Failures for Christ: From Failure to Victory

We all face hardship and failure in this life. But what really matters? Spiritually, we have Christ in us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).  What the world may consider failure, is actually great victory!

God, in His foreknowledge, made us His sons. We are brothers with Jesus Christ, justified and made righteous by his blood. Our only logical conclusion is that our present “failures” are nothing compared to the glory we will see when Christ returns for us.

Romans 8:18,29,30:
For I reckon [logically conclude] that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

In the midst of worldly fears and failures, what should we say about our situation? God has the answer.

Romans 8:31-36:
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?… [Shall] God that justifieth [?]
Who is he that condemneth?… [Shall] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us [?]
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

At times, life seems to be setting us up for failure, like sheep getting sent to be killed. But that is not what is really going on spiritually. God is for us; He justified us. Christ is at the Father’s right hand, making intercession for us. Even though we may face setbacks at times, no one can ultimately be against us when we claim His promises and blessings.

Romans 8:37-39:
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That is our ultimate victory. Despite worldly failure, we will always have God’s love in Christ Jesus. His love will never “fall out” of use or become unnecessary. Today, because of the accomplished works of Jesus Christ, we can worship the Father in the spirit. We rejoice in all that Christ had done for us. And we have absolutely no confidence in the flesh, in the worldly perspective that tries to call us failures.

Philippians 3:3:
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Rather, we keep our perspective on things above. We forget past failures and reach forward to our joyous victories still ahead. Our ultimate success will be when Jesus Christ comes back and gathers us together. Then we will “ever be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:17).

Philippians 3:13,14:
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

How can we be “failures” and still be victorious? Because even though we are “little children,” we have God in Christ in us. We are not winners by our worldly abilities, but by what our heavenly Father has made us to be in Christ Jesus, our lord. Greater is He that is in us than anything the world may pit against us.

I John 4:4:
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Are we failures for Christ? As we struggle on life’s steep hills and rocky paths, we know that our heavenly Father provides a beautiful view for us at “the top.” Better to endure the challenges of this life with believing and love, and to suffer man’s reproach, than to be a worldly “success” and lose out on God’s true riches. Those who are the world’s greatest “failures” are in reality, spiritual giants for God.