53. The Mold of Victory
The Mold of Victory
Look at Romans 8:17, “If now we share His sufferings, we shall hereafter share His glory,” and Ephesians 2:6, “Seated in heavenly places in Christ.” We share His seat in the heavenlies today in the place of victory. Revelation 3:21 shows we are going to share His throne. And will you notice in those letters to the churches, the greatest of all the promises is made to the one who overcomes in the church of Laodicea, because there is no atmosphere so difficult for a man to witness in. to overcome in, as the atmosphere of the church of Laodicea, the church of the present-day. And the overcomer is going to share in His throne.
InPhp 1:7, “You all share,” says Paul, “in the grace bestowed upon me.” That is the power for confirming the truth of the Gospel by our sufferings, our co-passion with Christ, and this co-passion with Christ will mean strength for the day, the accomplishment of life’s purposes, giving to the world the testimony of the power of a living Christ, victory that is full and complete. Therefore let me read my last passage in2 Corinthians 4:7-10, Conybeare’s translation: “But this treasure is lodged in a body of fragile clay; that so the surpassing might which accompanies the work shall be God’s and not mine. I am hard pressed, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not despairing; persecuted, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed. In my body I bear about continually the dying of Jesus, that in my body the life also of Jesus might be shown forth.” Do you not see the picture? Every time you are hard pressed in that field of yours and yet not crushed; perplexed, and yet not despairing; persecuted, and yet realizing that you are not forsaken; struck down, and yet not destroyed; you are winning the victory, you are living the victorious Christian life.
Some people seem to think that the victorious Christian life can only be lived when you are on the crest of the wave. You are sometimes most victorious when you are being submerged and coming up again with a smile on your face and with trust in your heart—perplexed, not despairing; pressed down, not crushed. Every time you are that, you are putting yourself into the mold of the cross; the cross is doing its work, and the proof is being given that Christ is in you, and the life of Jesus is being shown forth.
Oh, there is nothing that the church of God requires more today than men and women in whom the Holy Spirit is being allowed to do all His work. The church is suffering today from unmolded Christians, Christians who say they are His and do not look like it in the eye of the world. What the world is hungering for is men and women in whom they can see Christ and from whom they can receive the hope that they too can find Christ and know the power of His resurrection and triumph over sin and Satan, and over death and hell. What the world needs is cross-molded Christians. Will you and I be one of them?