Apr
By Yolandie Mostert (24 April 2023)
Part 7 of the series on Who is the Bridegroom
My beloved is … chief among ten thousand (Songs 5:10)
We find a verse that fits with the theme of Conqueror in Psalm 45. This Psalm is called the song of love. It describes what the bride of Christ as well as the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, look like.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed You above Your companions with the oil of jubilation. (Ps 45:7 AMP)
The Hebrew word for chief in this verse is dâgal and it means to raise a flag, to flaunt or to set up a banner or standard during war.
Jesus Christ as the conqueror or victor is yet another facet of His character. It means that He has already won. He is already in possession of the keys of hades and of death.
I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. (Rev 1:18)
The world likes to paint a picture of Jesus being week, someone without power or might, that was conquered by people. This is absolutely not true. It wasn’t the nails that kept Jesus on the cross. He was there out of choice and could’ve climbed off the cross at any moment. If He was to ask for it, His Father would’ve dispatched twelve legions of angels (Matt 26:53).
He has already obtained the victory, but we still live as if this is a far-off future event. I believe that when we will truly come to the realisation that when we dwell in Him, we are also allowed to raise the standard of victory, our lives will look much different. We tend to live like conquered people that are delivered into the power and will of governments, secret organisations, powerful people and the happenings in the world. We are not. We are supposed to rise above all of this and live from a position of victory.
Jesus did not only die for our sins; He was also raised from the dead. Without the resurrection of Jesus, our faith is pointless. Then we don’t have anything to believe in.
And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! (1 Cor 15:17)
No one knows exactly what happened during those three days between the death and resurrection of Jesus. Peter’s letter reveals a little bit and many speculations and doctrines have been built based on it. In this life, we will certainly not have the full revelation. All I know and what I can see in Scripture is that the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead, was an extremely big deal. It’s what gives Him the title of Conqueror. Not because He laid down His life, but because He was able to take it again.
“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” (Joh 10:17-18)
We read in Zechariah 9:9, the last part, the following: Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. The context of this Scripture is Jesus entering Jerusalem on the donkey. In this verse we also find the apparent conflicting facets of the character of Jesus. He comes in humility, even though He comes as the One on His way to conquer.
Because Jesus is the Conqueror, He was the only One able to break the seven seals. here we also don’t understand the full implication of not being able to find someone to open the seals. But not finding anyone able, was a very serious matter. John cried bitterly because no one could be found. Some people say it was because he was nosy and wanted to know what was written. You don’t weep much because you’re nosy. Something bigger was at stake.
But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” (Rev 5:5)
How do we understand the victory that happened (past tense) in conjunction with the Scriptures about the coming victory of Jesus?
He has conquered. Hy is already the Victor. He sits at the righthand of the Father as the One who overcame. He now reigns as King. But all His enemies are not under His feet yet. The final destruction of all His enemies will happen when He returns.
Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. (1 Cor 15:24-26)
But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. (Heb 10:12-13)
We cannot just talk about Jesus as the Conqueror without doing some introspection. Because Jesus has gained the victory and because we dwell in Him, we also share in that victory. We followed Jesus in His death through the baptism and therefore also share in His resurrection. Because of this we are positioned in the heavenlies in Jesus Christ. Our position in Him, makes this possible. This is the key and the requirement – we have to dwell in Him. Therefore a life of victory is possible. The enemies of Jesus are also our enemies and all His enemies are not destroyed yet. Therefore we also have to reign. We can only do this when we dwell in Him. It’s only through Jesus that we have authority over our enemies. And we do have the authority. We just have to take it up.
Little children (believers, dear ones), you are of God and you belong to Him and have [already] overcome them [the agents of the antichrist]; because He who is in you is greater than he (Satan) who is in the world [of sinful mankind]. (1 Joh 4:4 AMP)
We have not yet finished the race. But because of the victory of Jesus Christ, it’s possible to overcome until the end. We already have the victory in Jesus. Now it must just manifest in our lives. In other words, it must be seen. Firstly we must really believe that Jesus Christ is the Conqueror. He really sits at His Father’s right hand. Because we dwell in Him, the requirement, we are also there. This empowers us to live our life for God and to live like people that are dead to sin and alive to God.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:10-11)
Then when we believe these things, Paul admonishes us in Colossians 3:1 to set our hearts on the things that are in heaven. The things that are only available at the right hand of the Father. We have to make sure that we are in Christ, lest we think that we are there, but we’re not. The phrase “Seated in heavenly places” gets quoted a lot. I wonder how many of those that claim it for themselves are truly dwelling in Christ. And how many more really understand the meaning. Nevertheless, we have to seek the things above. This the exhortation. Just like everything in our spiritual journey, we will not find anything besides that which we will find IN Christ Jesus our Lord.
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. (Col 3:1)
There is a day that we can look forward to and that’s the day of our final victory. This day is closer than what many realise. Because we stand in faith and love Him with our whole being, we strive to finish the race as a conqueror. It still lies in the future and that is why we are now laying off every burden and sin and pursue sanctification.
Those who win the victory will receive this from me: I will be their God, and they will be my children. (Rev 21:7)
To those who win the victory I will give the right to sit beside me on my throne, just as I have been victorious and now sit by my Father on his throne. (Rev 3:21)
According to Revelation 12:11 we will gain the victory through three things. Firstly through the Blood of the Lamb, our only boast. Then through our testimony. And finally, the part of the verse that doesn’t get quoted a lot – because we are willing to die for our faith. Spiritually it means that we are now willing to lay down our lives in submission to His will and physically it means willing to die when it comes to that.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Rev 12:11)
Let’s go back to the verse in Psalm 45.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed You above Your companions with the oil of jubilation. (Ps 45:7 AMP)
Jesus Christ has raised the flag of victory. He is the Conqueror. And His Father anointed Him with oil of gladness. When we dwell in Him, we cannot help but to be full of joy. He was anointed with oil of jubilation and we share in that. By being full of joy, we declare that Jesus Christ is the Conqueror.
The audio version of the message is available on our telegram channel: https://t.me/+1hYU7h46Jj1hZDc8
