- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE VICTOR KING.
By Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis.
“I am the first and the last, and the Living One . . . I have the keys”
(Rev 1 v18).
In the power of the Living Christ upon the throne we can stand victorious in the face of all the hosts of darkness. You must never lose sight of the Victor. Never allow yourself to look at the enemy so as to blot out your clear consciousness of the Person of the Victor. In Ephesians 1 v17-19 we read, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. . . that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened (Greek - filled with light) in order that you may know . . . His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every title that is given . . . and God placed all things under His feet, and appointed Him to be Head over everything to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills everything in every way.”
Here we have a revelation of the risen Christ. God raised Him from the dead and lifted Him to the place above “principalities and powers”, and made Him to sit at His right hand with “all things under His feet”, and all authority in heaven and earth given to Him. He is the absolute and complete Conqueror.
In the next chapter the apostle descends from that wondrous unveiling of the Conqueror to the realm of the earth and describes the condition of the human race, and the work done for believers in uniting them to the risen Lord, “You has He quickened”. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of . . . the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient”. It is plainly stated that everyone who is dead in trespasses and sins is living under the power of “the ruler of the kingdom of the air”. If we take the Word of God as revealing God’s viewpoint of all things we are compelled to see every unsaved soul as under the dominion and captivity of the power of the prince of darkness. If we do not look at the unsaved in this way we will not be of much use to God for their salvation.
Paul comes down from the height of the glorious vision of the Victor of Calvary to this picture of the realm of earth and then he rises again, saying in Ephesians 2 v4-6, “God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ”. Can we get a more complete picture of sin, Satan and Christ and our position toward each than this?
First the Holy Spirit quickened the dead Christ, lifting Him and taking Him to God’s right hand, “made to sit” there above all things. Then coming down to the poor souls “dead in sin” and under the power of Satan, saying ‘Because Christ became dead for you, and you are dead with Him, you are quickened with Christ, and raised to new life in Him, there is a new life for you’. We were lying dead in trespasses and sins. What can we do? Dead people cannot save themselves, and worse than that they are terribly alive in another way. There was a spirit working in us, and that spirit was the spirit of the prince of the power of the air. We were not only dead to God but we were active with a satanic spirit to fight against God. We would not be so much trouble if we were only dead, but we were living, following the ways of this world which is under the control of the prince of the air. We could not save ourselves, but the Holy Spirit came to us and told us that Christ died for us, took our place on the Cross so that “through death He might destroy” (Heb. 2 v14) the power of the prince of death over us.
Believing in the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God and His death for us there came another life to us, for He put into us new life, the gift of eternal life. By the working of the Spirit of God we were quickened with that life as we accepted His death for us, and our death in Him. And just as Christ was raised from the dead into newness of life, we too, joined to Him, are able to sit with Him in His place of victory over sin and Satan. Our God-given place is there, “far above all principality and power”. We are to live in the clean air above the powers of darkness and not in the mists and the darkness of this world. Praise God.