Who's Winning?
Sometimes it's hard to tell
Over the past few years I’ve become somewhat obsessed with chess. I wish this meant that I was good at chess. Maybe one day.
Something funny happens when you play chess “over-the-board” (in person as opposed to online/digital). Usually, if there are onlookers to the game (especially if they are unfamiliar with chess), they will come and ask “who’s winning?”
One could say that whoever has captured the most material from his opponent is winning. But just because you have more pieces doesn’t mean you are in a better position. Besides, even if you are in a better position than your opponent, you may blunder in a few moves, or vice versa.
For most of the game, “who’s winning” is an impossible question to answer.
The Christian life can be similar. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s winning. We know we are in a spiritual war. A war not against flesh and blood, “but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12 NKJV).
We know that our “adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). We know that “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19).
So, who’s winning?
It’s easy to look at the headlines, at the hypocrisy, at our own shortcomings, and conclude that Satan is winning. In fact, most people would probably agree. Satan is busy, and he’s good at his job.
But, when we walk by faith and not by sight, we see that what looks like a close game on the surface is actually a blowout.
Christ is reigning at the right hand of the Father while all His enemies are placed under His feet (Ps. 110:1; 1 Cor. 15:25; Eph. 1:22). Jesus came to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), and did so through His death and resurrection (Heb. 2:14). God’s given us a sneak peek at the end of the game, and it’s not pretty for the devil (Rev. 20:10).
There’s actually no question as to who’s winning. Jesus is winning. And if we are in Him, have placed our faith in Him, have died and resurrected with Him, then we are winning too.
Don’t look at the scoreboard, look at the Son of God.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:4-5