Is Victory Conditional? It Depends.

As Christian men we have a deep desire and craving for victory whether we realize it or not. To live the victorious Christian life that so many of us desire we must have the proper and correct understanding of God's economy for our lives. This is where the conditionality of your post salvation experience comes in play.

The very first step in the journey of living a victorious Christian life is found at the cross where we recognize our complete depravity before a perfect and Holy God, recognize Jesus' complete atonement for our sins and repent in full surrender of our lives, accepting God's free gift of salvation. The beauty of this is not just our assurance of heaven but the fact that it is indeed FREE, paid for us by Jesus. There was no other way for people to be holy before God. The nation of Israel tried for thousands of years and constantly fell short. So God in His rich mercy and kindness made a way through His son Jesus.

So great, and praise God for this. Please understand I'm not trying to make light of the free gift because there is NO OTHER WAY, but for the point of this post, I shift to life after accepting Christ and His free gift of salvation. For it is here we can begin the process of living the victorious Christian life if we understand one very important principle Christ taught throughout the New Testament.

THE VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE IS A CONDITIONAL ONE.

So what does that mean? Think the sermon on the mount, where Jesus speaks what we know in the church as the beatitudes. Each one was conditional - if you do this, you get that. Meaning that our obedience to an action creates a blessing that God can deliver. The fancy theological word for this is Sanctification - the process of a saved Christian becoming more like Christ. Scripture teaches what kind of obedience God wants in each area of our lives - finances, marriage, work, children, family relations, sexuality and the list goes on. You have an area in your life and want to know God's direction for it, it is in His word! We serve a God who doesn't want His desires to go unknown because His great love for us, is that we live fulfilled and victorious lives according to His standards and NOT the world's.

This post would be incomplete if I didn't make an important note. For a saved Christian, God's economy is also just. Out of His love for us, whether we see it or not (if you have children yourself you will certainly understand this), our disobedience can result in God's loving discipline. Sometimes even in our redeemed nature by salvation, we bring bad programming, that needs to be corrected. God's discipline, often subtle, patient and gentle is a reality. He knows our best life for us and will make us uncomfortable to get us to the next step in sanctification and fix our programming. The good news in that however, is we can adjust our lives by studying His word and coming into obedience by it, avoiding discipline.

The victorious Christian life is a real thing. My hope is this post helps us better understand God's economy of how to have victory as men. But please don't believe me, put it into practice, God cannot go against His word. And that is a beautiful promise!