The Thrill of Victory
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| Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash |
I remember the first one even though it happened when I was a young kid. The game was played in New Orleans against the Patriots who were led by Drew Bledsoe at the time. The Packers started off hot, but then New England got back into the game until Desmond Howard iced the game with a record setting kickoff return touchdown. Victory. I watched this game in the basement of my parent's old house on Tenth Street in Merrill, WI. The gang that watched this game was a bunch of die hard Packers fans, my dad and a couple of his friends, my uncle and cousins.
I'll be honest, winning the Super Bowl is pretty fun, you guys. We had a blast. It's so fun watching the players you love execute and succeed, and doing it in a group of people you love makes it even better.
This was also my experience in 2011, when we would gather a group of Packers fans at our house in Northeast Minneapolis. By the time we got to the Super Bowl, these game watching sessions required two rooms and 1 keg of beer just to accommodate all the fans that came to our house.
There are moments along the way that stand out, where you realize your team might do this thing. For us, this was when Tramon Williams picked off a late first-half pass from Matt Ryan and took it to the house. The great thing about watching your team make a deep run in the playoffs is those moments of celebration with your friends and family when something crazy happens. We are running around, high-fiving, hugging, reliving the play in exuberance. The thrill of victory is a thrill of celebration that happens best in community.
In both these wins, there was something else that elevated the moment. There were times in both games where the other team (Patriots & Steelers) really mounted a comeback and for a while seemed like they were going to win. The old saying "It's always darkest before the dawn" really came true in these games. For me whenever the Packers have a lead threatened, my palms get sweaty and I can feel the nerves in my gut. Hope starts to dwindle and it seems like there's nothing that can stop the comeback. But then, ultimately in both games, the Packers prevailed. The thrill of victory!
The story of the Bible takes these kinds of twists and turns where it seems like victory is hopeless. When the Apostle Paul writes his letter to the Romans, this is the sense of things. Paul does not pull punches right from beginning of the letter,
Romans 1:16–17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (ESV)
Okay, hopeful! We have the power of God for salvation if we believe in God. But then Paul gets into the bad news,
Romans 1:18
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (ESV)
Whoa! What's all this about the wrath of God?
God's wrath is revealed. It's coming on all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Anything that you or I have done in our lives is deserving of wrath and it is being revealed. God's wrath is coming.
We have to ask, is it okay for God to have wrath?
The idea of the loving God who doesn't punish any sin can be a desirable picture, but once we start poking at it more it falls apart. God is holy, and God is good, and God is just. He cannot tolerate sin, and when we think about it, that's what we want. Now, more than ever, people are demanding justice for oppression and wrongdoing. We want people who do things that hurt others to be held accountable. The Bible paints this picture of God. He created all things good and we have suppressed the truth. We have all fallen short of God's glory. We have all perverted the goodness of the world and hurt others by our sin. God in His goodness and justice must make things right. In the same way that criminals must be punished, God must punish sinners. Thus, His wrath is revealed.
This is bad news. But this is only for the Gentiles at this point. A Jewish person reading Paul's letter can still boast in their covenant relationship with God. Paul continues,
Romans 2:1–5
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. (ESV)
Paul switches gears and lets the Jewish readers of his letter know they are also coming under wrath. They have failed in their own way to live up to God's standard. They have no reason to judge others, because they have also practiced ungodliness and unrighteousness.
Wait, so everyone is under God's wrath?
Wow, that's horrible news. Actually it's the beginning of the gospel. We don't know the good news until we've accepted the bad news. Paul paints us the picture of how pervasive sin is in Romans 3.
Romans 3:9–18
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (ESV)
This poem combines various testimony of the Old Testament scriptures to highlight the condition of sinful humanity.
A few notes:
1. It starts with relationship. We have broken our relationship with God because we have sinned, and it is to the point of "total depravity." There isn't a person alive who naturally seeks God or understands His ways. There isn't a person in the world who does the good deeds of God in and of themselves.
2. The sin infects ever part of the person. The throat is an open grave. The mouth and language which was intended to bring praise to God for His goodness actually leads to death. Our use of words brings about death. Think of the vitriol and venom behind an insult, and you start to see this. Jesus taught that out of the heart the mouth speaks, and so our sinful speech reveals our hearts are infected with sin. The problem is over all humanity, and into even our hearts. Sin runs deep.
3. Lastly we see that our "feet are swift to shed blood." Sin is pervasive in societal systems. The way of peace we have not known. This is obvious when we look at something like sex trafficking. People, primarily men, have created a system where women and children are treated as means to an end of sexual gratification and profit. Sex trafficking is an international problem, that impacts the lives and humanity of all involved. Something is lost.
Sin is pervasive and it is in all of us. Thus, God's wrath is revealed. Paul hammers home the final point of his bad news:
Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (ESV)
We've done wrong and we know it. The classic idea of sin is that we've done things that God wouldn't want us to do, and we haven't done things God wanted us to do. We all have sins of omission and commission. We also see that sin has infected all humanity, and societal structures. Sin has also infected our hearts, our desires, and thrown us completely out of relationship with God. The situation is hopeless, God's wrath is revealed, and we know we deserve it.
But Paul isn't done and here comes the thrill of victory!
Romans 3:21–26
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (ESV)
God's wrath is revealed and our sins will be punished.
BUT
There's a gift of grace that justifies us! To be justified before God means to have a restored relationship on the account that our penalty has been paid and we have been credited with righteousness to our account once and for all.
This is what is so important about that word propitiation.
Jesus became the propitiating sacrifice for us. This is what all that animal sacrifice in the Old Testament was pointing to - that Jesus would one day become the Passover Lamb taking away the sins of the world.
Jesus offers redemption from sin and the slavery we were under where we did not seek for God. Jesus offers redemption from having to keep the law to be right with God, something that we also could not do. Redemption brings along with it the idea of ransom, the idea that a price has been paid - a price that we could not pay from our account, since our account was tainted with sin. This is why faith becomes so important.
We cannot earn a gift, but we can receive it. The gift we receive is Christ's perfection and the way we receive that gift is to accept that we need it, every single day, with the open arms of faith.
Our sins will either be punished on us, or have already been punished in Christ. This is why trusting Christ is the most important decision we can ever make. It is only through the redemption that comes in Christ that we can be restored to God. The wrath that we deserve for our sin has been poured out on Christ on the cross. God's wrath is exhausted upon Jesus on the cross. When we put our faith in Jesus, our sin has been completely paid for, once and for all.
Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (ESV)
The punishment we deserved has been paid in his blood and now we get to live unto God. Peter sums it up perfectly,
1 Peter 2:24–25
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (ESV)
Amazing grace! We once were lost, stuck in sin, and unable to escape God's wrath. Now we have had our sins paid for in Christ's death on the cross and we can look at the cross and experience the thrill of victory.
John 19:30
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (ESV)
On the cross Jesus proclaims, "It is finished." Jesus accomplished two things for us. He paid the penalty for our sin, and he earned perfect righteousness by his perfect obedience to God's will. In other words, we are covered.
Wayne Grudem writes of Jesus' final moments on the cross:
"Then at last Jesus knew his suffering was nearing completion. He knew he had consciously borne all the wrath of the Father against our sins, for God's anger had abated and the awful heaviness of sin was being removed. He knew that all that remained was to yield up his spirit to his heavenly Father and die. With a shout of victory Jesus cried out, "It is finished!" (John 19:30). Systematic Theology. p 577.
Jesus has been victorious over sin. He has overcome the world. He is the only way to have our relationship with God reconciled. He is the only way we can experience the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus is the only one who has a perfect record before God, he is undefeated. We can join in his victory by faith alone - we cannot earn it. When put our faith in Jesus Christ, we receive the gift of grace that God is holding out to all people in the gospel. By faith in Jesus we declare victory, we are more and more freed from sinning, and we are justified before God. Jesus Christ is the champion, and we can be united with him in victory.
Let's proclaim this victory!
Have you experienced the thrill of Christ's victory?
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