Brent Hoover
The game on Saturday, November 27 was BIG for the Wolverine Nation and other fans watching. It was fun and wonderful news: we defeated our foe – we won! We are the victors!!! Our passion for this moment in college football is obvious.
But larger by far than the news of Michigan beating Ohio State at a college football game is an eternal truth that should evoke deep passion in us who are His followers – Jesus the Christ has defeated death, sin, and Satan.
That defeat, the utter vanquishing of that foe and all that it represented, was an earth-shattering, once-and-for-all, universe-changing WIN that we now live in. It was the key moment in human history. Everything was on the line – for real. Without it we would have lost and would still be lost. But He was victorious and this has changed everything.
Jesus Christ was determined to “bring his sons and daughters to glory,” and He still is today. Think of that … no force, no being, not even deep and painful personal failures and doubt can keep Him from being the victorious Captain of the armies of heaven and the Victor standing over our lives, holding us up alongside of Him, basking together in the glory of His triumph!
Now, in our lives of walking with Jesus Christ, we know that He has started a good work in us, and His ultimate victory reminds us that He will go on to complete it.
He will transform our lowly bodies into new ones. He will sanctify our spirits to become more like Christ. And He will bring many sons and daughters to glory. This is guaranteed ‒a bona fide result of His victory of resurrection.
The darkness of this world and the systems of culture that don’t recognize Him, including entertainment, politics, education, media – yes, even Meta, YouTube, Apple and Google – should be on notice, for He is coming to make things right. The nations and all their puny powers of self-ascribed glory are fading. And the universe-filling Light of the World is coming.
Now we live in that light. It lives in us. And we are called daily to live according to it, for that Light is Him. The world is darkness and it is fading. But we who believe in Jesus are light because we are in Him, face-to-face, beholding the glory of the one and only Son of God.
Many things want to block the light and diminish it. Many voices want you to doubt its reality and power. But nothing, not even your doubt, changes its power. Because its power comes from God whose almighty strength is unlimited and whose love for you is unending and fathomless.
He will bring you to glory – that is, into a fully redeemed life with Him – into a new creation human being, one made in Christ’s image, and ultimately into a resurrection body. This is your ultimate victory, not your personal overcoming of things, but His full redemption of you, body and soul. This is His will. This is His decree. This is His pleasure. This is His love.
Place your highest passion into the Presence of Christ and what He is doing in this world. Consider meditating on the following proclamations of victory from the Word of God to cement these truths into your heart and life. Live in the reality of His victory. And if you have not yet embraced Jesus as the Lord of your life, do that today and it will be the beginning of the greatest victory you have ever known. And this one will last forever.
In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what He suffered. (Hebrews 2:10)
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
(I John 3:8)
In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
(Romans 8:37)
Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. (John 12:31)
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross. (Colossians 2:15)
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
(Colossians 3:3-4)
But now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel … (2Timothy 1:10)
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 25:8)
Then comes the end, when He hands over the Kingdom to God the Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. (I Corinthians 15:24)
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14)
Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28-29)
… and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. (Revelation 1:8)