Living in victory

inquiry

Defeated - or victorious?

Why do we walk around as Christians saying we are in victory - and the
enemy is defeated?  If that is so which I do believe but just cant get
my head around - then why do we wage warfare against a defeated foe?
Surely if you are defeated - well then you are defeated?  I've been a
Christian for 7 years and I am battling with the hassles that seem to
come solely because you are a Christian and especially - for instance
- if you have brought a "word" or something from the Lord - the
resulting intimidation is quite awful, is'nt it?

first response

Colossians Chapter 1 tells us that the victory Jesus won on the cross 
WAS complete. We are merely working through and waiting for the final 
outcome to appear in history. Scripture often sees things as fully 
completed from a heavenly vantage point.

We lay hold of the eternal truths of the Bible by faith.

"May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious 
might, for all endurance and patience with joy,  giving thanks to the 
Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the 
saints in light.  He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness 
and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,  in whom we 
have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  He is the image of the 
invisible God, the first-born of all creation;  for in him all things 
were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether 
thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities --all things 
were created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and 
in him all things hold together.  He is the head of the body, the 
church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in 
everything he might be pre-eminent.  For in him all the fulness of 
God was pleased to dwell,  and through him to reconcile to himself 
all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood 
of his cross.  And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, 
doing evil deeds,  he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his 
death...." (11-22)

"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and 
through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved 
and among those who are perishing,  to one a fragrance from death to 
death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient 
for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's 
word; but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight 
of God we speak in Christ. (2 Cor. 2:4-17)

second response

In adding, I wanted to add a real life example so
that it might perhaps help you get your hands around this question.

In World War II, when the Allied troops landed on Normandy establishing a
beachhead there and then moving into Europe, this was the decisive
battle/event that won the war in Europe for the Allied command. There were
still battles to be fought, but the outcome of the war was certain once the
allies landed on French soil and started moving inland step by step toward
Germany.

God, I feel, leaves these battles for us to fight so that we grow and mature
in Christ gradually becoming more and more like Him. In addition as we go
through these battles we begin to rely less and less on ourselves and more
and more on Him to bring the victories, because we realize more and more
that in ourselves alone we are incapable.

Best wishes,