Archive for December, 2011

One of the most grueling competitions in the world of sports is cycling’s Tour de France. For 22 days, athletes endure heat, cold, headwinds, and crashes as they strive to be first across the finish line, driving their bodies to complete exhaustion. Only a single rider in a field of over one hundred will claim the coveted Maillot Jaune, the yellow jersey of the overall winner. It is truly invigorating to watch him step onto the podium, and with heaving sobs of joy claim his prize as the fastest cyclist in the world.

Our Christian life should exhibit that same joy. Christ has run the race ahead of us and claimed the prize, but we tend to live life as less than conquerors, bogged down by perceptions of our old self, our sins, our struggles, never claiming the victory that Christ has won for us from our Father. Certainly, our sanctification is a lifelong process, and some sins have become Enemy strongholds, which take time to tear down. Some things we may struggle with our entire lives as the apostle Paul did. We should also express daily thanks to God for His grace in saving us. However, if we’re not careful, we can still look at ourselves as sinners who have been saved, rather than as saints who occasionally sin. We can become caught in a circular practice of commission and repentance, omission and defenselessness, always seeing victory as something yet to be achieved, like a trophy behind a locked glass case. We must see ourselves as we truly are now. As Paul writes,

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:31-37)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our
faith….” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

And, as Eric Mataxas, biographer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the martyred saint of Nazi Germany, writes of Bonhoeffer’s life:

“This was how Bonhoeffer saw what he was doing….It [the Christian life] was God’s call to be fully human, to live as human beings obedient to the One who had made us, which was the fulfillment of our destiny. It was not a cramped, compromised, circumspect life, but a life lived in a kind of wild, joyful, full-throated freedom….”

Brothers, we will struggle against our flesh until that amazing day of our glorification. Until then, we wield the weapons of our warfare to destroy and bring down every lofty opposition raised against our faith. We walk in newness of a life restored and redirected by our King. We run the race set before us with endurance, knowing that our prize of eternal life is already won! And, we must look at ourselves as God sees us through the lens of Christ’s atoning blood: as victors over sin and death. We each of us now wear the Maillot Blanc, the white jersey of God’s cycling team. In Him, we must daily step onto His podium, and with sobs of unfathomable joy, claim our prize!