To him who overcomes

“To him who overcomes,” Jesus says seven times, He will give unspeakable reward­—delicacies from the tree of life; escape from the second death; ­hidden manna to eat; power over the nations; white garments and a permanent place in the Book of Life; to be a pillar in God’s temple; the privilege of sitting with Him on His throne (Revelation 2-3).

May I tell you why this is so wonderful to me in this grasshopper-dragging-himself-along season of life?

Note what He doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “To him who has faith.” Or “To him who loves.” Or “To him who obeys.” Those would all have been true, but He is keen on empha­sizing something else here, a particular incentive to those saints who are dangerously resigned to the remaining sin in their lives.

“Overcoming” suggests a final victory, perhaps after a long and not pretty slog. It had looked like we were never going to master our temper, our pride, or that silent treatment strategy inherited from a mother and grandmother. It appeared it would get the better of us till we went Home.

The devil told us it was no big deal. He suggested, kindly, that we give up. “Christ is enough,” he said (for he speaks like a theologian). “I’m saved, that’s what counts,” he said (for he sounds like our own voice). “God knows we will sin till the day we die. But Jesus paid it all. In fact, who do you think you are to try to live a holy life! Only One is holy! Why, what you’re seeking is practically works righteousness!”

Jesus does not talk like that. He says, “To him who overcomes.” I think He means it, don’t you?

Fortunately for us, no one has to overcome every sin. Each soul has his own besetting weakness (just as did each of the seven churches of Revelation), not the whole catalog of human vice. You know exactly what Jesus means when He looks you in the eye and says to “overcome.” He is referring to that single area of bondage that has wrecked your relationships for years.

Jesus is insistent (sevenfold) that overcoming is doable. Where there is a divine command, there is the grace to ­perform it. If God expresses displeasure at the dog returning to his vomit, it is because there is no good reason for the dog to keep returning to his vomit. He must stop it.

“Overcoming” is so highly valued by the angels that “there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7). How wonderfully unfair it seems! And what can that joy be but the thrill of the sheer contrast between “the old you” and “the new you,” however many or few days remain to you on this earth to walk in the new?

Jesus’ repeated adjuring that we “overcome” lets us dare to believe that what matters is the ending, not the length of time it took to get there. “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning” (Ecclesiastes 7:8). The final verdict of the One who opens the Books on the great Day will not be arrived at by a mathematical average of the locust-eaten years with the victorious years (that math is against me) but by whether those locusts were finally overcome in a substantial way.

I am in my second marriage. Lo and behold, the same personal proclivities of my first marriage were carried into my second, with similar results. My husband says this is because if a person doesn’t deal with the obstacle God puts on his road, God will see to it that the person faces the same obstacle later on down the road. And maybe a third or fourth time too, until it is either dealt with or the person dies without his victory, and dragging behind him wood, hay, and stubble (1 Corinthians 3:12).

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The ­second best time is now” (Chinese proverb). While it is still day, let us not waste the dimming light in regret over all the mess we’ve made. He gave even Jezebel time to repent, but she would not (Revelation 2:21). Forfend the fate of Jezebel.

Triflers! Prevaricators! Wafflers! The inveterately lazy! The “It’s no use” and “It’s too late” crowd! Now is our hour. He only wants our overcoming—He who of His own ­mysterious will doled out the same reward to the 11th-hour hirelings as to the ones hired at the ninth.