LIE: I am defeated, part 1

Lie: I am defeated.

Truth: We now share in the final triumph of Christ.

We’ve all felt defeated, either because of weaknesses or sins or failures or a general lack of achievement. The recording in our heads plays an endless loop: ‘you’re lame, worthless, useless, an all-around failure,’ and then the refrain follows – ‘and nothing will ever, ever change.’ Many Christians see no way to switch it off because, in most cases, the reasons for us to feel lame, worthless, useless and a failure, happen to be true. And simply trying to forgive ourselves or tell ourselves that we’re victims of the human condition or even ‘sinners saved by grace,’ doesn’t really help.

Inevitably, this defeated mentality produces some easily predictable lives:

1  Survival mentality. A general ‘just-make-it-through-the-day’ attitude. Various degrees exist, but this mentality manifests in some consistent ways:

• doing the bare minimum
• avoiding true and giving relationships
• a general passivity

2  Defensive mentality–preservation mode. With this mentality it’s us against the world. We’ve been hurt one too many times and feel like either curling up into a ball or lashing out in anger, or both.

• a general withdrawal from life
• outbursts of anger
• defensiveness
• vulnerability to addictions
• super-sensitivity to slights and hurts
• a seething undercurrent of rage

3  Depressive mentality. It seems that eventually, if unaddressed, these survival and defensive mentalities end up in a depressed state. And at that point, life doesn’t feel so much like living, but more like dying.

• escaping into various fantasies
• aimlessness
• clinical depression
• psychoses
• suicide attempts

To some degree, most of us have found ourselves in one of these very real cesspools. And all of us can identify someone who appears to be drowning in one, or have already drowned. Whether consciously or unconsciously, these loved ones have heard and believed this lie: I am defeated.

So what is the answer? The evidence of our defeat seems overwhelming. How could it possibly be true that we are not just conquerors, but ‘more than conquerors’? Really? How could we possibly believe such a statement given all the apparent evidence to the contrary? Well, I have good news for you. And it truly is the good news – it’s the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s break this down into three major truths:

• God is for us
• Jesus overcame by the cross
• We overcome by taking up our own cross.

1  If God is for us, who can be against us?

In the midst of life, it’s easy to forget that the God of the universe is truly for us, but we must not forget. Here are Paul’s famous lines:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 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? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

‘For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. — Romans 8:31–39

God conquers, not by intimidation or force, though he certainly has that right. No, God conquers by love, but not just any kind of love. This is his love: to sincerely and actively serve, to give and to speak up for us and for our benefit, even if it means sacrificing himself (see number 2 below). And since it is God himself who is for us, then who could possibly work effectively against us or even hinder his work at all?

‘Yes, yes,’ you say, ‘but it doesn’t feel that way!’ Okay, I understand; admittedly this is a big truth that takes time to sink in. So keep reading.

2  Jesus overcame by the cross.

God did not confine his ‘for-ness’– his love that is for us – in some heavenly ivory tower. Rather, he exercised it, demonstrated it – but not just to prove that he loves. He acted because it’s who he is. True love, divine love, cannot and will not be confined. It must ultimately take shape in the real world.

Jesus was opposed at every turn. The religious leaders of his day misunderstood, ridiculed, tempted, rejected, then falsely accused, cursed, beat, scourged and finally crucified him. But he submitted to all this abuse willingly, fully aware that his sacrifice of love was the very thing that conquered the evil being thrust in his face.

Paul said it like this:

And He has taken it [our trespasses and handwriting of requirements] out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it [that is, the cross].— Colossians 2:14b–15

However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. . .  Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. — I Corinthians 2:6–8 and 15:24–26

The devil apparently played right into God’s hands; Satan had either forgotten or perhaps he simply could not fathom that love is stronger than death. So when Christ died on the cross he showed us the way to avoid defeat. But we don’t avoid defeat in a vacuum; we avoid defeat by conquering him who intends to conquer us – Satan. We cannot forget we are in a constant war for our own souls and the souls of those around us.

The cross of Jesus was literal enough, but what does it mean for us twenty-first century Christians? The cross was the ultimate instrument of suffering, shame and death. The Greeks and Romans perfected crucifixion to be humiliating, horrifying and torturous. It induced not only intense physical pain, but also a psychological and shameful rejection. In the cross, you lost everything. It was a total defeat.

One way that Jesus took up his cross during his ministry was when he went to dinner with publicans and sinners. In this way he loved and cared for lost sheep and consequently was misunderstood and ostracized. Jesus refused to be politically correct; he did not do things to gain acceptance – politically, ecclesiastically or otherwise. Nor did he avoid hard subjects to dodge the possibility of misunderstanding or rejection. He loved and sacrificed everything, ‘becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross.’

But be careful! This is not intuitive; it must be spiritually understood. Stated plainly: we overcome when we intentionally expose our weaknesses, even to our enemies; then, when they take advantage of us, we love them anyway.

Continued in part 2.