Victory In the Face of Defeat

Whenever we think of God and following Jesus, there are certain things that come to mind or are associated with our thoughts of the Godhead. We think of things like power, victory of everything that comes against us, being rich in money and other things. If I were to categorise these thoughts I would say that the thoughts are rosy in nature. We all have these thoughts that because we believe in God and follow Jesus, everything will be fine and dandy and we will never have to worry about anything. Or some things. I have discovered that at times, the things we believe are more founded in our belief in the assertions of whoever ministered to us when we gave our lives to Christ or even our pastor or the people speaking into our lives than they are founded in the Bible, the word of God.

The book of Hebrews is a fascinating book. The authors name is never mentioned in the book but theologians attribute it to the Apostle Paul. The book is basically on the issue of faith. Faith and trust in God. However the most fascinating part of the book is Chapter 11. The chapter starts by giving us the picture of a Hall of Fame of heroes of faith. Men and women who trusted in God and they received what they were trusting God for. Chapter 11 of Hebrews is mainly a glowing report of the testimony that people had of the goodness of God. In the midst of all the glowing reports, verse 13 gives us something of an inkling of what will come later. It tells us of people who died without handling the promise but seeing them afar off. Abraham and Isaac and Israel were all promised that their seed would be like the sand of the sea shore. Though they never saw this, the fact that they saw the next generations after them gave them hope it would happen, so they had faith.

However by verse 35 things take a decidedly “negative” turn. In the latter part of the verse we are told of people who were tortured and preferred to die in the hope of a better resurrection. Verse 36 tells us of people imprisoned and beaten for their faith while others were killed. Verse 37 talks of people stoned to death, some sawn to death, others living a life of deprivation. According to the writer of Hebrews, the fallen world we live in was not worthy of these people. Yet the curious thing was that all these people died without being “victorious” by the standards of the world today. Yet the writer of Hebrews tells us that these people were victorious because they died in faith and in the faith. They were tempted but yet they overcame. They were victors not because of their circumstances in life but of their circumstances in death. They were tried, afflicted and burnt in the furnace of affliction yet they remained steadfast in the faith.

Issues of faith are not always evident in our circumstances but they are evident in our character in the face of affliction. Christ is more interested in our character than in anything else. What we throw up our hands for and call defeat is not necessarily a defeat but a chance to ask ourselves, how does this glorify God? How does my life and what I’m going through glorify God? Jesus told the disciples that they had not yet resisted the Devil to the point of death. We all think that our lives only glorify God when we are alive or free. We need to have a rethink. Just maybe, our incarceration, loss of freedom and possibly even death might glorify him more.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.