Some years ago I backslid, but was restored, and for years have been happy in the Lord; but lately the promises "to him that overcomes" seem to trouble me, because the thought comes, "But you did not overcome;" so I thought I would write you. "Let not your heart be troubled." (John 14:1)
These are the words that the Lord speaks to me, and I have nothing better to pass on to you. He says: "The Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." (John 16:32-33)
Do not think that it is the promises to him that overcomes that trouble you. The promises of God are not given for the purpose of giving trouble, but to save us from it. Your trouble comes from the whispered temptation of the enemy, who is seeking to blind your mind to what the promises say.
Read the text again. It does not say, "To him who overcame," but to him that overcomes. This indicates present time. It is he who overcomes now, that the Lord saves. We live in the present, and Jesus is "a very present help in trouble." (Psalm 46:1)
So you need not be at all concerned over whether you did overcome or not at some time in the past; your care need only be: "Am I now overcoming? Am I now fighting the good fight of faith, and laying hold of eternal life?" (1 Timothy 6:12)
This matter is easily settled, and you may constantly be of good cheer. There is a phrase that is quite common with some people, namely, "Once in grace, always in grace," by which they mean that a man who has once received the grace of God can never backslide, and that if a professed Christian does go astray, that is evidence that he was never really a believer; that he was never converted. Thus they bring doubt and confusion into many souls.
The easiest way to show the fallacy of this is to take an actual occurrence. When Jesus came to the disciples as they were alone in the boat in the violent storm, Peter said: "Lord, if it be you, bid me come unto you on the water." (Matthew 14:28)
The Lord told him to come, and he at once got out of the boat and walked a little way toward the Master. The record plainly says that: "He walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me." (Matthew 14:29-30)
And immediately Jesus lifted him up, and together they came back to the boat. Now it is certain that Peter had faith that he could walk on the water, or else he could not have walked at first. It is equally true that he lost his faith when he looked round at the boisterous waves; for Jesus said to him as He lifted him to the surface: "O you of little faith, wherefore did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:31)
The fact that he had faith at first, and that he actually did a wonderful thing through faith, did not make it impossible for him to lose the faith, and with it the power; nor did the fact that he fell prove that he had not had faith, for he had demonstrated it by walking. Suppose now that Peter had said to himself, "But I did not walk on the water," then his case would have been the same as yours. You say that this would be foolish, for he did actually walk on the water. Well, so did you overcome, else you could not have backslidden.
But what is the use of worrying over the past, anyhow? What difference would it have made to Peter if he had not been able to walk a step on the water when he first got out of the boat, if he had afterwards walked when the Saviour got hold of him?
Even so with you; it does not so much matter whether or not you overcame some time ago; the question is: "Are you walking with the Lord now?"
As well might the one who is just converted spend time mourning over the fact that he never served the Lord before. The Apostle Paul's rule is best: "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of Godin Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)
Christ says: "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
He is "the same yesterday, and today, and for ever," (Hebrews 13:8) so that the victory which He won in the flesh hundreds of years ago, is a present victory. "This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith." (1 John 5:4,RV)
Remember that the victory does not depend upon what we do, but upon what Christ has done once for all. "Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them." (Hebrews 7:25)
This "to the uttermost" does not mean simply that He is able to save the worst cases, but that to the uttermost limit of time, continually, He is able to save them that come to God by Him, because He ever lives. He himself is the victory, as we read: "Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty." (1 Chronicles 29:11)
He is our sanctification, our righteousness, and our redemption; (1 Corinthians 1:30) and since He ever lives, the righteousness and the victory that He won in Judea is as real, and present, and active now as then. It is not simply individual sins that are to be overcome, but: "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." (1 John 2:16)
We are saved by Christ's life in us, by that life by which He overcame, and which is the victory. "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Overcoming is nothing more nor less than laying hold by faith on the present life of Christ, and appropriating it as our own, so that the life that we live day by day is not from us, but it is the Spirit of Christ animating and using our bodies and every member and organ of them, just as He will. As "in Him is no sin," (1 John 3:5) so sin shall have no more dominion over those in whom His life is given free course and full sway. (Romans 6:14) We are victors over sin, because Christ is ours, and His victory is our victory.
One thing must not be forgotten, and that is, that when we accept the life of Christ in exchange for our old way of living, we get the whole of it from the beginning. He is the One who "was, and is, and is to come;" (Revelation 4:8) "[He] inhabits eternity," (Isaiah 57:15) and He brings eternity into every day; so that, having Him now, we are the same as though we had never sinned; the union is so close that it is the same as though we had never lived a day or done a single thing apart from Him.
His life from the beginning takes the place of ours from the beginning, and so the past is obliterated. The blood of Christ "cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)
This is the blotting out of sin: "The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon them whom I reserve." (Jeremiah 50:20)
If we take Christ now, then we may know that we have Him for all that He has ever been and all that He ever will be. So we may in everything give thanks, knowing that: "In all things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." (Romans 8:37)--Present Truth, November 22, 1900.