28.1 The Setting of Victory
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
God is very specific about what He means by “victory.”
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:53-57).
Victory is the resurrection of our physical bodies.
Victory
Victory is three words in the New Testament.
Nikaó: to conquer, prevail – is the verb form and is the most frequent and familiar term, occurring 28 times in the New Testament and typically as the English “overcome.”
Nikos: victory: the results of the conquest – is found four times in the New Testament, three of them here in 1 Corinthians 15.
Niké: victory: the conquest; a particular expression of victory – this is the word inflection I always thought was used, yet it is found only once in the New Testament.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory (niké) that has overcome the world—our faith (1 John 5:4).
The Proof
Thus we place 1 John 5:4 together with 1 Corinthians 15:57 as companion verses, speaking of the same truth. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. – thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is the evidence, the PROOF, of things not seen, that is, faith is the present appearance of substance.
For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee (2 Corinthians 5:4-5).
Devour and Put On
This word “swallowed up” is one of four actions of victory.
Katapinó: to drink down. I drink down, I swallow, I devour, I destroy, I consume.
Paul is clearly referring to the same thing, but in one he says that Victory swallows up death and in the other he says that Life swallows up mortality.
Then the word, enduo, put on, sink into as into a garment or into the covers of one’s bed, is another such action verb. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. – For this corruptible (Hi, that’s me) must put on incorruption, and this mortal (Hi, that’s me) must put on immortality.
Travail and Seize Hold
And Paul links this powerful action of “swallowing up, devouring” death and this profound rest of “putting on, sinking into,” immortality, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, with two other powerful verbs – to travail and to seize.
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:22-23). – That I may know Him… if, by any means, I may attain to (seize hold of) the resurrection from the dead. – I press toward the goal for the prize (LIFE swallowing up death) of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:10-11 & 14).
Groan Together
Now, when was the last service you attended with other believers in Jesus in which you groaned together in the Spirit expecting the resurrection, expecting your body to be swallowed up by life? Never? Why not? Obviously because Christianity has replaced victory WITH death itself. Living forever is no longer “victory,” now victory is being dead forever! And since death is “inevitable” there is no purpose in travailing for the victory!
It is evident to me that the travail of the church, our present active faith, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, is for the birthing of that great moment when life swallows up death in the resurrection.
Our Earnest Goal
The first part of the final Day of Tabernacles fulfilled in the experience of the Church of Jesus Christ right here on this earth, the Great Day of the Feast, is the resurrection of our physical bodies, death swallowed up by life. And Paul places the effort and focus of our faith and the ministry of the Spirit through us in travail as being the bringing forth of this incredible experience.
The church is convinced that the resurrection will “just happen” when it is God’s time, that the “right time” is what produces the resurrection. Paul was convinced that the resurrection was the earnest goal of all our Christian life – seize hold of life eonian (1 Timothy 6:12).
No “Rapture”
The title of this lesson is “The Setting of Victory.” Yes, God does have a set time, but God never “raptures.” God never imposes Himself or anything of Himself upon anyone apart from their express consent. More than that, something as binding as incorruptibility God would never force on anyone apart from their active desire expressed by focused faith. The only ones who will receive the resurrection of their bodies are those who want God-life above all other life.
It is true that God has a set time for incorruptibility swallowing us up – the fulfillment of the Great Day of the Feast.
Desire Meets Thirst
God does nothing apart from us; we can do nothing apart from God. The resurrection is the moment when God’s DESIRE meets our THIRST.
Later on, after the firstfruits have established all things of the new creation in outward appearance, then, anyone, at any time can receive of Tabernacles and experience their bodies being swallowed up by life, just as with Passover and Pentecost.
But God has placed a set time for His DESIRE connecting in one blinding flash with our THIRST for a very specific reason. The serpent accused God of lying in a specific setting; God will answer that accusation by PROOF in another specific setting.
All Accusation Ceases
We must understand that God is a stickler for these things. Our Father is eccentric and peculiar. He makes a big deal about proving His Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be faithful and true against all the accusation of the universe in such a dramatic way that all accusation ceases utterly in one moment. And thus we must know the setting God has in store for His mighty victory over death.
Yet to understanding that setting, we must join the prophetic word of Christ in our own mouths together with the apocalypse. – there is nothing covered that will not be unveiled, and hidden that will not be known (Matthew 10:26).
“That Which Is Not” Ends “That Which Is”
The calling forth of Christ has two parts. God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did (Romans 4:17b). – the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence (1 Corinthians 1:28-29). Calling those things that be not as though they are – bringing to nothing the things that are.
The outward appearance of the New Creation destroys forever the outward appearance of the old creation. And evil is the most dangerous the moment before its demise.
All into Guilt
There is nothing covered that will not be unveiled, and hidden that will not be known – For behold, the Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will also disclose her blood, and will no more cover her slain. (Isaiah 26:21).
There is an incredible belief among some who seem to speak a similar word to what I share that, since “God just loves everybody,” there will be no light shining upon the cruelty of humans against humans. God cannot help anyone unless He brings all creation into guilt before Himself. The lights turning on reveal Christ; the lights turning on reveal every cruel and selfish act committed in the darkness.
Fire
The reason that few Christians today can hear this word of union with Christ is that they have not yet passed through Romans 7, the altar of incense, and come out the other side. The ONLY reason that you and I can hear this word of union with Christ is because we have seen, without any question, that we are absolutely bankrupt, that we are without hope, even as “Spirit-filled Christians.”
The purpose of the fire is to PROVE to you and me that we are incapable of ever pleasing God. Sadly, too many imagine that the fire is to make them stronger in their own righteousness. The only essence that is seized into God is Christ Jesus, the only life we are.
Bearing All for All
But those of us who live right now completely turned around inside the Holy of Holies, completely and only as Christ Jesus, as Salvation revealed, see the fire entirely differently. We see Father and us together bearing all for all in love. For all things we do, all things happening to us, is the Father with us, utterly together as one person.
It is this knowing that we cultivate until we KNOW. And it is out from this knowing that Father connects us together as one body – seized into God. This KNOWING, Father and me, walking together as LOVE, is the only source of all Victory.
Purified
The verses of the apocalypse include a purifying by fire. One of the “be just like God” verses comes right after the Covenant, we shall be like Him, in 1 John 3:4. He that has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.
I lived among a fellowship of people for over twenty years who daily took seriously the same word expressed in the vision of purifying ourselves just as He is pure – and in the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit. I know the zealous and devoted pursuit of this goal. I can describe individual persons whom I knew well who poured out their lives for decades in Christian community.
Extremely Purified
These precious brethren gave themselves away for others, walking in faith and in the anointing of the Holy Spirit, seeking and desiring with all their hearts, unswerving, to be pure as Jesus is pure. And their last days before they passed on contained a deep disappointment and bitterness – they knew, deep down, they had not found what they sought.
In her vision on The Wave of Pure Light, Annie said that those who would open the Doors “must be extremely purified.” I cannot measure to the toes of some I have known in their zealous dedication to holiness by the Spirit, in pouring out their lives for others; what hope have I?
Pure as Jesus Is Pure
To be pure as Jesus is pure belongs to Jesus alone. Either we accept His purity absolutely by faith as our very own, or we will never know such a thing. To be pure just as Jesus is pure is to walk in absolute confidence that God is utterly with us, walking together as one Pperson with us, sharing all things together. To be pure just as Jesus is pure is to KNOW the love of God.
The purpose of all purification is not to make “us” pure, but to cause us to cease all pursuit of our own purity and to put upon ourselves, by absolute confidence, the purity of the Lord Jesus. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit (our own self-story), perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1).
A Setting of Fire
The setting of God’s Victory is fire, and that fire is real. It is the apocalypse, that which exposes what each one really is. The press of the days just ahead of us will be greater than anything we have ever considered.
Yet our perfection of holiness is entirely the Lord Jesus Christ, we put Him upon ourselves by faith – spirit, soul, and body. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:17-18a).
Our boldness is not “towards” God, however, but rather, together with God, as we set our eyes now upon His woman, our brethren, the passion and labor of Jesus’ heart in us.