Triumphing at Life

What does it look like to triumph at life? 

I walked past a three-storey house on Sydney Harbour recently with a view to the harbour bridge and a Lamborghini in the garage. Are they triumphing at life?

I walked past a family a four swimming at the beach, enjoying the sun, laughing together and munching on some healthy sandwiches. Are they triumphing at life?

I walked past an old man sitting in a park, smiling as the sun rose, enjoying his coffee, sitting alone. Is he triumphing at life?

What would triumphing in life look like for you?

Perhaps we will all have a different answer to that question but here is what ultimate triumph looks like:

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

For Jesus, triumph came through his submission to the will of God, his subsequent suffering on the cross for us and his work of defeating the enemy of his friends through that same death.

Triumph came not by seizing the day or gaining all that life has to offer. Triumph came through his suffering and death. This is the upside down nature of the Gospel and the Christian life—or perhaps we should call it the right way up nature of the Gospel—for it sets us back on the only path that’s really worth living as Jesus triumphs over all that holds us back from being truly human and life to the full. 

Easter is a celebration of this triumph. That at the cross, Jesus bore our sins in his body that we might die to sin and live for righteousness—that we might give away the pursuit of things in this life and look ahead to the things of the next life. 

There is so much that can disappoint in this life. There is nothing that will disappoint in the next if you trust in Jesus. Moreover, triumphing without Jesus in this life excludes you from triumphing with Jesus in the next. 

Easter is the best time of the year to invite friends to hear this message. Who could you bring to church or invite onto your couch this Easter? Who in your life needs to hear that the truly triumphant life is found only by trusting in Jesus?