I am writing tonight from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

The story goes of a pastor who was changing trains at a train station. While waiting on his train, a man approached him with some religious literature, trying to witness to him about God. The pastor could not help but smell the alcohol on his breath. He asked the man if he was drinking. The man confessed yes. The pastor asked him how he could be sharing Jesus while he was drinking. The man told the pastor, that Jesus overcame so that he did not have to overcome, and that Jesus also died for him so he does not have to die. The pastor responded, “So Jesus overcame do you don’t have to?” “That’s right” the man said. “He did it all for me so I don’t have to.” The pastor asked another question. “So Jesus died so you don’t have to die to self?” The man nodded yes. The pastor then replied, ” Well if Jesus overcame so you don’t have to overcome, and died so you don’t have to die, then He also rose again and went back to heaven so you don’t have to do that either!”

The Good news is Jesus overcame so we can experience victory in our lives too!

 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.  2 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV

Jesus died so that our sinful ways can be crucified with Him.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20 NKJV

Jesus rose again and is in heaven so we can rise from the dead and be in heaven too!

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:5-6 NKJV

Jesus’ victory over sin is to be a reality in our lives. Jesus’ death to self is to be a reality in our lives, and Jesus’ victory over the death and the grave is to be a reality in our lives as well!

Because I live, you will live also. John 14:19 NKLJV

To the believer, death is but a small matter. Christ speaks of it as if it were of little moment. “If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death,” “he shall never taste of death.” To the Christian, death is but a sleep, a moment of silence and darkness. The life is hid with Christ in God, and “when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” John 8:51, 52; Colossians 3:4. –Desire of Ages, Page 787