The Triumphant Church

It used to be that I couldn’t understand how you could have your “Post-tribber,” your “Mid-tribber,” your “Pre-tribber,” and your “No-tribbers.” I have since become a “Pan-tribber.” I used to make fun of people like me, but I have adopted the “Pan-tribber” philosophy of: No matter how it turns out, it’s all going to pan out. It’s all going to be okay according to the plan of God, and I don’t have time to weary myself on trying to figure out exactly when Christ will return. This much we probably can agree on: Christ will return and when He does, He will return for a glorious Church.

A glorious Church is a triumphant Church; it is not defeated, diseased, confused, perplexed, or weak. A glorious Church is without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. This is the Bride for which the Groom, Christ, is returning. The really good news, and the crux of what I want to share today, is that the Church described above is a triumphant Church! It is not because we are triumphant in and of ourselves. It’s because God causes us to be triumphant. Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 2:14, wherein the Apostle Paul wrote this: 

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” 

If we are in Christ, we have a promise from God that we will always triumph. I really like this part where Paul says, “Through us, God diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” We’re the perfume of God . . . His diffuser! Through us, He releases the fragrance of His life because we are in Christ. Our lives are mirroring His life. Now to some it can smell like death, Paul said. In other words, to some people, Christians stink. They carry with them the stench of death, and that is because in our representing Christ, it is a reminder to the world that there is a God, and in the end all of us will be judged by the one who has given us life. To build on that succession, because there is a God, it reminds people that Jesus is real, and as a result, those who are following Jesus can become a stench to those who are rejecting Christ.

To those who believe in Him, we smell good . . . at least to each other. There’s a difference between the “Lazarus Syndrome” and the fragrance of Christ. The “Lazarus Syndrome” is “he stinketh by now.” But we carry the fragrance of God; He diffuses that through us. I love the way the Amplified Bible states it: 

“But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere.” 

Do you know that you are a trophy of Christ’s victory? The Word says that, “through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere.” We are diffusing the knowledge of God as we go. Now keep in mind that this is being written by Apostle Paul, a man who is acquainted with tremendous challenges and conflict in his life. He had been betrayed and ended up being confined in prison and put to death. In fact, we will look at the criteria that qualified him for the title, “Apostle.” Through all of these things that he endured, he said, “Yet none of these things move me.”

If you look at 2 Corinthians 11:24, you’ll see a list of qualifications that Paul gives us: 

²⁴ From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; ²⁶ in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; ²⁷ in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— ²⁸ besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 

I wanted us to read that so we’d be reminded that Paul was a man who was familiar with tremendous challenges, obstacles, and conflicts in his life. He was also a man who was full of faith. Sometimes I think that when people hear a faith message, they think that it might be coming from someone who has no knowledge of pain or loss in their life.

Apostle Paul was well-acquainted with the challenges of life and ministry. Yet, he says of his life, that through all of these things, none of them moved him. He said that in Acts 20:24. Why? Because he was a man who was motivated by the love, knowledge, and the Spirit of God. So none of the challenges that surrounded him had the ability to knock him off course, or to get him to move in some other direction. Christ was his compass, and he had set his heart on following Christ. I want to remind us that without trials there can be no triumph! How are you going to be a winner if you’ve never won anything? How are you going to be triumphant if you’ve never been tried?

~pg