Fighting the Good Fight

Victory and Liberty Are Mine

“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on Eternal Life, whereunto you are also called….” (1 Timothy 6:12).

When we hear the admonition to “fight the good fight” it may bring to mind the picture of a boxer in the ring exerting all his physical strength against a worthy opponent. In the natural, this is how we must fight if confronted with a physical threat, but this is not how we walk out this life spiritually.

“Examine yourself whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves (make sure)..” 1 Corinthians 13:5).

At first glance, this seems like an odd thing for the Apostle Paul to write to those that are Christians. However, the Corinthian church was allowing sin to continue in the church and Paul sent this letter as a call to repentance. Just as our boxer must prepare for the encounter and believe that he is able to be victorious against his opponent, we must “examine ourselves” to make sure that our faith is properly placed in Christ and His sacrificial death on the Cross. Our victory against the world, the flesh, and the devil are totally dependent on it. We must examine ourselves daily to make sure our faith is in Christ and Him crucified.

I’ve heard it said that some Christians are miserably saved. What is meant by this is that they live a life of failure because their faith is in something other than Christ for their daily Christian walk. There are only two places we can have our faith in as we walk out our Christian lie – faith or works. If we are trusting in anything other than Christ and His sacrificial death on the Cross then we are trusting in works and it will result in failure. The Christian disciplines such as reading the Bible, praying, and attending church are all things we should do, but they will not bring us the victory we seek. We “lay hold of Eternal Life” through continued faith in Christ and the Cross. When we do this we are walking in the Spirit and the Holy Spirit will help us.

“Thus I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

The Lord Jesus paid the price for us at Calvary. If we could have victory in our lives in any other way, then He need not have died on the Cross. His death on the Cross not only paid the sin debt owed but gives us victory and liberty in our daily lives. If we walk out this life any other way then we are depending on our own efforts which will only result in failure and bondage. Paul encouraged the church at Galatia to stand in the liberty that Christ provides in the following verse:

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again by the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).

We are “called” to follow Christ. We follow Him by examining ourselves making sure we are “in the faith,” by fighting the good fight of faith, and by standing fast in the liberty which Christ paid the high price to gain for us. We do all this by anchoring our faith in Christ and His sacrificial death at Calvary. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God…… The Lord has won the victory and we need only come to Him in faith.

“But thanks be to God, which gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

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Here I Am, Lord – Tom Quinn Ministries – tqministries.com 2023