Not a game to lose

Colossians 2:15

The games change with age, most men my age are not playing football, they now play golf or tennis and many just watch the grandkids play all kinds of games, some like soccer with little understanding of the rules.  In our day we liked to triumph over our opponents, whether it was organized ball or football down at the big park, victory was always sweet.  In life it seems as if we always have an adversary, for me it has been how to keep the rock squirrels from eating my tomatoes.  It took time and money, but for the moment I have triumphed over them.  But many of our dear friends are in battles for life itself, and yet we do understand that all of us have that battle to face. 

We read in verse 14, that Jesus cancels the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, by being nailed to a cross for us.  But it is verse 15 that jumps off the page “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” In Ephesians chapter six we are told that our battles are not with people, it often seems as if they are, but it’s the devil, rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers, it is the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places that put the evil thoughts into our minds.  That is whom Jesus triumphed over on the cross. 

I hope you don’t mind, but lets go back to death, was that part of God’s plan for the first couple?  Remember the account in Genesis 3 where the serpent ask Eve why she was not eating that great fruit in the center of the garden, and her reply was, “The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”  (Genesis 3-4)  We know that the serpent’s reply was “You will not surely die.” 
So now death is on the table, the devil tells the woman, no way will that fruit hurt you, in fact, it will make you like God, knowing good from evil.  It is important to understand the death was not just physical, it was spiritual death, it was living independent from the will of God, that is called sin, and sin brings about death.  Death has got our attention, it is terminal, and Jesus Christ was sent by His Father as the only antidote to stop death.

Most of us do not see physical death as our enemy, it’s just a truth you’re going to die a physical death.  We do not look at death as something to triumph over, but that is not how Jesus looks at death.  1 Corinthians 15: 24-27, Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  For he “has put everything under his feet.”  Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.”  Do not be deceived, all battles ended at the cross; Jesus won and it’s finished, and we who are in Christ have the victory!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice