Question description

I was having a conversation with one of my Christian friends who I deem more knowledgeable than me in Biblical understanding. While we were talking about failures in life and what it means to Christians, he mentioned that "there is a difference between a victorious righteous man and a defeated righteous man".  As much as I would like him to explain what the statement means in detail, I wanted to learn from other Christians from another source, thus my question. 

1. What is the difference between a victorious righteous man and a defeated righteous man?

   1. How can someone be defeated and still be called righteous?

   2. Don't all Christians possess victorious righteousness?

   3. What could cause someone to become a defeated righteous person?

   4. How can the Righteous God (the Father) accept a defeated person?

Answer description

Thank you for your question. In order to form my answer I would like to take your questions and divide them into two groups. #1 & #4 deal more specifically with righteousness, and #2 & #3 ask more about the topic of victorious and defeated.

As to the "righteousness" questiions I would point you to another question I have already answered on this site, - "How can simply believing in Jesus make me righteous ?" Part of my answer to that question would also apply here. But basically, everyone who has accepted Christ as their Savior is righteous. And God will always see that person as righteous. There is nothing you can do to lose that righteousness. So even when we, as believers, are in a defeated state, God still sees us as righteous. He cannot change and His love for us always understands that there will be times when we fail. Even in those times, His love never fails. All of Psalm 136 assures us of that. So I hope that gives you peace about questions 1 & 4.

Now, regarding the other two of your questions (2 & 3) we deal with a different issue. The two key words, victorious & defeated, give us a clue. To be victorious means to win, and to be defeated means to lose. Thus we can see we are in a battle that we can either win or lose. And that battle is spiritual warfare. God wants us to draw close to Him so we can walk victoriuosly in His power. But at the same time, the enemy (satan) is trying to draw us away so that we will feel defeated in our desire to honor God. This is a constant battle for the Christian. Here are three verses that define the victorious Christian, (Rom 1:17)(Gal 2:20)(Rom 4:3). All urge us to walk closely with God (faith) through prayer, Bible study and Christian education. That is victorious righteousness. But every Christian has also experienced those times when we sin, when we do not feel motivated to read our Bibles or spend time in prayer. Those are times we become defeated Christians. We have lost that battle, but the war is not over. God is always there and welcomes us back when we recognize our failures and turn back to Him. In that moment we become victorious once again. So the battle is to spend less and less time being defeated and more and more time living victoriously. And the more time we spend in intimacy with the Lord, the more He grows us. That is called sanctification. So don't allow yourself to be defeated. When you fail, immediately turn back to God and He will again wrap you in His love. I hope this gives you a better idea of what is meant by the terms victorious & defeated. I pray your times of victory will far out number your times of defeat. God Bless you.

Scripture references

Supporting resources

• Temples of The Holy Spirit

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