“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Not I’m going to, but I have overcome the world. These were the very last words that Jesus spoke to His disciples the night before His crucifixion. The context to this is, the night before His crucifixion, Jesus was telling His disciples what was going to come to pass. He was saying to them, when you see me, God’s only begotten son, going through sufferings, when you see the soldiers put a thorn crown on my head, when you see them driving spikes through my hands and my feet, when you see them mocking me, when you see me crucified and a spear driven in my side, when you see me in all these pains, the humiliation, the rejection, be of good cheer.
This is not a statement made separate from what happens in the real world, not understanding that people will have problems. Jesus started by saying, there’s going to be tribulation, bad things will happen even to good people. Just because you love God, or just because you seek Him doesn’t mean things will work perfectly. Yet, in the midst of this, He said, ‘be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’ Most people will say that’s illogical; you can’t do that. To see Jesus rejected, beaten, humiliated and crucified, and all the terrible things happening to Him, something would have been wrong with you if you would have rejoiced. If they had been in faith, they would have rejoiced because Jesus Christ had prophesied to them 14 times that He would be crucified and that was the way that the Lord was going to bring redemption. About 7 of those times, He prophesied His resurrection from the dead. Learn to be of good cheer always!
- Thank you for reading our devotional on “Jesus Has Overcome The World So Rejoice”.