The Ultimate Weapon in the War

We've been talking about the war that every Christian finds themselves in. How Jesus actually sends us into the fire fight and gives us His Joy and Truth as powerful weapons against a real life enemy. In Jesus' prayer for his disciples in John 17 we discover the ultimate weapon:

"For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified." (Jn 17:19)

As was said earlier, this sanctify word keeps popping up. It means to make holy, to be set apart for the purposes of God. Jesus uses it to describe his going to the cross. He means that his going to the cross is an expression of him being set apart for the purposes of His Father. Because He is willing to do that, he then makes a way for his disciples (and us) to be "truly" sanctified.

Earlier Jesus mentions that we are sanctified by truth (the word of God). Here he reveals that we are sanctified by His death on the cross. This is our ultimate weapon in the war against sin, death, the demonic. For one, we've already won. That's right, we've already won this battle in Christ. The Apostle Paul says it this way in Romans chapter 8:

"³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Notice that he says we "are" conquerors. No matter how successful or unsuccessful we are in this very messy spiritual battle that we find ourselves in, our victory is certain. It's sort of like watching Return of the King for the 50th time with my sons. Every time I watch Frodo decide to not throw the ring of power into the pit of molten lava below, I feel a little twinge of disappointment, wishing he would do the right thing, hoping maybe this time he will act like a hero and throw it in.

Then I remember, I know the ending. Yeah, he's not going to be the perfect hero, but victory is sure. Evil will be defeated and Frodo and the other hobbits will be seen as heroes, though imperfect and unlikely, but heroes.

So remember today as you battle. As you succeed and fail. Victory is sure because of the cross. The perfect hero has defeated sin and death and the demonic and transfers that victory over to us both in this life and the life to come.