Dear reader, please have your bible to hand as we proceed; the AKJV is our translation of choice.
Jesus Christ has promised a wealth of eternal blessings to believers who overcome the obstacles that the world poses; to this end the apostle John writes:
“…whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5.4).
Let us first consider what faith is.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11.1).
Here, the things referred to are eternal in nature; they are the things that accompany salvation; they are at present not perceived by the senses or known by experience, for example, eternal life. They, nonetheless, command ultimate importance in the Christian mind. So, what is the evidence of these things?
The substance and the evidence
The substance of our hope to receive these things and the evidence of their existence is the promise with an oath, which God made, with himself as the witness: as the scripture says, “when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself” (Hebrews 6.13). Indeed, God promised Abraham a city with foundations, “whose builder and maker is God himself” (Hebrews 11.10).
Moreover, God has accomplished two things which prove that our trust and confidence in him is well-founded.
God’s trustworthiness
Our faith is not futile because God’s promises are attested, firstly, by offering up the life of his Son Jesus Christ for our offences and raising him from the dead to secure our hope of eternal life; and secondly, by the baptism of believers with the Holy Spirit for the purpose of redemption. Thus God’s integrity is unimpeachable.
Steadfast faith – the choice of the eternal things over the temporal (earthly) things.
God’s trustworthiness compels us to keep the faith, the end of which is the attainment of eternal life and all that it concerns. Keeping in mind the overriding importance of the eternal things and our identity as people born of God, we overcome the pressures of the world by dint of unyielding faith in God’s promises of eternal life.
Having chosen the eternal things, let us remain unmoved in the face of the appeal of the earthly things.
The world today
As ever, the world is corrupt because of the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Further, Christ has compared the last days of this present world to the days of Noah when people went about their day to day activities while the depravity of mankind only increased. Presently, the scale of evil is rapidly reaching critical mass enough to bring about the day of the Lord, when the ungodly and the unrighteous will be consumed (Malachi 4.1).
Just as Noah was to his generation, so is Christian identity in sharp contrast with this present world. Indeed, we are strangers, pilgrims and sojourners in this world in that we are persuaded of God’s promise of an inheritance reserved for those who remain faithful.
Thus, we are not minded to entangle ourselves with the temporal and transient things that offer dubious success, prosperity and happiness. We rather seek what God has prepared for the faithful. We, therefore, overcome the world by remaining grounded and settled in the faith, focusing on things above (eternal things), not on things on the earth (temporal things).
Seven eternal things Jesus Christ promises overcomers
Christ has an affinity with Christians who overcome the world by their faith just as he has overcome; to such he promises that,
he will “give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (Revelation 2.7); the tree of life denotes eternal life.
“they shall not be hurt of the second death” (Revelation 2.11); the second death denotes burning in the lake of fire.
he will “give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it” (Revelation 2.17);
to them he will “give power over the nations, will give him the morning star” (Revelation 2.26, 28);
“they shall be clothed in white raiment; and [he] will not blot out [their] name out of the book of life, but …will confess [their] name before [the] Father, and before his angels” (Revelation 3.5);
he will “make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name” (Revelation 3.12);
“[he will] grant to sit with [him] in [his] throne, even as [he] also overcame, and [is] set down with [his] Father in his throne” (Revelation 3.21).
Finally, as Christians we should have a clear view of what our priorities are: they are the things that bring us ever closer to the goal of our faith, that is the salvation of our souls. Everyone born of God does not focus on temporal things, but is strengthened by faith to withstand every adversity and worldly distraction. They are thus well placed to attain those eternal things that God has prepared for those whom he has invited to share the glory of his Son Jesus Christ.
