Will Kynes, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, Samford University
A Life of Victory
John 16:19–22, 27–33
Delayed gratification is the willingness to endure some loss or sacrifice some benefit in the present to receive a greater benefit in the future. It requires self-control, foresight and, more than anything, faith. You must have a clear conception of what the future benefit will be and believe firmly that your current sacrifices will achieve it, or you will not endure those sacrifices to gain that end.
Delayed gratification is not easy because the present can feel more real than the future — that piece of cake on the plate in front of you entices in a way that a lower number on the scale and the health benefits that come with it cannot. Yet the only way to reach that ultimately greater pleasure is to resist the temptation now, to endure until the end.
But — and this is the important thing to remember if you are going to succeed — giving up smaller joys now for greater joys later is only an apparent sacrifice, not a real one. The later benefits outweigh the smaller benefits sacrificed to achieve it.
In this passage, as Jesus prepares to depart from the disciples, He encourages them to embrace delayed gratification and to have faith the struggles they will endure after His departure will lead to an overcoming joy.
Jesus’ death causes us sorrow, but His resurrection brings us joy. (19–22)
To encourage the disciples to endure the grief they will experience at His death, Jesus points to childbirth as a powerful example of delayed gratification. Just like the joy of a new child washes away the memories of the pain required to bring that life into the world, so the disciples will rejoice at seeing their Savior again. They must maintain hope to sustain them through their mourning. Their anguish will also give birth to new life.
Our victory rests in Jesus, the One who came from God. (27–30)
But suffering and sacrifice test hope and can weaken resolve. Even Peter struggles to persevere in his commitment after Jesus is arrested, denying Him three times (18:17, 25–27). However, Jesus offers the disciples a firm foundation for their confidence in Him: He has come from the Father. Here, they affirm their belief in this fundamental truth.
We can live in peace and courage because of our victory in Christ. (31–33)
Jesus, however, warns that their faith will soon be tested. They will be scattered and leave Him alone. Yet Jesus draws His own hope from the fact that, united with the Father, He is never alone (v. 32).
Jesus offers that same rock-solid hope to all who trust in Him, which can empower the endurance of any suffering. As Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31). This hope provides a peace that can overcome the world’s inevitable troubles because Jesus, through His obedience, death and resurrection, has overcome the world.
“Take heart!” Jesus says. When you are tempted to give up, to despair, to look for life elsewhere, take heart. “He who did not withhold His own Son, but gave Him up for all of us, will He not with Him also give us everything else?” (Rom. 8:32). United with Jesus, we, as His disciples, can endure the hardships that inevitably come with the life of faith: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?” (Rom. 8:35). No. Through Christ’s love “we are more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37).
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