Overcome the World

John 16:33b  "In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world."

The more I look at this verse the more I think, really, is there any greater understatement in the Bible than the words, "In this world you will have trouble"?  Yet this understatement is immediately followed by an overstatement: "I have overcome the world."

"I have overcome the world."  What a claim.  What a comfort.  If we can truly believe it, it can make all the difference.

The last few months I've been reminded over and over again of the lines from a Fleetwood Mac song:

Can the child within my heart rise above?
And can I sail through the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

I suppose the [eventual] encroachment of 40 makes such lines more poignant.  Nevertheless, we all ask these sort of questions at all manner of times in our lives.  At any age, in any situation, as we face the troubles this world has in store, we want to know, can I handle it?  How can I handle it?  How can I navigate the waters and deal with the changing seasons?  Where will I get the wisdom?  Where will I get the strength?

The answer to the questions posed by the Landslide lyrics is, no.  You can't do it.  Or more to the point, you can't do it alone.  You can try, and you can try really hard, but on your own you don't have the wisdom or the strength to make it through.  It takes something bigger than you are.  It takes the one who overcame this world.

I have always loved Paul's encouragement that we are "more than conquerors," a phrase that reminds us that in Christ we can do more than conquer; we can transcend.  Imagine that: we have the power at our disposal not just to beat the enemy, but to live above him and do so for eternity. 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)

Just attempt to fathom that list of "neither...nors":

death....life
angels....demons
present....future...powers
height...depth....anything else in all creation

None of this will separate us from God's love in Christ.  None of it.  Nothing can.  There is nothing between us and God unless we allow it to step in the way.  But we don't have to allow it. We're more than conquerors.  We can transcend anything this world has to throw at us and still find the one who made us and saves us.  It's mind-bending.

Paul also points out, "If God is for us, who can be against us?"  Well, who can?  What can?  Sure, things appear to come against us all the time, but what are these things in the scope of eternity?  What can we not overcome through God's power working for us?  We have the complete storehouse of supply at our disposal.  The God who made the world, who sacrificed his son, will surely provide what we need.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Do we have an answer?  No.  As long as we believe at all we need to also recognize that through faith, through trust, we have access to all the power of the universe, and the worries and cares and wants and needs of this sad and sorry little world are really nothing in our sight.  We are above it all.  We are more than conquerors.

But we are only more than conquerors because first, he ovecame the world.  Through his victory we also have the victory.  Claim your victory.  And praise God you can.