"…, has conquered,…"

Last week  Tuesday I preached from Revelation 5:1-5.  The occasion was a funeral and as I was selecting the text the phrase "has conquered" jumped out at me.

I have been reading Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening as a devotional lately.  It is available free online here.  Time and again Spurgeon takes a verse, or a part of a verse, and connects it to the Good News of God in Jesus.  His words are filled with power, passion, and great truth.  His method may have its weaknesses but he writes with a passion that is rare, passion that always points his reader to Christ.

So, feeding on Spurgeon, those words, has conquered, jumped out at me from the text in Revelation.  John the Evangelist is making reference to Jesus as the one who has conquered, so that Jesus is then the only one who can open the seals of the scroll.

What has Jesus conquered?  In laying down His life and taking it up again He has conquered sin and death.

And that makes all the difference.  Because Jesus has conquered sin and death Paul says that we who believe in Him are "more than conquerors."  We will be raised up with Him to an eternal life that is better than anything we could imagine.   

We have had some hard times recently in our community.  But amidst the pain, the sorrow, the heartache, the truth remains.  

Jesus has conquered.  To God be all the glory!

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.