Topic: focus2020
It’s amazing and yet sometimes hard to understand how Christ’s finished work on the Cross gives us freedom from our sins, struggles, and trials. In this new year, hear from Pastor Jeff on what our faithfulness to live for Christ and to witness for Him can look like, in our personal lives and as a church.
Title: We Have Won
Text: Col 2:13-15
Series: Focus 2020
What does the Bible mean when it says that we have been made victorious through Jesus Christ? How does the knowledge that we have already won change the way we live our lives?
Cancelled
Imagine a debt that takes generations to pay off or a debt collector that threatens the family daily. What would you do in such situations? How would you feel? Now, what if this debt is sin and this debt collector is God, but God chooses not to forgive any of our sins and instead, he makes them all count against us. What does it mean for us then?
Let us read Colossians 2:13-14 and Acts 3:19. How were our debts cancelled? Indeed, there is no way for us to save ourselves, we need to turn to God. He has taken away our sins, nailed them to the cross and forgave us completely (Col 2:13-14). Not only that, He also chooses not to remember our sins (Isaiah 43:25). What amazing grace!
In light of these, how can we live in a ‘post-cross’ fashion in 2020? Are there things that might hold you back and make you revert to a ‘pre-cross’ life?
In 2020, let us begin each day with a clean slate (2 Cor 5:17) knowing that we are a new creation and the old has gone and the new has come!
Victory
How are you feeling as the new year starts? Is victorious one of the emotions you have? Why or why not? Perhaps 2019 did not end well. Today, there might be daily battles in sin, and old struggles continue to bother us. Yet because Jesus has already defeated the darkness (Colossians 2:15), even though we may be fighting such daily battles, we can be assured that we have a blessed hope as we look forward to Christ’s return – we have victory in Christ.
Therefore, if you could personalise Watchman Nee’s words in the sentence below, what would you say?
Outside of Christ, I am ___; but in Christ, I am ____.
In 2020, how can we fight our daily battles knowing that we have won our victory over sin in Christ? Discuss with your life group how we can trust and actualise this victory that Christ has already bought for us. How can the life group remind one another to hang onto Christ though we may stumble along the way? In this way, His finished work truly becomes the starting point of our victorious life.