The Victory That Overcomes

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 3 - Chosen Out From the World

"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world knew Him not." John 1:10.

"The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil." John 7:7.

"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." John 12:31.

"If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John 15:18-19.

"These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33.

"But now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldest take them from the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." John 17:13-16.

"Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you." 1 John 3:1,13.

"Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world." 1 John 4:4.

"For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith. And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1 John 5:4,19.

This is rather a remarkable series of passages. It would almost appear at some points as though there was a contradiction. For instance, there is the statement: "The world cannot hate you, but Me it hateth"; and then: "Because I have chosen you out of the world, the world hateth you." Then again: "Now is the judgement of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out"; "The whole world lieth in the evil one." It looks like a contradiction, but of course the Word of God never contradicts itself, and the explanation is not far to seek.

1. The Transition from a Worldly to a Spiritual Position

The first thing which we have to notice, therefore, is that these passages represent a movement, a development, a transition. They make it very clear that the Lord's people have advanced. They have moved from one position to another; something has taken place in them which has changed the situation for them outwardly. At one point the world does not hate them, and that is no compliment to them. It is no compliment to anyone in relation to the Lord Jesus that the world does not hate them. At a more advanced point, when that relationship has become different, more inward, more spiritual, the position is changed and the world (which we have already defined and will not stay to deal with further now) is hating. The more spiritually advanced the believer becomes, the more there is a going on in a spiritual way with Christ, the deeper, stronger, keener will be the hatred of that which is called 'the world'. It is therefore of value to recognise at the outset the transition that is indicated by the seemingly contradictory passages.

Of the world: "The world loveth its own." Of the world: "The world knoweth its own." Of Christ: "Chosen... out from the world." The world no longer knows, and the world no longer loves. It is a change of position, a change of relationship, a change of consciousness, and that a progressive one, one that is continually developing, and, so far as anything of Christ is concerned, the attitude of the world will growingly and increasingly be that of ejecting it, driving it out, making its stay here impossible.

It is in that realm, and because of that, that we come into the meaning of this second apparent contradiction: "Now is the judgement of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out"; "the whole world lieth in the evil one." How can you reconcile those statements? Christ enthroned at God's right hand is the establishment of the fact that the prince of this world has been, so far as the ultimate purpose and intention of God is concerned, and so far as the supreme government of this world is concerned, cast out; that Satan is no longer the factor in the government of this world, but that government is now vested in Christ ultimately.

"The whole world lieth in the evil one." Yes, but the victory that overcomes the world is the faith that Satan is not the final word in the government of this world, but Christ is, and that there is an overcoming of the world by reason of a relationship with Christ as outside of this world. What has been made true in the case of Christ Himself is to be made true in the case of the church by faith. It depends entirely upon the attitude which we take towards Satan and the works of Satan as to what the issue is going to be. If our attitude is that the world lies in the wicked one, that the evil one has the last say in everything, then defeat is absolutely certain and unavoidable; but if we are not of the world, and therefore do not lie in the wicked one with the world, but are in Christ as apart from and over the world, and the authority is not ultimately in that evil one but in Christ, then this is the victory that overcomes the world!

So we notice that this represents a transition from one position as in the world, of the world, related to the world, and therefore in the first place known by the world and loved by the world, to a spiritual position in Christ, outside of the world, no longer known nor loved by the world. That is simple. It is elementary. It is the first step. But it has to be recognised that this is no contradiction. It presents a spiritual movement, a movement which commenced when we became by faith united with Christ, but a movement which goes on continually and intensifies as it goes.

2. The Fact of Estrangement and Antagonism

I think it hardly needs to be stressed, but perhaps we might remind ourselves of it, that these words do clearly declare the fact of an estrangement. "The world knew Him not", therefore "the world knoweth us not". That is an estrangement. "If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19). That is the antagonism.

I want to put my finger once more upon the heart of this thing. When we speak of the world we are not speaking of the people of this world in the full consciousness of all this, for although the people of this world have a degree of consciousness of this difference, this estrangement, and this clash, the people of this world are not finally and fully responsible. They lie in the wicked one. They are not conscious that they lie in the wicked one. They have never been in anything else. If you and I have ever been delivered and then we get back, we know, we are fully aware of the fact that we are not where we should be, and we are where we would be; but never having been anywhere else, we are not fully conscious of our state. It is only when we are awakened, when by the operation of the Spirit of God we come to ourselves, awake to a position which has not registered itself upon us keenly up to that point, that we know that this is not our place.

The world has not been awakened and it does not therefore know, and has no keen, full consciousness of the fact that it lies in the evil one, and yet it does. The evil one is working through the world, and creating in the world, effecting in that world this estrangement and this antagonism. The world becomes aware of the estrangement, of the difference, and of that clash and antagonism, but cannot explain it.

Behind the world there is an intelligence which knows all about it. Those who are out from the world in this spiritual sense are suspect before anything is known about them naturally and humanly. It is not necessary to declare to the world that you are a Christian; if you are truly with the Lord, it comes out. It is not long before the very atmosphere is full of strain and conflict. It is not that we adopt an attitude or a position of difference; it is there, intangible and yet the most real thing to our consciousness and to the consciousness of the world. There is the fact. The world does not love us, although it may know nothing about us, and it may not understand its own lack of love for those who are Christ's, but the fact is there all the same. The world may not be able to explain it, but it knows that it is so. The evil one is there, and he knows that we are not of his company.

That leads us to the point that we have in view for this moment, to note.

3. The Nature of the Suffering

"In the world ye shall have tribulation", the word is really the word 'anguish': "Ye shall have anguish". What is the nature of this suffering of the Lord's own heart in this world? It comes right along the line that we have just laid down or noted.

(a) Difference of Spirit

First of all it is a matter of the difference of spirit. There is a great deal of the suffering of the Lord's people due to the difference of spirit in them and in the world. You can never proceed with the world as you can with believers. You can never assume with the world when you can with believers. While very often we find we can only go so far even with believers, nevertheless we can go so far with believers, but we can never go that far with the world. We can assume that believers have a relationship with the Lord which makes possible a counting upon them to react in a certain way.

What we mean is this: that if there are those who are truly related to the Lord and walking in the Lord, we can rest assured that if they meet anything which is contrary to them, they will have to reckon with the Lord as to how they react to that. If they react badly, we say, "They have to answer to the Lord for that, we need not trouble about that, that is between them and the Lord", and we know that sooner or later they will come up against the Lord in that matter! Or, because they know the meaning of the Cross, and the letting go of their own soul, they will react, they will triumph, they will get on top of that quickly, there will not be a going under. But you can never proceed on that ground with the world. The world moves at once on the ground of what you give, you get. You have nothing to count upon as to the grace of God in the heart. The world meets you on a purely natural, fleshly basis, and that means suffering to the spirit. You are of another spirit, and to have to meet in your spirit that other spirit, that other basis, that other ground of reaction of life, means a good deal of suffering. You have to maintain a spiritual position in spite of no one being able to come on to your ground and meet you there. That is spiritual suffering. That is tribulation.

Take it in the case of a carnal believer. If you proceed on a purely spiritual basis with a carnal believer, and then that carnal believer begins to treat you in a fleshly way and come back at you on the ground of the flesh, what spiritual suffering that causes! You can do nothing with that. All you can say is, "Well, we must wait until they come to some new spiritual position!"

That is the spirit of the world, and in that realm there is tribulation, there is suffering, there is anguish, because of a difference of spirit. The spirit of the world, and the Spirit which is of God, these are at variance and there is a clash, and we are called upon by the Lord for a time to live in a world where another spirit than the Spirit of Christ is widespread, almost universal, and there is this constant clash.

I remember someone saying to me once that they always assumed that people were crucified until they proved otherwise, and proceeded accordingly. And that person was always making the most painful discoveries, terrible discoveries. That person would proceed on the basis that people with whom they were dealing with, that they were crucified people, and then they got an awful shock and became bewildered and stunned, and went through agonies. I do not know whether that is a right principle or not - I am not going to discuss that - but the fact is that unless there is the Spirit of Christ, there will always be suffering for those who have the Spirit of Christ, who are of His Spirit, and this world which has another spirit.

I have my mind very closely upon the Lord Jesus Himself. There is behind what we are saying a following of Him through His earthly life, and we can see how true in His case was the suffering because of the difference of spirit in Him and in the others.

(b) Difference of Government

The world is governed by its own nature, its own basis, and that basis, that nature, is purely selfish. Ultimately you find something which comes back to self in this world. If it is not in one form, it will be in another. The world is governed by all those things which belong to the soul. It is a soul world, and the soul is the self life. The world is absolutely governed by the mind of the world, the thoughts of the world, the judgements of the world, the standards of the world, what the world thinks and feels and how the world acts, and those things which the world calls success, effectiveness, those things which the world regards as of value. It is a large realm.

The Lord Jesus in that world where men would say, "Now, this is the recognised thing to do!" even religiously; and, "This is what you ought to do, and this is what you ought not to do! This is the expedient thing! This is the common sense thing! This is the wise thing! This is how it ought to be done!" In that world, the Lord Jesus was being governed outside of this world, by an altogether different standard. What the world would call success is, after all, the low standard of temporal effectiveness, something that is for a time, a show, a pretence, and then it will go. That is not true success. It belongs to the world which "passeth, with the fashion thereof". There is such a thing as being governed by an altogether different standard outside of this world. The world cannot understand that standard. The world cannot enter into that meaning of things. It has no capacity for appreciating, for understanding, for recognising those values. The world calls those values waste, and has no power or faculty for appraising Divine standards, Divine values. The government is different.

To live in this world by a heavenly standard is agony, because you are constantly up against it, and the world has got into so much which stands to represent God, that even the Lord's people are governed by the world's principles. They would, of course, strongly repudiate that they are worldly. They would even speak about being far less of this world than many, and yet back of things it does matter, and it does count, as to what effect is registered upon men, how men look at things, whether men call it a success or not, whether men see it as a going concern or not, whether it comes up to the standards of what men naturally call a successful thing, an effective thing. Just how far men praise, men recognise, men acknowledge, men are prepared to take it into account as something to be recognised, are the things which govern. And it is the most difficult thing for the flesh (which is only another word for the world, because the world works through the flesh and the flesh is bound up with the world) it is most difficult for nature to accept the verdict of all others: that the thing is not a success judged from its standards. We crave for recognition, we crave for acknowledgment, we crave to have the thing established in the eyes of men.

The Lord Jesus, as we have already pointed out, went out of this world not established in the eyes of men, but very much to the contrary. Paul the apostle died in a time when he was under the cloud of suspicion as a failure, went out of this world not a success from this world's standards. Now the success of Christ can only be seen outside of that world. When you get on to resurrection ground you are outside of this world altogether. The success of the apostle's life can only be seen by a spiritual appraising. Christ was in this world and was governed by another world, another standard, another order, another system which the princes of the world could never know, never understand, never value. Ah, but it is agony to be in a world like that, it is suffering, it is tribulation: the tribulation of having constantly to let go your own soul. "He that loseth his own soul life shall find it unto eternal life" (John 12:25). It is a constant letting go of the soul life.

What is the soul? It is that ground of worldly valuation, worldly appraisement, worldly estimating, worldly judging; that whole realm of things which our soul loves; its evidence, its proof. It is no happy thing for our souls to be in a cloud of suspicion, we love in our souls to stand well with people, especially Christian people. It is an agony to the natural soul to be regarded as a failure, not achieving something, and the whole craving of the soul is to be able to bring out its data, its proof, its evidence, to advertise, to set it forth in a handbook, to show the world (especially the Christian world) what it is doing.

The world is constantly trying to do something to let it be known. That is exactly what the world said to Christ, and His own brethren were mixed up in it, and suggested that He went up to the feast and showed Himself openly. It is exactly what the devil said in the wilderness: "Go up to the temple pinnacle and cast Yourself down and all will believe! You will get a following! You will get recognition! Capture the people by showing them what You can do! Make a display and you will get applause!" That is the soul life, and that is worldly. And to live in a world like that and to repudiate it all and to be governed by other standards is anguish to the soul, it is tribulation, it is a constant denial of the soul life, losing our own life or soul. A power is needed to lead you to do that. You cannot do that merely on the basis of asceticism, as something in itself. You certainly do not do it as governed by those interests of gaining something, the ascetic idea that you will gain immortality by afflicting yourself in various ways and denying yourself. That is not the governing law of this Life in Christ. The power by which such a living alone is possible, is the power of faith.

There must be something there that lifts you above this whole realm, and it was that in Christ. How did Christ overcome the world? We will not go on to that at the moment, but we are led to that point. "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." How did Christ overcome? In a word, Christ overcame by believing in the Father's character, and not in the Father's acts. That will carry you a long way. If He had lived upon the Father's acts then when the Father sent Him to the cross, and the Father forsook Him, and the Father allowed Him the deep and terrible agony, then He would have been offended with the Father. He was not living on the acts of the Father.

If you and I have our faith in God simply because of what He does for us, then we are exposed to very great perils, for He will do some very strange things. Are we going to be moved one way or the other by the acts of God? Well, when God acts kindly we shall be all up, but when God acts mysteriously we shall be all down. I am afraid many of us have had our "faith", as we would call it, in God rather as a matter of what God does, and when God has not done what we wanted Him to do, but has done very much other than we wanted Him to do, our faith has gone down, there has been a big question. But Christ did not believe in the Father for His acts. He believed in the Father for His character. He stood back of the acts on the character of the Father, that the Father is what He is, and therefore He will not contradict Himself, and His acts must be according to His character.

God will not do a thing which is out of keeping with His character. If you take the thing, you will misunderstand God. If you take the character of God you will see that although He causes suffering, it is in keeping with His character. There is something out of His nature, what He is, which is governing that course of procedure. It is a difficult lesson to learn, but a lesson which we have to learn sooner or later, that God does everything because of what He is. We have to go to the Lord and have it settled once and for all that God is what He is, and nothing alters that. He does not change, He does not vary. Now then, if He is that, this present act of God must be according to what He is. So Christ looked beyond the act to the character of the Father, and fastened His faith in the character of the Father, and overcame the world.

Satan would suggest that the Father's acts were motivated by other than the Father's love. Take the feeding in the wilderness. Here is the Son: hungry, exhausted, and Satan says: "Command these stones that they become bread". The suggestion is, "Well, You have been declared to be the Son, and now here is the Son being allowed to starve: that is not in keeping!" He would have Christ work from His experience to God and interpret God according to His experience, interpret God on the ground of His suffering, and say: "Well, I am suffering this, therefore God is not kind, not God, God is so-and-so!" Ah, but He turned the thing right round the other way, and took His ground, not upon His experience, but upon what God was, and then He was able to deal with this thing because He believed God.

"The victory that overcometh... our faith"! Faith in what God is, and not what God does or is able to do; that is the victory that overcomes the world.