Overcomers...

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:4-5, ESV)

As I read these two verses this morning from 1 John 5,  I was reminded of the following verses from Romans 5 which speak of our faith as the conduit to the grace of God in which we stand.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.—Romans 5:1-2

By His grace through faith, I have been born again of God...born not for this world but for another.  I am now at peace with God and justified before Him, because God has imputed Christ’s righteousness to my account.  I am an overcomer!  I STAND...I ABIDE...I AM PERMANENTLY FIXED IN...His wonderful realm of grace.  It is in this place of His unmerited favor and forgiveness of sin that I live, move and have my being.   My peace and my access into this grace is purely and completely based on Christ’s finished work on the cross.  When I sin, this grace upon which I stand provides me with complete forgiveness, because Christ has paid my penalty in full.

My ultimate destiny is to share in the very glory of God. I rejoice in this hope because it is sure and certain, my Jesus secures it.  As believers our access to God and to our eternal home in heaven with Him is through our faith in Jesus Christ.  God gives us the victory over this world through our union with His Son. We are now children of God and He Who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. (Satan and all his allies).  According to John MacArthur, the word “overcomes” in the original language conveys the idea that the believer has continual victory over the world.  That is such good news.  We stand before God victorious in an atmosphere of grace....All because of what Christ has done.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:9, ESV)

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33, ESV)

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:57-58, ESV)

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; (Ephesians 6:16, ESV)