The Nelson Newsletter
Turning Many To Righteousness. Starting With Us!
Arthur & Berta Josephine Nelson August, 2009
CHRIST THE VICTOR?
Dear Saints & fellow believers, my soul is stirred within me; vexed sore against the devil! For once I thought Christ to be the true victor and Satan the defeated foe but I hear tell things are different these days. Oh, yes, we may say with our mouths that Christ is the true victor over Satan but listen closely and we find a totally different story. It seems to us that Satan, in all subtlety, has crept in amongst God’s children convincing their hearts that they really shouldn’t expect to be truly victorious through Christ the Victor; Christ’s death on the cross didn’t really accomplish anything but a “white wash” job; “God doesn’t see you in your captivity to sin and selfishness, you’re born again, He sees only Jesus.” What kind of a Victor is it who turns a blind eye to the very thing that causes us pain and captivity (after the initial, temporal thrill that lures us into SIN’S demonic & destructive snare, that is)? I thought He came to take away the sin of the world? Satan, the world and the flesh have convinced us instead that He came to take away the law and thus leave us in our sins, forever destined to be controlled by the world, flesh and devil till we die and go to Heaven or get raptured out of this “hell hole” as many, even born again Christians, experience it to be. The world, flesh and devil have taken a few verses from the Bible and convinced us that really “greater is he that is in the world than He that is in me.” Oh, they speak it on the surface but just listen to them and they’ll testify to the fact that they’re only human, destined to be a sinner till they die, claiming Rom.3:10 to be true of the born again, justified Saints rather than who it really is: one who has NOT been justified by faith yet. Once justified God’s word teaches that we have the power through Christ “the victor” to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil but Satan, “the defeated foe” has convinced us otherwise. “Just believe you’re justified regardless of how you behave once you’re born again.” We are indeed justified by faith in Him but once we’ve received that forgiveness from our past sins and cleansing by the blood of Jesus from “ALL unrighteousness” the word of God tells us we are to take action and add to our faith!! See 2Pet.1:1-11. “Faith is the ability to act.” No action, no faith. Will I truly consider Christ to be the “true victor” with the power to KEEP me from sinning as I abide in Him who is perfect and without sin and let His righteousness permeate my words, thoughts AND DEEDS? Or will I believe Satan the “defeated foe” who says, “Impossible! Just accept the “white wash” job and keep living in your sin and misery.”? Will I believe Christ the “true victor” was really manifested to take away the sin of the world (1Jn3:5)and allow Him to take my sin away and replace it with His very divine nature which operates in the Agape love of 1Cor.13 which is “patient, kind; envies not; vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; Bears All things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And never fails...” Will I allow it to reign in and through me and motivate me to tolerate nothing less than holiness, godliness while yet living in this present world. If Christ is “the true victor” will I choose to exchange my present belief system and false doctrines for His mind and truth and so be “renewed in the spirit of my mind”? If Christ is “the true victor” am I willing to humble myself to the point of allowing the truth of His word to debunk years and years of deeply imbedded thought patterns and false doctrines that have comforted me in my sin? Am I willing to believe His word which says it was given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in RIGHTEOUSNESS that the man of God may be PERFECT, throughly furnished unto ALL GOOD WORKS.” Will I embrace that doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness without taking offense when someone judges my fruit to be unrighteous in accordance with His word? Or will I side with the “defeated foe” and say, “That’s just the way I am!” Am I willing to crucify the flesh giving up its temporal pleasures and walk instead in “newness of life” (spoken of in Ro.6) that I may gain Heaven? Am I willing to embrace this war between the flesh and the Spirit and side with Christ “the true victor” that His Spirit might produce love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faith and self-control in and through me? Or will I embrace the lies of the “defeated foe” and continue to embrace the temporal pleasures and desires of the world, the flesh and the devil which produce: “Adultery, fornication (sex outside of marriage), uncleanness(impurity, physically or morally), lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance(quarreling, contention, strife, debates), emulations, wrath, strife, seditions(disunion, dissensions, division), heresies(parties, disunion), envyings (jealousy, spite), murders, drunkenness, revellings (rioting, carousing)and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things (born again or not) shall NOT inherit the kingdom of God.” Am I willing to believe that Christ the “true victor” knew what He was talking about when He said, “Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.” and actually believed it to be altogether possible for us to attain it in this lifetime?; Am I willing to embrace the fact that God’s word promises me that IF I will “resist the devil he WILL flee from me.”? Will I believe that “For though (I) walk in the flesh, (I) do not war after the flesh (with human devices and strengths): (For the weapons of (my) warfare are NOT CARNAL, BUT MIGHTY THROUGH GOD TO THE PULLING DOWN OF STRONGHOLDS ;) CASTING DOWN INMAGINATIONS, AND EVERY HIGH THING THAT EXALTETH ITSELF AGAINST THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, AND BRINGING INTO CAPTIVITY EVERY THOUGHT TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST...”2 Cor. 10:3-5? And so be victorious In Christ “the victor’ step by step and day by day? Will I believe Christ “the true victor” when He said, “He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will NOT blot out His name out of the book of life..” Or will I believe Satan, “the defeated foe” who says,“Once saved always saved, don’t worry about “purifying yourself even as He is pure”?1Jn3
