R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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Great e-mail Nick! I would think more would be written about this topic, but it is not. Your e-mail is a tall cold drink in a hot and dry desert.
We do tend to gloss over these truths of what Christ has done for us, and instead, we tend to prefer to seek what we should do to perfect ourselves.
In my recent devotion, as I am reading through Scripture in its order, I read Colossians 2:9-23 which tells us a string of things that Christ has done for us, including “In Him, you have been made complete”. This Scripture prompted me to write a post on February 3, 2009 at my website, with this quote as its title, which also explains how we get seduced into what you call, that “Victorious Christian” mindset.
In a nutshell, that “Victorious Christian”, although he or she may not admit it, trusts the law (including the Ten Commandments) to perfect him or her. That “Victorious Christian” claims to trust Christ for the righteousness and for all that he or she needs, but he or she keeps looking back at the law just to be safe. Accordingly, the life of a “Victorious Christian” is a series of “when I do this and when I do that”.