Take Heart Christ Has Overcome

"You believe at last!" Jesus answered. "But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.”
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Once we have believed we heave a great sigh of relief believing that all will be good from here on. And, in fact, that is the case. All will be great from here on. But only because we know in whom we believe, not because the One in whom we believe will make every road smooth and every journey perfect.

Jesus is preparing his disciples for what is to come in their lives. The dispersion. The scattering. The detachment from Christ. You’ll still have problems. But unlike the uncertainty that comes from having problems without faith, you will now know the outcome because these problems are in this world. Jesus has won. The sin of the world has been paid for by the blood of Christ. The wages of sin are death, but the price has been paid by the only one who could make the payment.

Romans 8 is the great chapter of promise and strength. If God is for us, who can be against us? All things work for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We are more than conquerors.

There’s nothing in Paul’s words that says that we will face nothing that needs to be conquered. Instead, Paul is saying that in everything that comes our way the victory is assured because Jesus Christ paid for the outcome. We are eternally together with our Father in heaven.

When you go on a trip and you face some kind of problem – a car breakdown, a sickness, an unexpected financial cost – you look forward to getting back home where it will be okay. Not that you won’t take the aftermath of the problem with you, but it will be okay because you’re home. Safe at last.

So it is with our journey through this life. We’re just visitors, temporarily on loan from eternity. We’re passing through. This isn’t our home. And now that we know that because we have faith and belief, we know that whatever happens to us is simply a temporary condition on our trip that has nothing to do with home. We’ll be home someday and this will all fade away, washed away by the joy of being home with our heavenly Father for eternity. Jesus has overcome the world we are passing through. It cannot stick to us. We are on a ride through Adventureland from which we will eventually disembark and return home. There may be scary creatures and events, but they can’t have any lasting harm, now that we know these things.

What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?