What does the Bible say about being an overcomer?

The first thing I point out is that, "Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world." Some of you may have been thinking that victory belongs only to the older and more advanced Christians, but this word applies to all of us. It is a wonderful fact that, if you are a Christian, you have been begotten of God, and hence you have a nature which is in keeping with God who is love, and which is entirely out of keeping with the world — which is in fact entirely superior to the world — so as to get the victory over it. The world has vast attractions for the old nature; it has none whatever for the new.

We turn to 1 John 5 : 4, 5 : "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" Here we have the divine description of an overcomer: it is the faith in every one that is born of God — faith in Jesus the Son of God — that overcomes the vast hostile system called "the world."

Here we have the assurance that it is not the mystic recluse, nor the highly spiritual only, but that "All that is begotten of God overcometh the world." Does not this stimulate as well as encourage the simplest child of God? Have not all such been begotten of God? There is the principle laid down plainly. Not a single real Christian is exempted from the privilege any more than the responsibility. As every believer now is an object of God's love and in the relationship of His family, so he "overcometh the world." "And this is the victory that overcometh the world (not service, not sacrifice, nor even love, but) — our faith." Do you believe this, Christian? Be not faithless here but faithful. It is by faith in our Lord Jesus that we are brought to God; so too that we are kept of God; it is so that we discern and repel the enemy; and so do we obediently rest in His love who deigned to call us His friends.

The change in 1 John 5:4 from "whosoever" to "whatsoever" is peculiar and to be observed. The life given of God, whoever may be the recipent of it, is looked at abstractedly, as in John 3:6. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit," in contrast with that which is born of the flesh. And each nature seeks its own things: the flesh, the things of the flesh; and the spirit, the things of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5). The desires of the two natures, being opposed, are never in agreement; and the power of the Spirit is on the side of the "spirit." The world is a system ordered by "the prince of the world" to suit the flesh (11-16). "Whatsoever is born of God" — the life given of Him — "overcometh the world," acting on His judgment of even its best; for "That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15). Practically and experimentally the victory is gained by faith, and here pointedly called "our faith," not the faith of the most eminent saint before the cross. There the world was finally judged morally (John 12:31-32), as it will be judicially on the appointed day, by Him Who was hanged on it (Acts 17:31).

We may call attention to yet another mark of God's children. "Whatsoever is born of God," the apostle says, "overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" The Father and the world are ever in opposition. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, is of the world. Born of God, and having the same nature therefore, how could we love that which is in antagonism to the Father? And that antagonism has been demonstrated, and demonstrated in a way which stamps for ever its utter enmity and hostility to God; viz., by the rejection and crucifixion of God's beloved Son. James therefore writes "that friendship with the world is enmity with God." The two can never be reconciled. But there has been One in this scene who could say, for the comfort of His own, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Hence we read indeed here, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith;" for this faith declares that Jesus, whom the world refused, is the Son of God. Herein lies the secret of victory over the world. For how could the world allure a soul who was living in the power of the faith that Jesus is the Son of God? Nay, with this belief fortifying our hearts, the cross forms an insuperable barrier between the world and ourselves. We have then God's own thoughts about it, and He charges it with the murder of His beloved Son. As He said to Cain, "Where is Abel thy brother?" so He today asks the world, "Where is my only-begotten Son?" The guilty Jews cried before Pilate, "His blood be on us, and on our children;" and His blood, in this sense, is on the world, and as such is the foundation on which by-and-by judgment without mercy will descend upon it. Believers, having a divine nature, holding that Jesus is the Son of God, are waiting for Him from heaven; and while they wait they show that they are not of the world, even as He was not of the world. They overcome it by their faith — faith in Christ, in what He is in Himself, and in what He has done.

It may be quite true that many a believer fails practically to overcome the world. But this is outside of John's subject. What he shows is, that it belongs to those who are born of God, who believe that Jesus is the Christ, and the Son of God, to overcome it. If they fail therefore, it is because they are not living in the activity of the new nature, or in the exercise of faith through the power of the Holy Ghost. For if, as already explained, we are children of God, and are dominated by the truth that Jesus — the rejected Jesus — is the Son of God, we must be victors over the world. Practically our victory over it will be displayed just in proportion as we take the ground of the apostle, when he says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." The cross reveals the character of the world, and the fact that the One they crucified upon it is the Son of God constitutes their utter condemnation. It was thus that the Lord Himself said, in the anticipation of His death, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." (John 12:31.) On this is grounded the absolute statement of our scripture — "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world."

But how are we to overcome the devil's snare of the world? Chapter 5 of the epistle brings us to the resources to enable us to do so. And first (1 John 5:4), "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world": by the very life and nature we have received from God we have a principle of victory over the world. "And this is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith:" that is, by the object presented to faith. "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" If it be a question of who is my brother that I am to love (1 John 4:21), the answer is, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (1 John 5:1) — the Spirit goes down to the feeblest apprehension of His glory, even as a few might believe on Him as the Messiah. This suffices to mark one begotten of God. But more was needed for victory over the world. Nothing short of the full glory of His person as the Son of God sufficed for that: we need the full shining before the opened eyes of our faith of His infinite glory as Son of God to give us victory over the poor unreal tinsel of this world and its shams. Then shall we know something of a heart so filled with Him for worship and service that, as with the Lord when He was here, there shall be no room for any object of Satan's world.

Whatever is born of God overcometh the world (Ver. 4), but not by the sole fact of a divine nature, but because this nature has an object. (Ver. 3.) A creature cannot suffice for itself; it must have an object. God alone suffices Himself; if I have this object, Jesus the Son of God, the flesh, Satan, and the world have nothing for me. If one is not nourished by the Lord Jesus, life remains shut up and feeble. Law does not give life nor force nor object; Christ gives me life and force, and in Him I have an object. Liberty is to be freed from sin, from Satan, from the world and from myself.

But we have a second thing in 1 John 5. The victory that overcomes the world is "our faith." As the next verse shows, the allusion here is to the Christian faith that "Jesus is the Son of God." Jesus is indeed the Christ, but our faith travels beyond that to the glorious fact that He is the Son of God. John wrote his Gospel that our souls might be established in that faith, and if He shines before our faith as the Son of God, we know Him as the One who came from that world — the Father's world — into this world. Who is he that gets the victory over this world but he that has by faith discovered the Centre of a very much brighter and better world than this? It is not a question of having the Sonship of Jesus as an article of our creed, of accepting this truth theologically, but of having it as a vital power in our souls.

Rev. 3:12. "Him that overcometh," etc. This is said to those who ere already conquerors through faith in Christ. Who is he that overcometh but he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ? This is a most comforting word, as comforting as a bolted door to the poor weak pilgrim inside. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith," etc. Two things are to be remarked in this; first, the entire cutting asunder of the Church and the world — that which marks the believer is victory over the world through faith in Christ. This is a word that meets the soul, however it may have fallen. I may have sunk down to where Solomon fell, or where Peter fell. Samson, again, was not much like a victor; but if even like these, I can rest in that word, "He that overcometh is he that believeth."

But there is something more. A man walking with Christ is in all things more than conqueror through Him that loved him, How far are we overcomers in this sense? I could not say of myself, that the Holy Ghost sees me in every detail of daily life more than conqueror. I desire in everything to be a victor, first for my own sake, for there is no joy in being borne down. If I am not conqueror, I am disappointed in everything I touch. God is present at all times; but if a person does not walk with God, God must walk against him, and must break him down. Another thing why I should desire to overcome is, for God's glory. Has He sent His Son into the world to die? Has He given His Spirit to dwell in me? and am I to have no spirit becoming a son? no devotedness of heart and affection? For God's sake, then, I desire to be more than conqueror, I desire in everything to be a victor. An overcomer in Christ should be an overcomer in his walk as regards everything. The promise here given to the overcomer lets out in the details who Christ is. Is it said, "How do you know that Christ is the Son of God?" There are many things which I could not give as evidences to others, but which are very sweet to myself, as showing His right, and the power attaching to Him as Son of God. Who but He could have a right to say, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"? It seems to me that this must either be the expression of a maniac, or of One who has infinite power to do what He promised. So here, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, he shall go no more out," etc. He has power to make what He pleases; power to keep, and power to give away. "I will;" the acting of our blessed Lord in Matt. 11, where, like a nail in a sure place, in spite of all the failure around Him, He says, "Come unto Me," is similar to the words to these poor Philadelphians, waiting in patience in the midst of evil. In all this, we do not get a disquisition only of what was done more than eighteen hundred years ago, but it is addressed to our hearts for our daily experience. He is dealing it out to me by means of this little book as One who has an actual part in it. Has not the living Christ, who has been speaking amongst men, has not He spoken to me, and given me rest? May we judge ourselves in the light of that experience. Is not this Christ the same now He was then? And is not His promise the same to me it was to those to whom He spake then?

A word of instruction, remonstrance, or exhortation is also given to each assembly, calculated to restore; and also an encouragement set before the overcomer. If it be asked, What is meant by "him that overcometh"? we are answered by the same apostle in another letter: "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" The overcomer, then, is the true follower of Christ. He it is that holds fast to the end; for He that hath begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Christ. The promises, therefore, to the overcomer are generally similar to the promises of the gospel; such as, he "shall eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God;" "thou shalt have a crown of life;" he "shall not be hurt of the second death," etc.