The Book of Romans is one of the most inspiring books in
the New Testament and also in the entire Bible. In its pages Luther, as many
others before and after, have found and understood the beauty of GodŐs grace
through faith.
Within Romans, Chapter 8 is one of the most stimulating.
Of the amazing truths of those few paragraphs, this week I would like to take
an in-depth look at verse 37: Yet in all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us.
As I have looked at humanity, our human condition, over
the years, many times I am amazed, sometimes appalled at our ability, and the
ruthless nature of our desire to be the conquering hero. It is a universal
phenomenon. Yet Paul says here that Ňwe are more than conquerors.Ó
Within that ability of mankind to seek dominion over
everything, Christians are to be more than that. What does that mean? The key
is in the reciprocal love at the end of the verse that starts from God,
Ňthrough Him that loved us.Ó But I am getting ahead of myself, but stay tuned.
The context of Romans 8:31-39 follows:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us,
who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up
for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall
bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who
condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at
the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
"For
Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are
accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
(Psalm 44:22)
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels
nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor
height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ManŐs conquering nature can be divided simply into two
classes, but the interactions of those two classes is far from simple. One
class is aggression, the other is competition. Contrary to the politically
correctŐs incorrect statements, man is the only aggressive animal. The proper
term to be used in creation is competitive. Except with rare exception, animals
do not kill or even harm others except to survive. In many cases, that
exception in some way has been manipulated by mankind to exhibit aggressive behavior.
Put another way, the law of the jungle only exists within the jungle of manŐs
culture and civilization.
Now the root of aggression stems from sin. ManŐs desire
to be like God, or GodŐs designated repository, and the frustration with not
being able to achieve that goal. Played out in the stage of civilization, man
seeks to conquer others because he is unable to conquer himself, and his own
mortality.
Since sin is the cause of manŐs frustration, it is an
easy step to understand that religion, in one form or another, is the root of
much of this aggressive behavior. With the anniversary of the September 11th,
attacks last week, the real loser from a civilization point of view, were the
proponents of the religion of multiculturalism. In the real world, there are
people who hate others. Rose colored glasses, positive self esteem, and wishful
thinking that all we need is love, become hindrances, rather than means to a
solution.
God and gods, are unique beings. Man being created as a
religious being, and left to his own devices, will create gods from the
creation, They will be either sticks and stones, himself, or demonic beings
from what we call the supernatural. These self created gods, will eventually
demand appeasement, either to provide a blessing, or to limit destruction,
death, or illness.
This is of no value and causes limited harm, as long as
all the god requires is a sacrifice of an animal, a calf, a sheep, a goat, or a
chicken. But events, when those sacrifices move beyond themselves into appeasement,
not only seek supernatural components to come into play, but with appeasement
comes the desire to strike out at ones fellow man, who are the infidels.
This is easy to see in the radical Islamic view of Jews
and Christians, Israel and America. It is more difficult to see this same
appeasement, in the fruits of free trade and capitalism. But they do exist none
the less, and part of the reason we choose to not look at this, is that the
Ômarket systemÓ produces a religious material blessing to everyone who chooses
to play the game. And we all practice the religion of stuff junkies.
However you slice the Delicious Apple, to the victor
belong the spoils. Just because the fruit is a barrel of rotten apples, it
doesnŐt matter. We showed them.
Competition however, is a means of conquering that I
believe not only has its roots in the common grace of creation. It is also
within the nature of the specific revelation of the Bible. Other terms for this
type of competition could be stewardship, fruitfulness, gamesmanship. In the
ultimate sense competition leaves the results in the provision of GodŐs grace
and His revelation.
The difference between aggressive conquering and
competitive conquering is that aggressive conquering is self consuming, it
canŐt be turned off, and eventually consumes the individual or the society.
Things either fall apart internally, or the true God brings some sort of judgment
from without.
Competitive conquering is more like playing a game. Once
the game is over, you can leave it behind. In the work of God, once you find
out that God doesnŐt want to do it the way you envisioned it, you can move on.
In a tournament game last spring as I watched Loree run
the floor, one of the young women from our church who plays basketball for the
Huskies, I was reminded of something I had not thought of in years, something
my high school coach told me before he moved to another city.
ŇGood coaches look for two things in a player, one is
their athletic ability, the other is an intangible quality, of being able to
rise and to play at the level of
the competition and be successful. As a player your abilities are only
above average in everything but basketball, and I am not a basketball coach.
But in that intangible quality you have a gift that is better than anyone I
have ever seen. In that respect, you can play any sport at any level and be a
success.Ó
God never gave me that opportunity, except in some of His
mysterious ways. But I am thankful, for there is really something much, much
greater than being a sports hero, and that is being a child of the Living God.
But even greater than that, is being able to use some of your God given talents
to help others achieve their potential in Christ.
I realize now if God would have allowed me to play
basketball like I wanted too, I would now be a basketball coach somewhere.
Really only able to effect and affect the lives of ten to fifteen young people
for three or four years, before they moved on to the rest of their lives.
Now it is not that I could have not gotten here by GodŐs
grace through sports, but I would had to have some strong Christian people in
my life to guide and direct me in a different path than would have been the
seemingly open way. But God chose to teach me directly, that takes a whole lot
longer, because you canŐt fool God, and you have to get it His way, His Holy
way, before you can move on. This I have learned, there is no greater gift in
this life than to teach people about the love of God for them, and His desire
for them to become His children.
But this week we are to learn about becoming more than a
conquer. It is only recently that I have understood that there is a difference
between the common type of competition, (conquering et. al.) and being Ňmore
than a conquer.Ó
Being more than a conquer is not just allowing God to
flow through the games you play, the work you do. Looking back on it that is
what I was able to do to impress my coach. It is also something that Loree, and
a few of the other Christian Husky women athletes are able to do. However, to
truly be more than a conquer means understanding the nature of the ŇHim that
loved us.Ó
That is a refined level much more than saying in the
interview after the game, ŇI would like to thank Jesus Christ, my Lord and
Savior for giving me this opportunity.Ó It relates to the context of these
verses that Paul writes. Read them again. It relates to the work involved into
maturing into the child of God, that may grow in years and maturity, but
regresses more into childlike wonder of GodŐs wonderful gift of grace in Jesus
Christ. In other words, we need to age to understand childlike faith,and that
maturing depends on the nature of our willingness to be led beyond our
understanding.
After watching those otters play last week, I have become
convinced we all need to play more, aggressively conquer less. We are all
participates in manŐs conquering work. The focus of the church should be to
develop leaders who know how to compete, but not to aggressively conquer. For
by the extent we are determined to aggressively conquer, means the extent to
which we miss: Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him
who loved us.
To reinforce this competitive, yet unaggressive means of
living, I would like to leave you with my rendering of a story about Bear
Bryant, the late football coach at Alabama, that I once read in Sports
Illustrated, hence it must be true.
Besides being one of the greatest coaches in the history
of football, Bear was also an avid duck hunter. One time while hunting with one
of his friends, when they rose from the blind to encounter the flying fowl,
after the shooting was over and the fowl had continued to go there merry way.
Bear remarked to his friend, ŇItŐs an absolute miracle.Ó
His friend while knowing that Bear was a good shot, still
found the saying worthy of an explanation, so he ask, ŇWell Bear, do you mean
it is a miracle that you missed the flying ducks?Ó
To which Bear Bryant responded, ŇNo not at all, itŐs not
a miracle that I didnŐt hit any of the flying ducks, its a miracle that dead
ducks can continue to fly.Ó
Now this is the point, competitive conquering can make
jokes about their lack of hunting ability. Aggressive conquering leads people
to plan and to execute that plan by which over three thousand people are killed
to achieve a distorted concept of heaven.
ManŐs aggressiveness leads to death, to self and others.
Competition is, in its highest sense, a means to express the reciprocal love
relationship between God and His children, played out in real life. A game we
all many, too many times, take too seriously, especially in what we bring to
the field of play.
This love is something that God initiates and maintains,
despite our desires many times to frustrate Him through our aggressive
potential. This is simply because we continue to believe that we need to be
conquerors, when in fact Christians by specific revelation in the word of God,
are by definition Ňmore than conquerors, not by their own merits, but by the
fact that they are such Ňthrough Him who loved us.Ó
In that respect, we should seek to live our lives as
examples of LoveŐs powerful, miraculous, fruitful work, and not by our desire
to be successful in manŐs aggressive tendencies. In a way, it is a gift of God,
but he will only use it in your life to the extent you hold your aggressive
behavior in check. The term is self control, which is learned through
discipline, sports being only one means by which to gain that understanding of
discipline.
In the living GodŐs economy, it is no accident that
discipline and discipleship really are one and the same. To the extent we
discipline our lives, is by the extent He will raise your gamesmanship in ways
beyond your natural ability. That is the truth required to become more than a
conqueror.
The first verse of Romans Chapter 8 states: There is
therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk
according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. That tension between this
verse and Proverbs 3:5,6 we again shared last week, allows God to make some
changes that open us up to His work, to work through our fears, to achieve His
glory.
God knows how much I hate living alone, and again how
much I enjoyed being married, even though that last act, last time, I achieved
in my own aggressive behavior and paid for it mightily. Over the years at this
location, He has provided me with fantastic house mates, all truly unique in
their own special way. Most having some relationship with Jesus Christ, one by
his frequent cussing. But they were just that, house mates.
I sense this time in SE Seattle rapidly drawing to a
close and I would like the opportunity to express the love God has shown me
down here. Not only toward me, and His church, but also toward His Old
Testament family in this very Jewish community. This would require someone to
move forward with, that God first provided in that setting in Eden. God knows who
that is, hopefully she knows also. I, through faith, might also know. That
still leaves a lot of doors to open, things to happen, miracles to take place
(in the context that God knows).
Please intercede for God to move me from my knowing and
understanding of His love, into the experience of sharing that gift with
another human being, and also the larger world, who desperately needs to
understand the love of God..