Devotion 6: Spoiler Alert – God Wins
David Hudgens
At the time of this writing, the 2022 NFL football season had recently begun. Commercials across all media platforms ramped up as promoters sought to energize even the most casual fan to engage in the pastime of supporting their favorite team as they compete for the yearly prize of being crowned champion. The industries of television, radio, film, and social media joined forces to encourage the populace to sit in front of their screen of preference and consume all things football, all week long.
Love it or hate it, football is a deeply embedded hallmark of American culture. We gather with friends to celebrate it, analyze it, place bets, track stats, draft the perfect fantasy team, ignore mowing overgrown lawns, and sometimes, even attempt to move Heaven and Earth, if you will, to reorient our schedules to watch it live.
To a certain degree, I get it. There is a drama to the game of football, energy and excitement come from watching head-to-head testing of physical strength and mental acuity. The ability of a team to endure crushing blows from their opponent and yet still, by some act of the will, overcome and march on to victory – it invigorates the senses.
When I think about it, watching the big game is perhaps the most fun for me when I know in advance that the outcome will be in favor of my team. Do you know what I mean? I am sure, like me, you have once needed to miss that “really important” game presented live and instead watch it later on your DVR. Also, like me, you probably could not resist using your smartphone to peek at the final score ahead of reviewing the recording. Finally, as you watched the game unfold, you had this beaming confidence, regardless of your team’s momentary struggles throughout play, that victory was assured – it is really quite marvelous.
Now, not too dissimilar to what I have just described, is the hopeful assurance of every believer that God’s full plan of redemption will come to pass. That redemption is the Lord’s expressed plan for final judgment and justice to be carried out upon all evildoing and sin, to welcome into eternity all those whose names are recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life, to renew both Heaven and Earth, and to establish His earthly kingdom. This is a future that, for every follower of Jesus – every member of His team – should provide a peace-filled hope, absent of fear and worry.
For all of us, as members of God’s family through faith in the completed work of Jesus as the once for all sacrifice for sin, live not in ignorance of the final outcomes of eternity. Rather, we have from the Spirit of God, a recorded guarantee that, in fact, God wins. Irrespective of either human or spiritual attempts to supplant the laws and authority of God, His words and decrees are final.
Consider God’s own words as delivered through prophet Isaiah, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). It is the Lord who is the guarantor of His plans. He alone has the power and authority to accomplish all that He decides. Indeed, this goes well for us, His people, because we now live – or watch, if you will – the story of redemption in full confidence and expectation that God’s team wins in the end.