Winning in the Bible: God defines it differently than us
This is adapted from my video in this subject, which you can watch here.
In all of today’s talk in evangelical circles about politics and culture wars and Christian nationalism, there’s one word I keep seeing pop up: Winning.
I’m pretty sure that what those who use that word often mean by it is winning politically — winning elections and passing laws, so that Christians are in power. Basically, winning the nation; taking America back for God.
Is this how Christians talked in the Bible? Is that what they did? What does the Bible say about winning?
How we define winning
Many Christians in America want to be in power. For a lot of them, their reasons are understandable — they see the direction this country is going in, as far as sexual immorality in the culture and the government. They fear for their children, they fear for their jobs, and they want to use the political system like everybody else does.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
But some of them have a grander vision — the conquest of America by the church. This is an eschatological vision that flows from postmillennialism, the belief that Christians will establish God’s millennial kingdom on earth before Jesus returns. They believe Christ puts His enemies under His feet through the church. They think the great commission, to disciple all the nations, means Christianizing entire countries. That’s how they define winning.
What I see in Scripture, however, is an entirely different definition of victory. (Continued below)
See also:
What’s remarkable about the New Testament is that all of it was written by persecuted Christians to persecuted Christians. Most of the authors of the New Testament were martyred. None of them had any political or cultural power. None of them got any help from the government. And yet, they turned the world upside-down (Acts 17:6).
None of them said, “We need to win the seats of the magistrates.” None of them ever fought back against their persecutors. None of them said anything like, “We can’t do that now, but future generations of Christians in other nations should do that if they can.” They never talked like how many Christians do today about “winning.”
This is the era in which God chose to complete His revelation to the church in the Scriptures.
What will it profit?
Let’s look at what they did talk like, starting with Jesus in Mark 8:
34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
In that passage, Jesus presents two polar opposites of how we live our lives. On one hand are those who gain the whole world; they gain the world’s power, money and comfort. A lot of Christians are out to gain the whole world — by any means necessary, for some of them. Even if it means using evil, worldly tactics to elect evil, worldly men. The mindset is, we have to win, no matter what that does to our witness, our integrity, to our love for our enemies. For them, the ends justify the means.
When we think that way, we lose our soul. The Lord says there’s no profit in that.
On the other hand are those who lose their life for His sake. Whether that means actual martyrdom, or just a surrender of how we live our lives, Jesus calls it losing. Either way, what worldly power is there in that? But He says that’s how we save our lives. Death is gain for us.
That passage shows what Jesus’ priority is: our soul. That’s more important than all the gain, all the money, all the power in the world. All the laws and governments on the planet combined.
Jesus asks, “Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” What could possibly be worth our soul? Nothing!
Overcoming the world
And so that’s our victory. We win when we gain the eternal life of our souls.
We see that in 1 John 5:
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
How do we overcome the world? By believing that Jesus is the Son of God. Not by political conquest, violence or cultural victory. Our victory is our faith, and it’s a victory that overcomes the world. The Greek word for “victory” is nike, what the shoe is named after. The word translated “overcome” is related — nikao. It means to conquer, to prevail.
Some Christians may wonder, how can we overcome the world simply by believing? It’s pretty simple: Someday, this world will perish. In the same letter, 1 John, 2:17 says, “the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” This world is going to vanish, but we are going to live forever. This life is less than a nanosecond in eternity.
Sadly, for many Christians, it seems like this world is all they care about. They can’t fathom any other kind of victory, conquest or overcoming, other than worldly power. That’s understandable because it’s worldly thinking. Worldly logic tells us that being killed is losing. The winners kill the losers. It’s the Darwinian concept of survival of the fittest.
But the world’s logic is backward in the light of the word of God. In the New Testament, the Christians who are being killed are the winners.
Look at Revelation 12:
10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 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.”
This passage is about a victory over the worst enemy of all: the accuser of our brethren — obviously, a reference to satan, the adversary. We overcome satan by the blood of the Lamb. That’s how we’re saved; that’s how we gain eternal life.
And, the voice says, by the word of their testimony. By telling others about the blood of the Lamb, so more people can be granted eternal life, overcome the enemy and have that victory.
Verse 11 tells us about these victorious brethren, they did not love their lives to the death. They were killed without resistance. They didn’t fight back. As they were being hunted and persecuted, they didn’t think that whoever has power is the winner.
They echoed what Jesus said: “whoever desires to save his life will lose it.” Too many professing Christians today love their lives. They love this world. That’s where the prosperity gospel and Christian nationalism come from; those movements often overlap, because they’re all about desiring our best life now. That’s what they call winning.
That mindset is alien to the Scriptures.
More than conquerors
Let’s look at another passage, and as you read this, ask yourself, does it describe winners or losers? Romans 8:
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Remember nikao? Well, the Greek word here translated “more than conquerors” is hypernikao. It’s a hyper-victory; it’s mega-winning. The New American Standard Bible translates it as “we overwhelmingly conquer.”
As the language in that passage got stronger about our persecution (we’re sheep for the slaughter), it also got stronger about our victory. We’re more than conquerors “in all these things”:
We’re more than conquerors in tribulation.
We’re more than conquerors in distress.
We’re more than conquerors in persecution.
We’re more than conquerors in famine, nakedness, peril and sword.
We’re more than conquerors as we’re being killed and slaughtered all day long.
Thus says the Lord.
Some Christians think of conquest as the Crusades, or taking America back for God, whatever that means. But what we’re called to do is so much greater than conquest.
When someone repents and trusts in Christ to be saved, that is Christ conquering that person. That is Christ saying, in effect, “I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine” (Isaiah 43:1). It doesn’t matter if they’re slaughtered on earth; I seriously doubt that anyone in eternity will care how they got there.
Christ’s victory is our victory. As our persecutors slaughter us, they’ll think they’re winning. Death, if it had sentience, would think it’s winning.
That last sentence should make you think of 1 Corinthians 15, which is about the resurrection, both Christ’s and ours. When our bodies are resurrected and transformed in glory, and they’re reunited with our spirits, who are with the Lord, what are we going to say?
Verse 55: “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
We’re in eternity, and you’re not; who’s the winner?
And hopefully, the ones who killed us will be with us in eternity, too, like Paul the apostle, who’s in glory with people he persecuted to death. Paul watched and helped as Stephen was stoned; I’d love to hear their conversations in heaven.
But what about our neighbors?
You may be thinking, yes, death is good as far as our individual souls. Obviously, it’s better to be in a state of perfect glory, with no more sin or suffering ever. “To die is gain,” as Paul wrote in Philippians 1. “To depart and be with Christ is far better.” But what about the church?
In that passage, even though he desired to be in glory, Paul knew that living on earth would be good for the church (verse 24, “Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you”). You may be thinking, yeah, if the church is going to survive and flourish and carry out our mission and make disciples, we have to live, right? How can we do that if we’re dead or in prison?
You may think that Christians like me don’t care about the church on earth, that we don’t love our neighbors, that we just want to die and selfishly leave our brothers behind. They think persecution may be good for the individual who dies, but bad for the church.
Let’s look at a passage that’s in the very same chapter, Philippians 1:
12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, 13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, among other New Testament letters, while in prison. He says that his imprisonment “turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.” This is one of those Biblical truths that turns our thinking completely backward; many of us would think, how can that be?
He says how in verse 14: Most brethren, most Christians, are “confident by his chains” and “are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” Again, that doesn’t make sense to a lot of us. If we’re being persecuted and we see our leader put in prison, wouldn’t that make us more fearful?
Victory in persecution
Look what else he says: “it has become evident to the whole palace guard that my chains are in Christ.” As the Philippians are reading this letter, it’s possible that at least one of them hears that and goes, “mm hmm.” Here’s why:
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were beaten with rods and put in prison in Philippi. Their feet were chained to the wall. At midnight, they were praying and singing hymns, worshiping the God in whose name they’re suffering. And everyone in the prison could hear them.
You probably know the story: Suddenly, there was an earthquake that pretty much destroyed the prison. The jailkeeper fell down trembling before Paul and Silas and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And he and his family got saved.
That wasn’t just because of the earthquake, but because he saw how Paul and Silas handled their persecution: They were joyful. They were peaceful. They were worshipful. He saw how much they loved Jesus, and so he knew whom to go to. Their suffering was a witness; through their suffering, the kingdom of God grew that night. A lot of people would think Paul and Silas were losers, but God gave them the victory.
When the world, and the church, see that we are so devoted to Christ that we’re willing to suffer for Him, even to death, that He is worth more than our lives, it glorifies Him.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:16, Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” That’s in the context of persecution. Our light shines brightest when we’re surrounded by darkness. When we’re losing.
Jesus also told His disciples, “they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony” (Luke 21:12-13). Persecution is an opportunity for the most powerful witness, when God turns losing into winning. We may lose our lives, but the kingdom of God will gain souls. Again, that’s the Lord’s priority.
Evangelism IS winning
Souls are why Jesus died. Souls are our mission, and everything else we do must serve that mission. Every soul won is our victory, because every soul won will live for eternity. You want to love your neighbor? Put their soul first.
That happens only through the preaching of the gospel. We see throughout the New Testament and throughout history that we don’t need political power to do that. We don’t need what we call winning.
“Winning” just means we can do it more comfortably. I’d hate to face all the martyrs and all those who suffered for Christ, and tell them that we compromised our witness because we didn’t want to go through the same persecution that they did.
We don’t need to win, because Jesus has already won. He has all authority in heaven and on earth. He builds His church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Winning.
