The Victory of Faith :: 1 John 5:4
Did you know that you have conquered the world? You have overcome it, overwhelmed it, defeated it, triumphed over it.
I bet you don’t feel like it though, do you? But ...
you who confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God ...
you who believe even though you haven't seen him and touched him ...
you who have been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ...
you who believe the incredible news we announced again last Sunday that He is risen ... He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah!
... You have conquered the world.
THE RESURRECTION VICTORY IS NOW YOURS
I know ... your back hurts, your knees hurt, your hips hurt, your head hurts, your pocketbook hurts, your feelings hurt ... it all hurts. Maybe some of you feel beaten and worn out by the stresses, anxieties, and problems in life. We struggle as husbands and wives, we struggle as parents and children, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors. We are hobbled and wobbled. Our hearts are failing.
Thankfully, this victory doesn’t depend on our own reason or feelings or experiences.
Your victory isn’t based on your health, wealth, or prosperity.
Your victory isn’t founded on you at all.
Hear the Gospel of Saint John ...
This is the victory that has conquered our world: Our faith (v.4).
On this Second Sunday of Easter, as the pains and problems of this world weigh you down ... as the pleasures and treasures of this world tease you and tempt you ... you need to know that you who have faith in all that Christ has said, you who have faith in all that Christ has done and continues to do ... you have conquered the world.
The victory of Christ is yours. Or to borrow Peter’s word, though you do not see him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now you have faith in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy knowing that that victory is yours (1 Pt 1:8-9). This is the same truth John proclaims in his epistle and Gospel readings for today. Now who is the one conquering the world? The one having faith that Jesus is the Son of God!
The victory is our faith. But what is this faith?
To be clear, faith is not something you find. It does not come from within you. It is not based on your reason or morality or feelings. It is not faith in faith. It is not empty and it is not baseless. True faith is found only in God, or more specifically, the God who was in the beginning, the God who made all things, the God who was made manifest in the flesh, the God whom Saint John touched with his hands and saw with his eyes. True faith confesses that this Christ, our Lord Jesus, has come in the flesh so that he could be ... the propitiation of our sins and our advocate with the Father.
The victory of faith receives all that Christ has done for us and won for us. Our faith receives the forgiveness of sins he secured on our behalf through his righteous life and death. Our faith receives the blessings of God: life and salvation. Our faith does all of this because our faith is founded in Jesus Christ. He is the author of our faith. He is the victory. And he has conquered the world, giving us the victory: Our faith.
He is in us, and he gives and receives his gifts to us, which is why our hymn of the day really stuck with me.
Georg Michael Pfefferkorn’s hymn which we just sang is a beautiful reminder of this truth from 1 John 5. “What Is the World to Me” was written in Germany in the early eighteenth century, but it continues to speak well to us today. It reminds us about what is important eternally. We can ask rhetorically “what is the world to me,” knowing that Our faith in Jesus Christ has conquered the world. This is our victory!
Our Lord Jesus is our treasure!
He is our life, our health, our wealth, our friend, our love,
our pleasure, our joy, our crown, our all, our bliss eternally!
In faith, this is our victory song!
The world certainly doesn’t want you to believe any of that. The world continues to argue that faith is foolishness. It denies that Jesus is with us, that God even loves us. It scoffs at the notion that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead and give eternal life to all who have faith in him. But we know it’s true. In this season of Easter especially, we recognize he is not dead! He has risen! This is the victory: our faith.
We live in a fallen world, a valley of sorrows, a vale of tears; a world that prides itself on finding its own way, doing its own thing, living its own dream. It’s no wonder the world hates God; it doesn’t even love its brother. We live in a world that denies all that Jesus is, all that he does and has done. We live in a world that has forgotten the resurrection while trying its best to convince you that the Christian faith is about giving up the pleasures of life. It's not true. So don’t listen to the world.
Modern man actually believes he can shape the world into his own utopia, his own paradise, his own heaven on earth. He twists and distorts scripture, trying to convince you that it is OK to live in your sin, to be who you want to be. Modern man twists and distorts scripture to convince you that polygamy is OK, that gay marriage is OK, that pornography is OK. The world wants you to embrace living together before marriage.
But these, like so many of the world’s sins, are killing you.
Repent of them, and hear the Gospel according to Saint John. Our victory doesn’t depend on our good behavior or our good works. It doesn’t rely on sincerity. It relies solely and wholly on Jesus Christ. This is the victory of faith.
Jesus has saved you by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. He has overcome the world for you. He united himself in baptism for you. He overcame temptation for you. Then in the baptism he poured out upon you, you died with Christ and were raised to new life in him. Through baptism He is now in you and you are in him, assuring you have the victory of faith.
In this Christian faith, we love the things of God: his law, his word, his promises. All of these set us free. In this Christian faith, we turn from pursuing works and riches and fame and all sorts of things to follow Jesus. We turn for our own selfishness to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the victory of faith.
Not everyone agrees or believes what I am telling you this morning.
Most who call themselves Christians even think the Bible is true. They may even say that every jot and tittle of it belongs to God, but they persist in promoting the idea that you have to earn, deserve, work, merit, live up to, and be somehow worthy of salvation.
Have you fallen into this trap?
Have you denied yourself the sacraments thinking that you aren’t good enough?
Some people who want to claim a place in the Christian Church deny the efficacy of God’s sacraments: baptism, absolution, the Lord’s Supper. They reduce baptism to a work of man, not of God, ignoring that the word of God says baptism now saves you (1 Pt 3:21); that if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. They pass over the word of God that declares the Lord’s Supper is specifically for the forgiveness of your sins (Mt 26:28). They turn the Eucharist into their thanks, not the Lord’s.
But we have the victory of faith, which comes to us through the means of grace ... baptism, absolution, and the Lord’s supper, along with God’s word. These means are not simply information presented for our consideration, they actually do what they say and give and deliver to us what is promised: life and salvation.
Thank God for the victory of faith. Thank God we don’t have to rely on ourselves. This Jesus whom you crucified has defeated sin, death, and the power of the devil for you. He has risen from the grave for you. He has come to us in the divine service and stood in our midst. He has stretched out his hands for us, and declared peace to us (Jn 20:19-20,27). And we have seen him and touched him with our hands (1 Jn 1:1). Therefore, like Thomas, we now know we have a sure and certain faith that He is always with us (Mt 28:20), not in Spirit alone. He gives us his flesh and blood to eat and drink for our salvation. And we know that ... as the disciples discovered during the walk to Emmaus ... that he reveals himself to us during the Supper (Lk 24:30-31). And all of this brings us peace ... true forgiveness ... the victory of faith.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, you and I can be certain of this truth. Why? Because the water, the blood, and the spirit all testify to this truth. These three agree (v.8).
As Luther once wrote, the water cannot be proclaimed without the blood. Nor is the blood of Christ given without the water of baptism. ... And the blood and the water do not come to us at all apart from the Holy Spirit, who is in the Word. Therefore those three cannot be separated, but they do one thing ... (They provide us with faith, they strengthen our faith, they nourish our faith). ... These three constantly accompany one another, and through the word they daily immerse us in a perpetual baptism, a perpetual shedding of the blood of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, and provide a continual cleansing from sins (AE 30:315).
So, remember those words the next time you feel beaten and broken and defeated. You have the victory of faith. Christ has overcome the world for you.
Remember these words if someone tries to tell you that sound doctrine is not important: You have the victory of faith in Christ: his word, his water, his blood. This blessing brings peace to you, which is the forgiveness of sins.
This is your victory! The faith that God gave you.
This is your victory! The faith in our resurrected Lord.
This is your victory! He is risen!
In Jesus’ name.