Revelation 21:1818And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. (Revelation 21:18) lifts the veil from eternity and describes the eternal state. Here we have the fullest setting forth in Scripture of the blessedness of the new heaven and new earth, in which all things are made new. The time of God’s ways in government has closed, and God rests in the blessing of His redeemed people according to the perfection of His nature. But in wondrous grace the Spirit of God mentions one link with the things that are passed away: “He that overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be to him God and he shall be to Me son” (Rev. 21:77He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. (Revelation 21:7) JND). In the eternal state there will be no more overcoming, for there will be nothing to overcome. Rather, this note of triumph carries us back to the battlefield of the past, where His own have fought those battles upon which God thus puts His seal. Who but God could have so recalled them? If the individuals themselves had recalled their experience in the conflict, we might expect the record to be nothing but failure and defeat. But in sovereign grace this is the character He gives them, and all else is forgotten. Could anything affect our hearts more deeply or encourage us for the conflict that remains? If rightly understood, surely the precious grace of God — beyond all our thoughts — is the strongest incentive for us to be overcomers!
As Christ Overcame
The expression here is very general — no particular circumstance or conflict is specified. But in turning to Scripture to seek light as to it, a precious clue is found in another passage in this book. “To him that overcometh will I give to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with My Father in His throne” (Rev. 3:2121To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3:21)). This little clause, “even as I also overcame,” has a peculiar sweetness. It recalls to us the Lord Jesus in His pathway here and occupies us with the perfection in which He passed through conflict. Can we, then, learn from the Gospels anything of the character of the conflict and the manner in which He overcame?
Overcome Evil With Good
But before we turn directly to them, there is an expression in Romans which, though it is not exactly applied to Him, can only be understood as we see in Him the perfect expression of it: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:2121Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)). Could anything be more characteristic of the path of the blessed Lord? In a world of evil, He was the revelation of the perfect goodness of God. In the power of that good He rose above all the evil and was never overcome by it. We have to go through the same world and are tested in our experience every day. Shall we be overcome of evil, or has the infinite good I know in Christ so taken possession of my heart that in the power of it I overcome? In His strength we are able not only to resist evil, but through grace to overcome evil with good. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:2020Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: (Romans 5:20)).
The Strong Man Armed
Twice in the Gospels the Lord speaks to us of His overcoming. The first is in Luke 11:21-2221When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: 22But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. (Luke 11:21‑22): “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.” Here we are taken back to the conflict which no other eye but God’s witnessed and learn how He overcame, who proved Himself to be the stronger. He was “led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” (Matt. 4:11Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. (Matthew 4:1)). Satan tempted Him in three different ways, presenting that which appealed to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. In each case, our blessed Lord overcame by keeping the place, which He had taken as man, of dependence and obedience. In each case He answered Satan from the Word of God and simply said, “It is written.” The devil could not gain any foothold. Everything as to God’s glory and the accomplishment of His purposes in grace depended on the issue of that conflict, but the Lord Jesus staked it all on “It is written.” What an example for us!
It is significant for us that the order of the enemy’s tactics with the Lord is the same that the young men have to be warned against in 1 John 2. They have overcome the wicked one by the Word of God abiding in them, but the world is the danger now. They are told, “Love not the world,” and, because of the treachery of our hearts, it is added, “Neither the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:1515And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; (John 2:15)). It is not possession that is in question, but what a man hopes to possess — what the heart is set upon. All God’s objects for us are centered in Christ and found where He is. God can present nothing as an object for the heart that is of, or in, a world that has cast out His Son. If there is anything here that has attracted us and become our object, it is the wily tempter who, turned away from the front door, has come around by the back door and gained an entrance by what we have desired for ourselves or our families. As another has said, a bit of something in a shop window may do his work, but if it does not, he can enlarge the bait up to all the kingdoms of this world. Yet, in God’s estimate, there is nothing in this world morally but lust and pride — the miserable lust for what we do not have or the contemptible pride in what we do have.
Victory Through Faith
But how are we to overcome the devil’s snare of the world? In 1 John 5:44For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. (John 5:4) we read, first, “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.” In the very life and nature we have received from God we have a principle of victory over the world. Second, we have, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:44For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. (John 5:4)). That is, by the object presented to faith we become overcomers. Third, it is asked, “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:55And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. (John 5:5)). Nothing short of the full glory of His person as the Son of God is sufficient. We need the full shining of His infinite glory as Son of God to give us victory over the world and its shams. Then shall we know something of a heart so filled with Him for worship and service that, as with the Lord when He was here, there will be no room for any object of Satan’s world.
In Nothing Terrified
The second occasion where the Lord presents Himself as an overcomer is brought before us in His closing words with His disciples in John 16:3333These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33): “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” This is another side of the world. It is not the seductive aspect of it by which Satan hoped to overthrow the Lord and which is the danger of the young men, but rather the persecuting aspect of it —a world where much tribulation was to be encountered on the way to the glory. It is our appointed portion here, and there is real danger of yielding before the pressure of it and becoming unfaithful. If Satan cannot seduce the Christian by the world, he will persecute by it, as in Smyrna.
This aspect of the world may not be so insidious but it is very real, and our only safety is in keeping the eye upon Him who tells us, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Thus again the words, “Even as I also overcame,” have their full bearing upon our path. It was given to the Philippians “in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake; having the same conflict” which they saw in Paul and now heard to be in him (Phil. 1:29-3029For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; 30Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me. (Philippians 1:29‑30)). It was not God’s will that they or we should be discouraged — “in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God” (Phil. 1:2828And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. (Philippians 1:28)).
The Power of Satan
We have to meet the power of Satan in the world, but it is in a very different way from that in which the Lord met him. At that time the devil was flushed with the success of forty centuries. Never before had a man been able to stand against him, firmly and fully. But now he is completely discomfited. “When the devil had ended all the temptation he departed from Him for a season,” and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit, the same power in which He had gone to meet him, into Galilee (Luke 4:13-1413And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. 14And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. (Luke 4:13‑14)). If that season was spent by Satan in gathering up all his resources for the last onslaught on the Lord Jesus, it was only to meet with his final overthrow, for through death He has destroyed him that had the power of death, to deliver them who through fear of death had, as in Old Testament times, been all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. 2:14-1514Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14‑15)). Because to faith he is a defeated foe, it can be said, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:77Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)). He cannot stand before the weakest saint who will lift the little finger of resistance to him, and shortly the God of peace shall bruise Satan under our feet.
He that overcomes will have eternity to enjoy in peace the inheritance of these things. “I will be his God, and he shall be My son” — the sum of all the blessedness. Yet that word, characteristic of those thus blessed, tells of how God had not forgotten the conflicts of the past, though only recalled by the grace that made them overcomers. We are, according to Romans 8:3737Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. (Romans 8:37), “more than conquerors” (for the word is the same as that translated “overcomers,” though with a strengthened force) “through Him that loved us.”
May the Lord, by His wonderful grace and by the example He has set us, stir up all our hearts to more earnest and devoted faithfulness in the conflict that yet remains, for He can say, “Even as I also overcame.”
J. A. Trench, adapted
from Truth for Believers