When Jesus went to the cross and took our sin upon Himself nearly two thousand years ago, He fulfilled God’s plan. That plan, revealed as early as Eden when Adam and Eve fell from grace, is called the protoevangelium, or first evangel. God cursed Satan (in the form of the serpent) our accuser and Eve’s deceiver in saying, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, and He shall bruise you on the head (crush your head, so some translations), and you shall bruise Him on the heel” (Gen. 3:15). The seed of the woman is Christ (Gal. 3:16), the bruising of Jesus’ heel was His crucifixion, but the bruising, or crushing, of the serpent’s head was Christ’s resurrection. Hallelujah!

However, here is the catch: Because God is omniscient, knowing everything, He knew they would fall for Satan’s scheme. And while that may confound human reasoning, we must know that God did not make a mistake. We will never definitively know the solution to that conundrum while on this earth for He does not reveal everything to us, though what He does is sufficient. Even so, there is this consideration: If sin did not enter into the world, a Messiah or Savior would never have been necessary, and if that be the case, Jesus would not have left His place at the Father’s right hand to become incarnate. Remember, God’s thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways (Isa. 55:8-9); in fact, that passage tells us they are higher than ours.

Therefore, we can accept that it was always God’s intention to send His Son to redeem us. Thousands of years later when the Messiah finally did come, it was only a scant 30+ years after when He was condemned to the cross by the very people to whom He was sent. So, as He hung on that cross and with His dying breath cried out “It is finished!” that means His redemptive work was completed; He had fulfilled His mission and met His Father’s objective. But there was still one more act to be carried out, this one by the Father. God raised Jesus from the dead. That was history’s defining moment, for, as the apostle Paul tells us, if Christ is not resurrected our faith is vain, our preaching is vain, it is worthless, and we are still in our sin, most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:14, 17, 19).

But praise be to God! Jesus has been resurrected, so our faith and preaching are not vain or worthless. In fact, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3). He even has raised us up spiritually with Christ and seated us with Him in Christ (Eph. 2:6). Furthermore, we know Jesus, at this very moment, is seated at the right hand of the Father (Eph. 1:20). Therefore, we are with Him spiritually at the Father’s right hand. That is who we are and our glorious position in Christ – a cause for celebration and to show gratitude, to fall down and worship Him for saving us.

In addition to that, Peter tells us that God has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness… and granted us His precious and magnificent promises that we might become partakes in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:3-4). We see those promises exemplified in Christ’s messages to the angels of the seven churches, as follows:

Ephesus: To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God (Rev. 2:7).

Smyrna: He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death (2:11).

Pergamum: To him who overcomes, to him will be given some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it (2:17).

Thyatira: And he who overcomes, and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule over them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star (2:26-28).

Sardis: He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels (3:5).

Philadelphia: He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem out of heaven from My God, and My new name (3:12).

Laodicea: He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne (3:21).

The common thread running throughout is that the promises are to those who overcome, which Jesus qualifies in the end by saying, “…as I also overcame.” That may appear to us to be unattainable; however, that is not the case because earlier John said the same in his first epistle when he wrote this:

“I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:13-14).

And this, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:2-4).

And finally, “For [whoever] is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4-5).

In sum, if we who are in Christ, when we read our Bibles, would keep this underlying premise in our mind’s eye, that Jesus defeated Satan at the cross and has overcome the world, we would understand the disciples’ fearless response to His charge to go and make disciples of the nations as they went from city to city proclaiming the gospel in the face of mounting persecution. We who are in Him will spend eternity in the presence of God and of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the saints, but our life on earth is but a vapor, the blink of the eye in comparison. We should, therefore, strive to hear Jesus say to us at the Final Judgment, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”