Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file.
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I came across a quote from a daily devotion I have been reading through this year. Bishop Lesslie Newbigin said, "The resurrection was not the reversal of a defeat but the manifestation of a victory”
From the world's perspective, the cross is the ultimate of shame and defeat. The Roman empire was unique in that it used crucifixion as a means of capital punishment. Crucifixion was designed to humiliate the convicted in a way as to deter others from doing anything that might lead them to face a similar fate. The shear brutality of the suffering that the condemned faced was also a strong message to those under Roman rule that they had better tow the line or face serious consequences.
Jesus faced this humiliation and suffered the cross even though He did nothing to deserve this form of capital punishment. The mere fact that Jesus died on the cross should be the ultimate in defeat - defeat in his mission, defeat in his movement and defeat in God's plan to save the world through a Messiah. The defeat of the cross is one of the most poignant examples of the fact that God's ways are so different than our's.
The cross, left on it's own was nothing more than defeat in it's purest sense. Jesus was a failure if his body remained in the grave. Easter is the celebration of the fact that victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat. That's something we all can celebrate because the same is happening everyday in our lives as well as we face the prospects of defeat in our lives.
The Bishop was making a statement that we all need to grasp in our lives. God didn't clean up a mess that was the cross by making the resurrection happen. He didn't turn defeat in to victory. The victory happened because the defeat was there in the first place. Defeat was part of the plan from the start! Without the defeat, victory could have never happened.
Oh how powerful our lives would be as victors in this world if we saw our defeats in this light. Defeat isn't a sign that we are losers. Defeat can't take away from our victor status as far as God is concerned. Defeat is another opportunity for God to being a bit of heaven into our lives that might make permanent change possible that would have never taken place if victory was all we ever experienced. Just like in the life of Jesus, defeat might be there so that victory can be seen in ways that can only be ushered in through the power of God in our lives.
Take a look at today's Bible verse for more of a heavenly perspective on the connection between defeat and victory.
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives. John 12:24 (NLT)
It is through the dead seed that life happens. Defeat is what ushers in the prospects of victory even down to the plants that beautify our world. If this works in such amazing and powerful ways in something a seemingly abundant as a plant, don't you think God would make it exponentially so in the lives of His Children?
If it was the defeat of the cross alone that made Jesus' sacrifice the victory it is for us all, then thousands of upon thousands of people would be in a position to be worshiped like Jesus. Rome killed many tens of thousands using crucifixion. I can guarantee that only one person that died on the cross has changed the world in ways that has impacted us all. It wasn't the cross alone that was the victory we can claim. It was when the cross was combined with the resurrection that victory happened. Way too many times we judge our circumstance as the sign of victory or defeat. Yet it is what God does with those circumstance that can make all the difference in the life of a victor.
When we face what we would term a defeat, the most important thing we can do is wait. Suspend judgement. Judgement is what threatens to place us in the tree of knowledge. Remember that tree? That's the one God told Adam and Eve not to eat from. The Bible calls the knowledge of good and evil death. We face physical death today because Adam and Eve saw that tree as appealing and went against God so that they could be like Him.
Judgement as to good and evil, particularly when defeat is part of our lives contributes to more and more death in our lives. We have no idea what God is doing with the circumstances we quickly label as defeat. It's what God does with the defeats we victors will face that make victory be seen when viewed from Heaven's perspective.
The world only had to wait three days for the resurrection that turned the defeat of the cross into victory. Sometimes our wait to see victory snatched from the jaws of defeat takes a lot longer than that. It might not be until we enter the gates of heaven that we will fully see how God used the defeats in our life to bring glory to His name and the power of change to this world. Often that time of waiting feels like another defeat on this side of heaven.
Defeat isn't a black mark against your status as a victor. Your standing as God's Child neither guarantees victory in this world nor does it ordain that defeat is to be what you are to constantly expect. You will always have winning moments and, unfortunately, losing moments will also be part of your life. The same can be said for Jesus' time on this earth as well.
Good news is that, just like Jesus, victory is yours! Though you might have to wait to see the fullness of that victory, let the words of the Bishop ring just as true in your life as it does in the life of Jesus. Whatever God is doing through that challenging circumstance in your life isn't a reversal of defeat. That defeat is a manifestation of the victory that is your's, the much loved and blessed Child of the King.
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