Christ Against All

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

1 John 5:4

How doth faith overcome the world? Because it overcomes all things in the world, as, on the right hand, pleasures and profits and honours, and on the left hand, threatenings, pains, losses, and disgraces, by setting Christ against all.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works, Volume 2, p. 203

Revelation 3:14-22 paints a striking picture. The church in Laodicea enjoys all the blessings of its surrounding culture and economy. They are wealthy, healthy, and under no persecution. What shock must it have been for them to hear Jesus say, “you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,’ not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked?”

This early church enjoyed countless blessings. They gathered in joy together, at rest and at peace. Except for that pounding at the door. This voice speaking from the outside. All is well within the church it seems, except that Jesus is outside. They have not missed Him or sensed their need of Him. They have set all they have against Christ, and found Him wanting. Moses’ trust was not in them (Hebrews 11:26).

They do not trust Him because they do not need Him.

Their works reveal a rottenness of heart. For all their benefits, they lack the Source Himself. They have abandoned fellowship with Jesus.

What is Jesus’ plea at the door? “Buy what you need from me,” He says. In other words, surrender your outward self-sufficiency by welcoming Christ again, and giving Him the place in our hearts He died to purchase, and acknowledge Him in thankfulness as the Source of all your benefits. To the individual heart (for dying churches revive by the revival of individual hearts, which is Jesus’ prize) Christ says, “I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

How is it that we overcome the world? How is it that we conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil? Christ in the heart, as the focus of our affections, and as the meditation of our minds.

Christ against all.

Therefore let us labour to hold Christ, to entertain Him. Let him have the best room in our souls, to dwell in our hearts. Let us give up the keys to Him, and desire Him to rule our understandings, to know nothing but Him, and what may stand with His truth, not to yield to any error or corruption. Let us desire that He would rule in our wills and affections; sway all, give all to Him.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, Volume 2, p. 91

It is a simple trust, but deep as oceans. It is unconcerned with works or deeds, nor with statistics or relics. It is concerned with Christ above all and against all, even its own heart. For it says to the devil, “You may make me doubt my faith in Christ by pointing me to my works, past and present and my fear for future sins, but you cannot make me doubt my Jesus, my Savior, my all.” For,

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

1 John 5:5

To be married is to trust another with the closest intimacy possible between human beings. To trust Christ is to be united with One who comes to make His home in the soul, to take up His throne in the heart, and to walk amongst the thoroughfares of our thoughts. It is a simple trust in Christ against all. That is how Christians overcome the world. Jesus in us.