Author: Paul Nordman

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Champions

Sports loves to crown its champions. This is why we grind and compete for an entire season: to win and to become the greatest. Baseball pops the cork on its World Series winners, Super Bowl rings adorn the gnarled knuckles of the NFL’s best, and hockey hoists Lord Stanley’s Cup. But NASCAR is different, for it holds its most elite event, the Daytona 500, not at season’s end, but at its beginning. Afterward the matter is settled: regardless of what happens the rest of the year—win or lose—whoever captures the flag at NASCAR’s inaugural event remains its greatest champion. This is likewise true of all who are born of the Spirit of God by faith in the Son of God: though our season on earth here continues, we have already won. “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us,”1 proclaimed Paul. It is fait accompli—a done deal, historic fact. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”2

Still, the rest of the season awaits its champions: we have miles to go, some of them grueling and some of them not. We will at times face rejection, persecution or dangers for the sake of the Kingdom,3 yet in Christ we are champions, and absolutely nothing will be able “to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”4 Then it is in this confidence—the complete certainty of God’s limitless love for us—that we “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”5 We share the apostle’s assurance: “in the future there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”6 God loves to crown His champions.

Many have gone on before us in seasons of the past, and many will follow in times yet to come. This, though, is our season. This is our time to persevere in Christ as winners in Christ. Our crown awaits. It won’t be long.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Hebrews 12:1-2.

Father, You have already made us winners in Christ Jesus. Send us Your Spirit to lead us, that we would live as Your champions. Find us faithful. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Romans 8:37
2 1 Corinthians 15:56-57
3 Romans 8:35
4 Romans 8:39
5 Philippians 3:14 NASB
6 2 Timothy 4:8 NASB

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One Word

It had been too long since my lifelong friend and I had caught up with each other, so as I planned for a visit in the city where he now lived, we arranged to meet for breakfast. We updated each other on our families and recounted childhood memories—still cherished and somehow sweeter with age—before discussing meatier matters of the present. For decades Steve had endured addiction and also the messes that flow from it only to return and feed it once again. As we met, he had been sober for a few years (and remains so still today), relying daily on the love and power of God and the selfless support of friends. Steve recounted to me that, four months into his recovery, he and two friends had a deep conversation about turning one’s life over to God, and at that moment he felt the Spirit of God come over him—“It was like a thousand-pound weight off my shoulders.” Of the change in his life, my friend told me, “When I wake, the first thing I say to God is, ‘I love you, too.’”

Did you catch that—“I love you, too”? I cannot recall what Steve said after that, for my mind was racing to process what was to me a one-word sermon: “Too.” For who says, “I love you, too,” but the one already basking in the assurance of love from another? “Too” is the return of a love first received; it is the peaceful reply of the humbled heart; it is the echo resounding from the grateful soul. “I love you, too” professes the origin of love, for “love comes from God”1; it proclaims His character and rejoices before Him. And “too” testifies to this truth—“We love because he first loved us.”2 His love is pure freedom, and in this confidence we respond with these words and with our entire being from which they flow, “I love you, too.”

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. —1 John 4:16-17.

God, I love you and your Son always and forever. Amen.

1 1 John 4:17
2 1 John 4:19

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Our Identity: Heirs

A friend of mine held a prominent position working for a financial services sector giant. His future there was even brighter, except for one thing: the political climate in the upper echelon of that corporation was highly combative, and my friend was repeatedly told, “You need to learn to throw your weight around.” Mulling this over for some time, my friend ultimately concluded, “That’s not who I am, and I’m never going to be that person.” He left his promising prospects there to pursue something more richly rewarding—a profession in a culture consistent with who he knew himself to be.

How noble the character of one who will not compromise it for worldly gain but lives instead in the freedom of who God has made us to be in Christ. Then how vital it is to absorb and accept this facet of our being: we are adopted children of God and heirs to His kingdom. In recent weeks, we have seen that the Spirit of God breathes life into all who believe in the Son of God, and that God has united us with Christ—He lives in us, and we live in Him. (See links below.) Listen then as Paul tells us what this means for us: “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received . . . brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ . . . ”1 Inheritors of eternal life in the Kingdom of God—this is who we must know ourselves to be.

Our celestial Kingdom home draws nearer each day, yet we have terrestrial Kingdom purpose in “the here and now”—to bring God glory. So how do we live “while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ“?2 We serve. Said Jesus to the crowd, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”3 This is what Jesus did, so this is what we do in Him. This is who Jesus is, and this is who we must know ourselves to be—children, heirs and co-heirs with purpose: to glorify God.

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”—Matthew 25:34

Abba, Father, how good You are that You would adopt us as Your children and make a way for us to inherit Your Kingdom! Fill us, lead us and empower us to do what You call us to do today. Be glorified. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

1 Romans 8:15-17
2 Titus 2:13
3 Matthew 5:16

Prior posts on our identity in Christ
Our Identity: We Are Forever Alive
Our Identity: With/In