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The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Marriage of the Lamb, #20
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. (II Peter 2:20,21)
They did not maintain their good work of following the Lord Jesus Christ. They turned back into the pollutions of the world. They drew back from the way of righteousness. They turned away from the holy commandment.
Did they stop believing in Christ? Maybe they did or maybe they did not. Perhaps they continued to live in the terror of Divine judgment as they wallowed in the cesspool of the flesh. We have known some of whom this was true. The point is, they stopped serving the Lord. Our behavior is the evidence of the state of our faith. Faith apart from works is dead.
It is our behavior, our works, that Christ judges, not our faith. Or rather we should say, Christ judges our faith by our works. The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, which is the "faith chapter" of the Scriptures, is a record of the works of righteous men and women. It describes what they did, not their doctrinal position.
The teaching that the Christian salvation primarily is a covering of us with Christ's righteousness, and therefore how we behave is not critical, is expanded to mean that "to overcome" is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (I John 5:5)
The second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation have the most to say about the victorious saints. The one statement Christ made to each of the churches is "I know thy works." These two chapters refer to the behavior of the Christians, not to their doctrinal position.
First John 5:5 means if we believe that Jesus is the Son of God we will be able to overcome the world, not that it is the belief itself that is the overcoming (except in the sense that to maintain true faith enables us to overcome the lusts and malice of the world). True belief in the Lord Jesus is the basis for, and results in, overcoming the world. Belief is not an alternative to actually overcoming the lusts of the world. If such were the case, the verse would contradict the context of I John.
The same thought occurs in the preceding verse:
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: . . . . (I John 5:4)
This does not mean being born of God is the overcoming of the world, it means that whatever is born of God will fight against the world until the world has been overcome.
Faith is the victory that overcomes the world because through faith we are able to follow Christ rather than the ways of the world. True faith always enables the believer to achieve victory over the world, over sin, and over self-will. Apart from faith we cannot overcome the world.
According to the same writer, John, we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and by loving not our life to the point of death (Revelation 12:11).
To be continued.