldn’t be alive and standing here today if not for the supernatural healing of Jesus Christ not just once but several times in my life. In my teens, I was stricken by a heart virus – one that had no treatment or cure. The doctors don’t know what to do with a heart virus. All they can do is give you some medication and hope for the best. Jesus healed me of that heart virus. In my twenties, I avoided repeated surgery for my sinusitis. Seeing the doctor the day before my operation was supposed to happen, I was praying very hard that I would have to go through the weeks of pain and suffering. So I took a deep breath, and the polyps (which are the growth in my nose) got dislodge and I spat it out and showed it to the doctor and asked him if I needed the operation any more. I didn’t! Also a few years ago, I had a tumour the size of a 20-cent coin in my jaw successfully removed that had been there for over twelve years apparently and was found benign! Just a couple of years ago, I was admitted to A&E one night because I had alcohol poisoning from a bad reaction between something I had to drink and my medication. And I was in the A&E ward with people dying around me. My blood pressure was off the scale and I though I was going to die too. I claimed the promise of healing for myself and a few minutes later the pain left me and I was able to walk out of the A&E on my own and made it for church the following morning!
It is your choice if you want to claim this victory for yourself. It is in the word of God.
The third victory the cross won for us is FORGIVENESS
Isa 53:6a
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
The Bible says, “We all” – all of us – no one is exempted. The Book of Romans says that, “all of us has sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.” We all have gone astray. And we have all sinned against God in our thoughts, in our actions, in our deeds. And we have turned each one to his own way. So God wants us to go this way and follow Him. But we have rebelled and because of our own pride and rebellion, we choose to go the other direction.
Now, sin and rebellion has its consequences. Let’s look on at what happened in the second part of this verse.
Isa 53:6b
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all
Iniquity. Now that’s not a very commonly used word! What is inquity? Inquity is the punishment for our guilt and perversity. We are living in a fallen and peverse world today. Everything is fallen from its original state. Everything is out of whack, perverted from the original intent of God’s creation.
God’s justice is not arbitary. It is not random. It is not unfair. And God’s holiness and justice demands that our sins must be punished. But to save us, Jesus took our punishment for all our sin and rebellion and guilt and perversity and nailed it on the cross of Calvary.
Col 2:13-14
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations (that is the law), that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
So Jesus took all the judgment, all the condemnation. All the sentence that’s due to us and nailed it to the cross of Calvary.
And in 2 Cor 5:21, Paul was specifically referring to Isa 53 when he wrote:
2 Cor 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Notice Paul didn’t say – You “have” the righteousness of God. Paul says you “have become” the righteousness of God. Righteousness is a gift from God as a result of the cross. Righteousness is not a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is not something that you grow, or that you earn.
Now a lot of people find this very hard to understand. That it’s a gift. So let me ask Steven to come up here for a moment. I’ve got this Bible. And I’m giving the Bible to Steven as a gift. When Steven takes the gift, he receives in its full entirety. It is now his Bible. I don’t give it to him page by page. You know, this year if you are good, I give you page 1. Next year if you are good, I’ll give you the second book. And maybe before the day you die, you earn the whole collection and get the Bible in its entirety. No! Righteousness doesn’t work like that! Forgiveness doesn’t work like that! You become righteous. Instantly. When the blood of Christ washes us. Righteousness is not a fruit. You don’t grow righteous. You don’t earn righteousness.
Say: I have the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.
The fourth victory the cross won for us is BLESSING
What is the blessing? Is it only talking about finances? Whenever Christians talk about Blessing, what do we mean? We write emails and sign off “God Bless!” Or “Blessings!”
Gal 3:13
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),
Jesus was cursed when He went to the cross. Why’s that?
Gal 3:14
He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
So on the cross, Jesus was made a curse so that the blessing of God could be brought back to us!
Now what is a curse? Very often we watch movies, there an evil wicked witch. And she mutters curses. What is a curse? A curse is simply a never ending continual cycle of failure. You fail, you fail and you fail again. And you fail somemore. Until your whole life is destroyed. That is a curse.
I’ve been reading the Old Testament in my quiet time recently and Deut 28 gives us 7 types of never ending cycles of failure that plague the entire human race. It’s such bad news I don’t want to go into detail, but 7 cycles of failure that many of us go through:
i. mental and emotional breakdown
ii. chronic sicknesses
iii. repeated miscarriages
iv. failed marriages
v. financial lack and bankruptcy
vi. continuous accidents
vii. suicidal tendencies and unnatural deaths in the family
So if there’s ever good news, this is the good news!
On the cross, Jesus redeemed us from the curse so the blessings of heaven can come upon our lives.
Eph 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Notice what it says: He “has blessed us”. It’s in present prefect tense, which means, He has already blessed us! It is not something we have to earn. So why aren’t you blessed? Because you don’t know who you are in Christ!
Let say your Earthly Father is the richest man in Singapore. He has left you billions of dollars in the bank. But you don’t know who your daddy is. You don’t know the bank account. You went roller blading, fell down, hit your head and got amnesia. You can have the richest bank account in the whole world but you will never get to enjoy a single cent of it. And what is true in the natural is true in the spiritual!
If you don’t know who you are, the storehouse of heaven may be so great with your account, but you never get a single withdrawal from that storehouse.
Rom 8:32
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
How many things? All things! When you are in Christ, the storehouse of God is wide open. And we need to know what you have received in Christ.
Because if you are not aware about it, you will be even fearful to think about it. We have no faith to claim it. We feel condemned even to ask it. Do you know that 95% of Christians all over the world think it’s wrong to ask God for things.
Let me tell you a short story about William Cary. William Cary was a pioneer of the modern day missionary movement. Dr Cary played a central role in the education and modernization of India. Imagine, he’s a preacher, but he changed the face of a great continent. During the 1700s, there was no burden or interest in the Church for missionary work. But young William Cary, he approached the Church of England – the Anglican Church. He said – God has sent me to be a missionary to Burma. I want to preach the gospel to Burma. Some of the Anglican leaders said to him. Listen Cary, if God wants to save the Burmese, He doesn’t need Your help. How dare you ask Him to send you as a missionary. Well thank God William Cary didn’t listen to his leaders!
If you don’t know who you are in Christ, you will feel condemned to ask God for things, for blessings. So every curse of defeat is broken on the cross of Calvary. So we can receive the blessing of Abraham for ourselves – which is every blessing for our daily lives.
The fifth victory the cross bought us is A NEW LIFE IN THE SPIRIT
John 1:4
In Him (Christ) was life, and the life was the light of men.
And this new life is led by the Holy Spirit.
Do you know what is the meaning of the phrase “In Christ”? Christ, or “Christos” literally means the anointed. So being “in Christ” means to be walking in the anointing or to be walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.
But the Holy Spirit was poured out to believers only after Jesus was crucified, resurrected and ascended, then the Holy Spirit was poured out to all. So that’s one of the victories of the cross. And to receive it, you first have to be clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Luk 24:45-49
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
The disciples were called to be Christian witnesses and to preach the good news, they were to do it only when they were empowered by the Holy Spirit.
You know, God has not called us to live a religious life. You don’t come to Church, listen to some boring sermon, do some religious duties and go home and nothing happens in your life for the rest of the week. That’s religion. No!
The Christian life is a supernatural life. A life that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says it is the anointing of the Holy Spirit the breaks the yoke of Satan. The Bible says, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, there is power. There is joy. And when we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law and there is freedom! And liberty!
The sixth victory the cross won for us is A NEW COVENANT
Just now we celebrated Holy Communion today and we recited this verse together:
1 Cor 11:25
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
What is a covenant? A covenant is like an agreement. But a covenant is different from a contract.
A contract usually has a lot of terms and conditions. The fine print. Escape clauses. Null and void. The difference between a contract and a covenant is that a covenant has no escape clauses.
So for example, a pre-nuptial is a contract. But a marriage is a covenant.
In a marriage there are no escape clauses. It’s for better or worse. In sickness and in health. Till death do us part.
A contract on the other hand is self-centered. You want to get maximum benefit. And you don’t want the other person to cheat you. You want to protect yourself. A contract comes from a selfish, self-centered approach. You want to get maximum benefit. The other person gets minimum reward.
A covenant is different. It is totally unselfish. It is a reflection of a deep loving relationship. When two people want to get married, they enter into a covenant. One party is not thinking, how can I have maximum benefit at the expense of the other. No he or she is thinking – how can I be a blessing? So a covenant is unselfish. A covenant is not self-centered.
Some Christians don’t like the concept of a covenant. Because to them it sounds too legal. But God centered Christianity is both relational and legal. Yes, the ultimate purpose is for us to worship, love and enjoy God. It is relational. But God knows that walking by feeling is not enough, so a fellowship-only approach can be dangerous. It can be too emotional. It changes. How many have at least one friend? How many have been hurt by someone before? How many have felt lousy about a friendship before? Everyone has!
You know when you walk with God in your relationship with God, there will be times you don’t understand why God does certain things, or allow certain things to happen. There will be times we will get confused, angry, disappointed with God. God has to give you something objective, something unchangeable. Something that’s rock’s solid. So that no matter what happens, you know that you know that you know that his commitment and love for you is unchanging.
So what happens when you feel let down by God? When you pray for healing and nothing happens? Well, you can’t let your life experience or expectations judge God. Friends, when you can’t understand, you always go back to the covenant. Because the covenant is guaranteed. No matter what your circumstance is, no matter how disappointed you are, no matter what other people may say, God is faithful and God is committed in His love for you and for me.
So when you know God’s covenant. It makes you very bold. Not arrogant. But bold. When you go through a lot of trials and tribulations, nothing shakes you. You are solid as a rock. So we don’t look at circumstance.
Dan 11:32
Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.
Satan knows the unlimited power at our disposal. He knows we don’t have to be sick and weak. That we don’t have to be poor and cursed. That we can move in the power of the anointing. He knows you can be a great influence to people. To reflect Christ in the world around us. So he’ll try to make us sin against the covenant. To break the covenant.
But in the new covenant, God didn’t make the covenant with you. Because He knows we’re going to mess things up. He made the covenant with Jesus. And we know that Jesus will not mess up the covenant. That’s why we need to get in Christ. Then we’re with Him and we’ll never mess up the covenant.
So how does our covenant with God work? It’s the same as a marriage. When you enter into a covenant relationship with God through the work of the cross, you are saying, “Lord, I give all of me, in exchange for all of You.” It is unselfish. What little I have I give to Him, in exchange I have all the promises and benefits of the covenant available to me. All the victory in Christ.
What if we mess up? That’s the beauty of having the better mediator. Jesus is the better mediator. Whenever we mess up, no problem! Because the covenant is not up to me, the covenant is up to God and Jesus Christ.
So the first six victories of the cross are:
The first victory the cross won for us is ACCEPTANCE
The second victory the cross won for us is HEALING
The third victory the cross won for us is FORGIVENESS
The fourth victory the cross won for us is BLESSING
The fifth victory the cross won for us is A NEW LIFE IN THE SPIRIT
The sixth victory the cross won for us is A NEW COVENANT
And finally…
The seventh victory the cross has won for us is A NEW STANDING
It’s no point knowing the all these victories that have been won for you by the work of the cross if you don’t how where you stand with God and how to claim it for yourself.
Before I came back to God in 1997, I used to flee from Christians. Friends call me up, ask me to come to church, I said no. When my phone rings, I put a bracket at the end of their names with a special symbol to signify they were from Church so that I could ignore or cancel the call. I didn’t want to go to the church, I ran from the church. I ran from my Christian friends. I felt guilty in my conscience and I struggled with shame.
But after a rededicated my life about 9 years ago now, I entered into a new relationship with God. And now, I can come boldly into God’s presence. People have come up to me and say Gary, you are very bold now. You lead worship, you preach, you organize this and that. You must be born with the talent! Can I tell you it is not the case at all? If you had known me before I came back to God, I was a very different person. I was introverted, awkward, shy, and insecure. But after I entered into a new relationship with God, and understood my standing in Christ as a son of the most-high King, my mind was renewed, and I became very bold when it came to doing the work of the Father.
But do you know that many Christians don’t have a clear understanding of their standing in Christ? And don’t relate to Him like children of the Father?
This is like in a workplace, the staff respects the boss. The bigger the company, the more they are afraid of the boss. In a big organization, they are scared stiff of the boss. But how many of you know this, the bosses children come in to find the boss. They don’t need any appointment. The kid of the boss, he can just walk in, past the secretary, go straight into the room. Doesn’t even knock at the door. Says, “Daddy I’m here!” And if he’s 5-years old He will take his crayon and sit on the table and draw his pictures.
Does the Father go, “How dare you come into my office unannounced without knocking or making an appointment?!” No he doesn’t! He’s happy to see the son!
If they are in their teens, maybe they’ll come in and ask for the keys to the car or money for food. And the Father gives it to him. They don’t need to make appointment with the secretary – “can I please meet my Father next week at 3pm?”
The boss’ son is very bold. And guess what. God’s your heavenly Father! You don’t need to make an appointment to see Him next week. Don’t need to ask the Angel Gabriel to pencil you in.
If you’ve been to Israel, you see the kids running around the streets playing. And they’re calling out “Abba, Abba!” And the word Abba simply means Daddy, or Pa. And it is a very intimate relationship. That word Abba.
Rom 8:14-15
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
When we walk in Spirit, we will never lose our fellowship. We will never lose our righteousness. We can come into His presence, freely, boldly.
How many know that the kid may do a lot of bad things. May mess up sometimes but we are still sons and daughters of God. So we can cry out Abba Father. When we know that, we can be very bold to claim the victory for ourselves.
2 Cor 2:14
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
What does it mean to be “in triumph”?
This passage was written during the time of the Roman rule. And during that time, the Romans would go out to conquer other nations. After winning a war, they would plunder the nation and destroy the enemy, and then they will have a big victory parade where the citizens of the city would attend.
Now the first thing on display in front of the parade, are the soldiers carrying all the silver and gold and the jewelry and the valuables – the spoils of the war. After all the treasure, there will be the king of the enemy. He will be stripped naked. He will not have the dignity of even a loin cloth. He will be stark naked. They will have his head, they will chain his hands and legs, and put a heavy yoke on his neck and he has to bow and walk behind all the treasure. He’s being made a spectacle. Behind him will be all his generals and soldiers. They are all naked, and they are all chained up. And then behind, you have the chariot of the general that won the battle. It could be Julius Ceasar, or some great general. And he would be standing in a golden chariot. And this chariot is called a triumph.
So the general is in triumph. And all the people are clapping and cheering. And guess what? The Bible says that God has always led us in triumph in Christ.
So in Jesus, all the things that we need that the devil has stolen, all the treasures that you need – healing, protection, provision, finances, good health. Everything is laid out. Guess who’s behind that. The devil’s behind that, and through the Cross of Calvary, he’s stripped naked, and all his principalities and powers and might and dominion and all the demons.
Jesus the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords – He is in triumph and guess who’s standing in the triumph with Him, you and I – because we are in Christ, in triumph! And all the angels are clapping and cheering.
Angels cannot be standing in the triumph because angels cannot be in Christ. That’s the reason why we are higher than the angels. So we can be in triumph, in Christ! Every power, principality, might, dominion is stripped once and for all. We have a new victory by the Cross of Calvary.
So let’s say together the victories that Jesus on the cross of Calvary has won for us:
1. Acceptance
2. Healing
3. Forgiveness
4. Blessing
5. A new life
6. A new covenant
7. A new standing
When you know that, you never walk again in defeat. Because you know who you are, you need to know what you’ve got, and everytime something bad happens, you don’t think God’s judging you. You know it’s just another attack of from the principality of the world, and you’re going to rise up and rebuke it and bind it and cast it out.
How many of you never want to walk in condemnation again? How many of you know you are not defeated in Jesus Christ? How many of you want to walk more in the Holy Spirit in this new life? How many of you want to break the curse of failure? How many of you want to enjoy blessings – good health, financial blessing, protection, joy & freedom? How many of you want to walk in the new covenant and be tighter in Christ? How many of you want to walk in authority? How many of you want to be in the triumph with Jesus Christ and never be defeated another day in your life?
Listen, this doesn’t mean that there’s no trials or tribulations. But it means that Christianity is an in spite of faith. I don’t walk by feelings, but I walk knowing who I am in the covenant. But first, we need to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Pray in response:
Heavenly Father, I thank you for victory of the cross. I thank you that I’m a new creation in Jesus Christ. That I have been forgiven. No more condemnation. By the cross, I claim healing for my physical weaknesses and sicknesses. By the cross, I believe all blessings are mine to enjoy. Every curse is broken. By the cross, I have a new life and a new covenant. By the cross, I have a new standing as a child of God. Come Holy Spirit, fall on me now. Fill me with your power so I can walk in the anointing. To be your witness. To be the salt and light of the world. Jesus, You lead me in triumph. By the cross, I have a new victory. Thank you God! In the mighty name of Jesus we pray, Amen!
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