THE VOCATION OF VICTORY

I) Three Stages in a Christian's Life

A. Salvation……………...…………………………….(Romans 6)
Illustration: Crossing the Red Sea…………………...………..(Exodus 14)
B. Senselessness……………………………………….(Romans 7)
Illustration: Confusion in the Wilderness……………..…(Numbers 13-25)
C. Success……………………………………………...(Romans 8)
Illustration: Conquering the Promise Land……………...….(Joshua 6-12)

II) Three Skirmishes in a Christian's Life

A. Battle with the World……………………...…..(John 15:18-25)
Illustration: The Fall of Jericho………………………….………(Joshua 6)
B. Battle with the Weakness of the flesh….………(Matthew 26:4)
Illustration: The Failure of Achan…………….………………(Joshua 7-8)
C. Battle with the Wicked One……….………(Ephesians 6:11-12)
Illustration: The Fraudulent Gibeonites……..…………………(Joshua 9)

Many great theologians and Bible expositors have something to say about Paul's epistle to the Romans; likewise, the epistle of Romans has many great things to say to theologians and Bible expositors. However, this "gospel according to Paul" is not only for the learned scholar but also for the learning student and has an invaluable amount of wealth to impart to those who are serious in their undertaking of understanding the book of Romans. It was the great reformer Martin Luther who wrote that the epistle to the Romans is, "the true masterpiece of the New Testament and the very purest Gospel, which is well worthy and deserving that a Christian man should not only learn it by heart, word for word, but also that he should daily deal with it as the daily bread of men's souls. It can never be too much or too well read or studied; and the more it is handled, the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes."

While all of Paul's epistles are invaluable to the Christian, Romans takes another step forward to stand alone and above all of the others. The church in Rome had no personal ties with Paul and likewise Paul had no record of its problems; therefore, from his deep thinking and long hours of study was poured forth the words that will continue to shake the very core of men's souls. "In almost all his other letters he [Paul] is dealing with some immediate trouble, some pressing situation, some current error, some threatening danger, which was menacing the Church to which he was writing. Romans is the nearest approach to a systematic exposition of Paul's own theological position, independent of any immediate set of circumstances."2 Perhaps this is why those who were arranging the order of the Bible placed Romans as the first epistle to appear in the New Testament even though it was not the first to be written.

In Romans, Paul analyzes such doctrines as God, man, salvation, sanctification, justification, foreknowledge, predestination, and sin. Paul also speaks in depth about the battleground of life and the way of deliverance. Romans, like no other epistle, could therefore be viewed as a complete manual for the Christian from pre-birth to post-mortem and ultimately glorification. Perhaps, if only one were to be singled out and chosen, the secret to living the victorious Christian life spoken of in the eighth chapter would have to be the greatest topic Paul examines in this epistle. There is a concentrated focus on the secret to victory in Romans 8 like nowhere else in the New Testament. Therefore, the significance of this section of Romans cannot and should not be overlooked.

When looking at or dealing with the subject of living the victorious Christian life in Romans it is helpful to back up a few steps and get the full picture in view. Before a person can live the victorious Christian life they first have to be set free from the slavery of sin, which comes through salvation, as well as overcome the struggle of sin, which is the old nature warring to keep control over the new nature. This "wide angle view" of the pilgrimage from vanquish to victory can be found progressively laid out in the sixth, seventh, and eighth chapter of Romans.

Even though Paul does such a good job in the New Testament book of Romans dealing with this subject, it is beneficial and helpful in gaining a clearer understanding to also go back to the Old Testament books of Exodus and Joshua. These two Old Testament books also deal with the same subject of moving from captivity to vain struggling then finally to freedom. "One of the great functions of the Old Testament is to cast light illustratively upon the New Testament. Probably by patient investigation every major teaching or concept of the New Testament could be found illustrated in the Old Testament."3 With this in mind, the physical illustration of this principle is found in Exodus and Joshua while the spiritual image is found in Romans. Exodus and Joshua cast the shadow and in Romans the reader meets the substance.

While the book of Genesis closes with Joseph second in Egypt only to Pharaoh and Jacob and his sons with their own land the curtain opens some four hundred years later in the book of Exodus with the Israelites now as salves. Hearing their groans God raises up Moses to lead them out of Egypt and into the Promise Land. After experiencing the last plague, which caused death to every first born not sheltered within a house whose doorpost was marked with the blood of the Passover lamb, Pharaoh relented and allowed the Israelites to leave. The fourteenth chapter of Exodus finds the nation of Israel standing before the Red Sea with the Egyptian army coming upon them fast from behind as well as mountains and desert to either side. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide; death seemed inevitable. Then the miraculous happened; God separated the waters of the Red Sea to provide a safe passage for Israel to enter into freedom. Israel crossed over and was saved.

This event in Exodus 14 is the situation set forth spiritually in Romans chapter six. Paul paints just as dim and hopeless of a picture in Romans 3:23 when he says that, "all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God." This picture then worsens as the reader finds that, "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). The Law stated that the only way to be accepted by God into heaven was to live a perfect life; it demanded faultless perfection. This sets up the same kind of insurmountable barriers for the people of Paul's day just as the Israelites were surrounded by overwhelming barricades in Exodus 14. It is impossible for man to save himself and death rapidly approaches from behind. There literally is no place to run and no place to hide from the wrath of God. Then comes the miraculous again. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, became flesh and died upon a cross at Calvary to open the way out of a hopeless situation into glorious freedom. Jesus became the "but" or better yet the "escape clause" in Romans 6:23; "the wages of sin is death BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." The opening of the Red Sea was a gift; the Israelites couldn't earn it, only accept it. The same is with Jesus Christ, the free gift, who can only be accepted or rejected but never earned.

Just as it would have meant certain physical death for the Israelites to remain on Egypt's side of the Red Sea so it means certain spiritual death for man to remain on sin's side of life. Such words as "set free" (6:18, 22), "new life" (6:4), "old self" (6:6), "slaves" (6:6, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22), and the many references of moving from "death to life" (6:8, 10, 11, 13, 23) parallel Israel's crossing of the Red Sea. Israel went from being slaves doomed for death to being set free to live a new life. This was the first step required of Israel in order to move into the Promise Land and likewise salvation is the first step required of a man in order to move into the victorious Christian life.

The celebration of freedom found in Exodus 15 soon dried up, was forgotten, and turned into complaining when the first signs of trouble and difficulty sprang up. They realized all of a sudden that the journey to the Promise Land wasn't going to be a Sunday afternoon cakewalk. The Israelites were now free but they cast longing eyes back to Egypt and the bountiful variety of foods forgetting that they were slaves when they partook of them. During their hard slave labor all they had wanted was out from under their oppression but now that they were out and in God's hands all they wanted was to go back. Israel's problem was that they were focusing only on the good of the past instead of remembering the horror of their condition in Egypt. This belligerent, murmurning, and ungrateful attitude came to a head when Israel refused to enter Canaan after they had sent scouts out from Kadesh Barnea (Num 13+14). Ten of the scouts saw only that the people were large and their cities were fortified thus making it impossible for the unequipped unwarrior type people to overtake the land. The remaining two spies saw and attested to the very same thing but in the impossibility of the situation they saw all the more opportunity for God to be glorified. Israel sided with the majority of scouts and their lack of faith in God's power and promises led them to a worthless wandering in the wilderness for forty long years. The short walk from Kadesh Barnea that was only supposed to take twelve days turned into a long journey of 14,600 days of nomadic drifting in endless circles. In this forty-year span they went nowhere and accomplished nothing.

This confusing and senseless wandering found in the Old Testament is where many Christians are today in their New Testament living. They have been saved but the initial surge of joy has passed and the world's persecutions are now present and life back on the other side all of a sudden looks better than it did when they were there. Such a mentality usually leads to a focus upon the problem instead of a focus upon God and His promises to lead, guide, protect, provide, and never forsake. A lack of faith confines them to spiritually wandering in the wilderness. While in such a state nothing is accomplished for God through this person and there can be no spiritual growth in the person. No forward progress is made because of the constant circles.

Paul puts forth such a disparaging picture in Romans 7:14-24. The key word to this section is "I" and appears no less than 25 times in 10 verses. It is the picture of a Christian trying to live the Christian life in his own power, instead of God's, and failing miserably. Verses 19 and 24 paint the picture of utter despair that is inherent in this style of living: "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" When wandering in the spiritual wilderness the focus often becomes existing rather than flourishing, at best, and death rather than life, at worst.

In order for the Israelites to finally take the last step into the Promise Land they had to cross over a final barrier. This barrier is found in Joshua chapters three and four, the crossing of the Jordan River. This trans-Jordan crossing would never have been necessary if Israel had trusted God the first time. However, even after successfully crossing over the Jordan and into the long awaited Promise Land flowing with milk and honey Israel immediately came face to face with three different and difficult obstacles. The first was Jericho, the second Ai, and the third was the Gibeonites. Even though they were in the land of promise they now had to fight for the possession of every inch of ground.

The first battle, though strange, was an easy one. The walls of Jericho came crashing down, pushed over by God's hand, and all Israel had to do was march around the city as God instructed (Joshua 6). In modern day New Testament language this could be symbolic of the Christian fighting against the world. There is no way that the Christian can overcome the world single handedly by himself; Paul as well as many other authors eloquently point this out in just about every epistle in the New Testament. A Christian must stand back and let God push over these walls. Paul states in Romans 8:37 that Christians are, "more than conquerors" and John, in his first epistle, likewise states that, "everyone born of God overcomes the world" (1 John 5:4).

In pushing over the walls of Jericho God set forth a command to follow that only after obeying could victory truly be claimed. God commanded that none of the spoils from this battle were to be taken by the people; it was all to be given to God. Just like Israel Christians also should not take anything from this victory over the world. The apostle John speaks about this in his first epistle by stating in cut-and-dry black-and-white words, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). Paul in Colossians tells the believers not to handle, taste, or touch the things of this world because they are destined to perish. Likewise, James says basically the same thing in the fourth chapter of his epistle. When the Christian decides to take from the spoils of the world and hide them away in his inner heart the outcome is nothing but disastrous, as seen in a perfect example in Joshua chapter seven and eight. What is hidden to man's eye is not hidden to God's.

In Joshua chapter seven a man named Achan decided to go against God's command and took some of the spoils of Jericho for himself. The outcome of his action was the defeat of the Israelite army at the small town of Ai. While Jericho was a huge menacing city with tall fortified walls the town of Ai was small and insignificant in comparison and therefore only a partial force was dispatched to conquer it. The results, however, were a hundred times more disastrous than Jericho's. The Israelite army was defeated and sent running back to Joshua with thirty-six less men than they went out with. This town could not be taken until the disobedient person was found out and dealt with to God's satisfaction (Joshua 7:10-12).

This defeat at Ai is a picture of a Christian living in the flesh or being controlled by the old nature. The disobedience and harboring of sin in the heart will always lead to disaster. Just like with the victory at Jericho compared to the defeat at Ai, in the Christian's life the flesh can trip a person up faster and more destructively than even the world around him. What seems like a small and insignificant obstacle becomes an unscalable barrier that cannot be conquered ultimately leaving tattered, beaten, and wounded warriors in its wake. While the battle against the world was completely up to God, and therefore relatively easy, the battle against the flesh is one we have to choose to fight or not to fight. Paul's comments in Romans seven are very applicable here. It is impossible for a Christian to be Spirit-led and victorious while harboring sin and disobedience in his heart toward God (vertical relationship) or, for that matter another person (horizontal relationship).

The third battle that Joshua and the Israelites had to face upon entering the Promise Land was perhaps the most insidious and devastating one yet. This was the deception of the Gibeonites recorded in Joshua chapter 9. These local people with whom God had told Israel not to make any treaties but utterly destroy, came to Israel with a deceptive story and faulty evidence. Unfortunately, Israel was completely misled by the Gibeonites and did not consult God before they made a pact with them. Only after the fact did they realize their mistake.

The spiritual application from this Old Testament event points to the Christian's battle with Satan and his deceptive ways. Paul informs the saints in the Corinthian church that Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14) in order to deceive everyone he can. There is no way a Christian can live the victorious life if they do not first seek out God's direction to their every move. This is what being Spirit-led entails.

Even though the success of entering the Promise Land was finally achieved it did not mean that Israel could now sit back, relax, and take things easy. In the same way, the Christian entering into the life described in Romans chapter eight cannot drop their guard or think that they have arrived to a level of effortless perfection. Even though the Israelites never again spoke of Egypt and all that it had to offer once they crossed into Canaan they still had to fight for the ground in which they were to live. Similarly, Christians, by the time they cross the Jordan spiritually, should be to the point where the things of the world no longer attract them, however, they do have to keep a constant hold upon the old nature that tries so often to take over. Satan and his demons know that, just like the Gibeonites, the best time to hit the Christian is right after they have won a victory and are not on guard and to present plenty of misleading evidence to draw the Christian into a wrong decision that will impact life in the future. Satan is content to be made the slave but soon, if not stamped completely out, he becomes the master.

Whereas the key word for Romans chapter seven was "I" the key word for Romans chapter eight is "Spirit," which occurs no less than fourteen times in the first twenty-seven verses (8:2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 23, 26, 27). "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires (Rom 8:5). This disregard for the sinful nature-mentioned seven times (8:3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13)-and deference to the Spirit is the only possible way to successfully live the victorious Christian life.