Victory belongs to Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:57 ESV
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Victory Belongs To The Lord. Proverbs 21:30, NIV There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD. Proverbs 21:31, NLT The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD. The Battle Is The Lord’s.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we all want to live a triumphant Christian life. The Bible assures us that God and His Son Jesus are Victors and that believers can share in their victories: “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). In a practical sense, how can we experience the victorious life that has been made possible in Christ? How can we achieve victory in Jesus?

Victory ultimately belongs to the Lord our God (1 Samuel 17:47). Since the days of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, whenever God’s people depended on Him alone, He gave them victory over their enemies (Exodus 15). Old Testament prophets consistently pointed to a future Savior who would bring the fullest expression of God’s triumph: “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9; Psalm 110:1). We know these prophecies refer to Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, who has overcome the world (John 16:33).

Jesus won the supreme victory at the cross. Sin was atoned for, and the power of sin and death was broken ( John 12:31 and 1 Peter 2:24). After Christ’s crucifixion and burial, He rose from the dead three days later, and now we share that victory. Satan thought he had won the ultimate contest with the death of Christ. Instead, that death released our chains, set us free from the prison of sin, and disarmed the supernatural powers of evil: “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:13–15).

The key to achieve victory in Jesus is faith in Christ: “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4–5; Romans 8:37). The first step to victory in Jesus is accepting Christ as Savior. We receive the Lord by grace through faith, and we live in His victory by grace through faith as well. Our salvation is a gift of God’s grace, and our victory in Jesus is a gift of God’s grace (Ephesians 2:4–8; Galatians 3:3).

What is the extent of Jesus Christ’s victory that He imparts to us? The victory that Jesus shares with us includes victory over the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). Our Lord’s triumph over temptation and sin (Hebrews 4:15; Matthew 4:1–11) has become our victory as well: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24; Romans 5:20–21). The apostle John elaborates: “But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:5–8).

Jesus has overcome Satan and the powers of evil (John 14:30; 16:11; Mark 1:23–27; Luke 4:33–36), and He shares that victory with us. Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you” (Luke 10:18–19; Ephesians 1:21–22). The writer of Hebrews explains that Jesus took on flesh and blood and shared in our humanity “so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14–15). We need not fear death or the devil because we share in Jesus Christ’s victory over them (Acts 2:24; Romans 6:9; 8:38–39; 2 Timothy 1:10; Revelation 1:18).

As long as we remain in this fallen world, we’ll still have struggles to overcome and battles to fight. At times we will fall and fail. But we continue to get back up, asking God to equip us with His grace and power to overcome (2 Corinthians 12:9). As believers, we fight our battles in the spiritual realm, on our knees: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:3–4). God has given us spiritual armor to protect us from the powers of darkness that wage war against us (Ephesians 6:10–20).

Victory in Jesus is real and attainable now because our Lord Jesus has defeated Satan and every evil power of the world. We achieve victory in Jesus by resting in Christ (Matthew 11:28) and trusting Him to triumph for us (Romans 5:17). While we remain on earth, the Lord reigns victorious through those who have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and translated into His glorious kingdom of light (1 Peter 2:9). However, a day will come when the victories of Jesus will be fully realized and celebrated in the new heavens and earth: “He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken” (Isaiah 25:8).

The key to victory in our struggles with sin lies not in ourselves, but in God and His faithfulness to us: “The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth” (Psalm 145:18; see also Psalm 46:1).

There’s no getting around it: we all struggle with sin (Romans 3:23). Even the great apostle Paul lamented over his ongoing struggle with sin in his life: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (Romans 7:18-20). Paul’s struggle with sin was real; so much so that he cried out, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (Romans 7:24).

Yet in the next breath, he answers his own question, as well as ours: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25a). In this passage, Paul not only provides us with the very key to victory when struggling with sin, but explains the never-ending conundrum between our sinful nature and spiritual nature: “So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (Romans 7:25b).

Earlier, Paul said, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14). Paul is comparing our sinful nature, our flesh, to a slave. Just as a slave obeys his master, so our flesh obeys sin. However, as believers in Christ, we have become spiritual beings under the law of Christ; our inner selves are under the influence and ownership of God’s grace and the life of Christ (Romans 5:21). As long as we are living in this world, our sinful nature and fleshly desire will remain with us. But we also have a new nature in Christ. This leads to a struggle between what we want to do and what we actually do, as sin continues to assault our earthly nature. This struggle is a normal part of living the Christian life.

It’s interesting to note that Paul, the greatest of the apostles, declared that, of all sinners, “I am the worst!” (1 Timothy 1:15). Paul affirms the struggles we all have as we battle with sin and temptation in our lives. The struggles are real, and they’re debilitating. We grow weary from the never-ending temptations and in falling short of God’s glory. Paul, in essence, is telling us that we need not pretend that we’re untouched by our struggles. He’s been there. He understands. Though our efforts to do right seem desperate, we do have hope “through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25; Hebrews 4:15). And He, in fact, is the key to our victory over sin.

A true Christian will war with Satan and his daily efforts to undermine us. The devil is the ruler of this world, and we are living “behind enemy lines” (Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 6:12; John 12:31). With our focus on Christ, however, we will be able to cultivate a mindset that proclaims we’d rather die than do anything to hurt God. When we give ourselves to Christ totally (Matthew 16:24), Satan will flee from us. When we draw near to God, He, in turn, will draw near to us (James 4:7-8).

Our key to victory in our struggle with sin lies in the very promise of God Himself: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

As true believers in Christ, even when we “face trials far beyond our ability to endure” (2 Corinthians 1:8), we can echo the reassuring words of Paul, who declares, “God has delivered us and will continue to deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:10). Finally, the psalmist gives us these words of encouragement: “Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act” (Psalm 37:3-5).