By Gerald Cowan
"I have overcome the world" (John 16:33)
Jesus and the disciples, minus Judas
Iscariot the betrayer, had finished the Passover meal. Judas
had gone out to do his planned work of turning Jesus over to
the enemies who would eventually crucify him. Jesus would
have only a few hours more with them to sum up his ministry,
to prepare them for his soon-coming church kingdom and the
continuation of their own ministry – he would give them
final instructions and a commission after his death and
resurrection and before his visible ascension to heaven.
Judas did not hear the “Let not your heart be
troubled” encouragement (Chapter 14), the
enlightenment about the relationship of the Lord to all his
disciples and followers (Chapter 15), the prediction and
promise of Holy Spirit empowered victory that would continue
into eternity (Chapter 16), and the impassioned prayer of
the Savior who was nearing the victorious end of his mission
to redeem and save a people for God’s own possession
(Chapter 17, compare Titus 2::11-14). We cannot know what
impact this would have had on Judas and his trajectory into
darkness and perdition, but we are concerned to understand
and continue the impact upon the other apostles, and upon
all who follow Lord Jesus today.
“These things I have spoken to you,”
Jesus said, at the conclusion of his sermons to the
disciples and before his great prayer. These words may also
be thought to apply to all his words and works during the
three years or so of discipling these chosen and soon to be
Holy Spirit guided and empowered men. But in particular he
refers to what he has just told them about his coming
departure from them but his continuing union and communion
with them and his planned return to take them to the new
place he will have prepared for them, not hiding from them
the various persecutions and afflictions they would endure
for his sake and the many blessings of grace and glory they
would enjoy. He continued his instructions for their
continued occupation in his kingdom and the trouble they
would have in the mission he was giving them. The prospect
of winning the world for Him included both physical, social,
and spiritual struggles against formidable foes: the world,
the flesh, and the devil (we will notice this threesome in
more depth below). Notice the summation of his stated
purpose in his teaching of them: That in me you might have
peace – that in spite of the tribulation you will have in
the world you can be cheered and assured by knowing – I have
overcome the world (John 16:33).
“That in me you might have peace.”
What kind of peace? Not the kind of peace the world
can give (John 14:27). In the world and from the world there
will never be true and perfect peace – the peace in which
there is no barrier to fellowship and no separation of one
person from another or of any person from God. This peace is
not primarily physical or social but spiritual. All who are
truly at peace with God in Christ will necessarily be at
peace with each other. It is the peace of being many
different and differing members, but acknowledging and
accepting each other as equal members with a proper place in
one body composed of all its member parts (Ephesians
4:11-16). It is significant that he says might have
(subjunctive) rather than do have or will have. Even
in the church we see competitive selfishness and discord,
present because so many do not accept or pursue the peace
the Lord makes possible.
Now let us notice the threefold enemy to
peace: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world, as
currently constituted, is inimical to peace. It promotes
preservation and promotion of self not promotion and
preservation of the whole. It pushes for the individual good
not the collective good, for personal satisfaction not
community satisfaction, and for subordination of the many to
the few. There is no possibility of true and lasting
universal peace in such a world. Unless such worldly ideas
are suppressed and disallowed in heaven there could be no
perfect peace even there. We may expect it in heaven but not
many expect it or pursue it in the present world. It
is our loss, not a failure of the Lord to provide or fulfill
a promise.
The flesh is inimical to peace.
Understanding the dichotomy of flesh and spirit, though
perplexing and exceedingly difficult as limned in Paul’s
epistle to the Romans, Chapters 7 and 8, must be clarified
if we are to understand how the flesh is an enemy to the
peace the Lord promises. The flesh (our carnality in
contradistinction to our spirituality (Romans 7:14,
8:6-7, 1 Corinthians 3:1-4) is our humanity, not only
our physical body but our human mind, desires, attitudes,
disposition and inclinations. The flesh also reflects our
limitations – some things are simply impossible for us,
humanly speaking. James 4:3 is an insightful note: our
requests to God may be denied because they are intended to
satisfy human lusts and desires — not just the desires of
the physical body but the thoughts and intentions of the
heart/mind (Hebrews 4:12-13). The spirit is the other side
of our nature, designed and intended by God to seek Him in
whose image we are created, following the leading and pull
of His Holy Spirit (emphasized by Paul in Romans 8-8). The
cartoon with an angel perched on one shoulder of a person
and a devil perched on the other is seriously awry from
truth. When faced with a decision to do or not to do
something – responding to temptation, testing, trial – it is
not that the angel pulls one way and the devil pulls the
other and we make the decision which one to follow. It is
not even our “good side” and our “bad side” influencing our
choice. Rather, it is the desires of our humanity that pulls
one way while our spirituality pulls the other.
Whichever side of our nature to which we yield determines
our actions, also determines the consequences of the choice
we make. What I want often prevails over what God
wants and what I ought to want. The flesh which is my
enemy too often wins.
The devil is inimical to peace with God
and with myself because he promotes peace with the world as
passive hostility to God. He paints God as our enemy,
withholding from us what would please us and make us like
Him (consider the devil in the serpent tempting Eve and
Adam, Genesis 3:1-6). Though not always clearly articulated,
the devil’s intention is to thwart God’s purposes by
disconnecting people from Him. In doing so, the devil is
like a roaring lion – or any other predator – seeking to
devour and destroy those he can separate from God (1 Peter
5:8-9). But since the devil so often offers what our fleshly
side wants he persuades us to reject God’s appeal to our
spiritual side – he capitalizes on the pull of the world and
the flesh to defeat us.
But do not give up, Jesus says, all is
not yet lost. “Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world
(the flesh and the devil too). I have overcome is a
prolepsis. It is the condition that would prevail after
Christ’s death and resurrection and ascension to heaven. The
devil may effectively be (is deferred to as) the prince and
god of the present world (John 12;31, 14:30, 16:11; 2
Corinthians 4:4), but his head, his vitality,
persuasiveness, and power have been crushed (Hebrews
2:14-18, 4:14-16).He is – he is overthrown; Christ has
undone all the devil has done and is still able to do (1
John 3:8), including even the fear of death and consequences
of sin in those who entrust their souls to Him. Nothing in
or of the world, not even death itself, can stand against
God and His Christ or His church (Matthew 16:18-19).
The world and all things of the world will end (1 John
2:15-17). Satan himself will be cast into eternal
hell (Revelation 20:10, 14). Jesus and his redeemed church
will enjoy God’s heaven forever. That prospect should set
every soul at peace, with the peace of the Lord, the prefect
peace granted to those whose hearts are steadfastly set upon
Him (Isaiah 26:3), the all-surpassing peace that guards our
hearts and lives in Jesus Christ (Philippians 4:6-9). He is
our defense from all that threatens and opposes us. We go to
him, at his invitation (Matthew 11:28-30), to find rest and
peace and fulfillment of our hope (Revelation
14:12-13)..
In Christ who loved us and gave himself
for us we are more than conquerors of everything – the
world, the flesh, and the devil. Nothing in the past, the
present, or the future can overcome him or us who stand
faithfully in him, nor can it separate us from him, from God
or from the heaven-supplied and supported panoply given to
defend and sustain us (Ephesians 6:10-17, Romans 8:35-39).
In Him we do and will overcome. As overcomers in him we will
sit with him in the heaven he will have prepared for us
before he returns for us.
- Gerald Cowan, a longtime preacher and missionary, is
retired from full-time pulpit preaching. Gerald publishes an
e-mail newsletter entitled GERALD COWAN’S PERSONAL
PERIODICAL WRITINGS. He is available for Gospel Meetings and
he may be contacted at Geraldcowan1931@aol.com
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