Are you ready for some good news?
In Christ, you are already victorious!
As I study the richness and diversity of the psalms, it is fitting to mention the sound of triumph in Psalm 110:
1 The Lord says to my lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”
2 The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of your enemies!”
I’ll be honest. I like winning. But I don’t always win. So, spiritual victory must mean something other than winning all the time at everything.
Last year, I had a rare opportunity that few men ever get in this world. I had a chance to lose a head to head competition against a former NBA player. Wow. How many people can say that they’ve lost to a professional athlete?!
The competition was the brainchild of our twisted men’s fellowship leaders. We had a men’s Huddle retreat on Saturday morning. I was one of the featured speakers. The other was Rusty LaRue, one of the best athletes this area has ever known. Rusty was All-State in three sports in High School and played basketball, football and baseball at Wake Forest University where he set the collegiate record for completing 55 passes in one game. He went on to an 8-year professional basketball career including a stint on the Chicago Bulls where he played with Michael Jordan and acquired an NBA championship ring.
We have some things in common. I have a wedding ring. I also play sports. That’s where the similarities end between Rusty and me.
So the cruel men’s group leadership set up a competition. We would see who could throw the football through a tire target more times and, because I play a lot of golf, we would have a putting competition. Rusty, who doesn’t play golf but twice a year, made all three putts. I made one. Rusty threw the football through the tire all three times; I made it through one and a half times.
After he crushed me, Rusty got up in front of the men and talked about how following Christ has changed everything for him. I forgive him for humiliating me.
To have victory in Christ doesn’t mean that you’ll have victory in everything you do (or else, we’d have to call the flogged, shipwrecked and imprisoned Apostle Paul a loser). Victory means that the cross of Jesus Christ has defeated the reign of sin and the reign of the accuser. Therefore, though temporal defeats, setbacks and disappointments plague us in this world, we are assured that we are already seated with Christ in the Heavenlies. Mystically, mysteriously, you are positioned as a co-heir with Jesus. In this world, the rain falls on the just and the unjust (and Rusty is going to beat me at every sport!). But you are a priest and a king with Christ. And that’s the Gospel!
