Yeah.
I was one of those. I had
hundreds of comic books. Spider-Man was my favorite. Probably always will be as well. Something was
intriguing about that small nerdy guy.
It spoke to me. Being the nerd
that was always pushed around, I held this secret fantasy about possessing some
super power that helped me overcome the bullies in this world.
Eventually, I learned that all that
super-power stuff could never happen. I
mean, I don’t care how strong your iron
suit is; the sudden stop after falling 10 stories will kill you. Momentum baby. It’s all about the sudden change in
momentum. As far as I know, Jarvis has
not overcome that particular law of physics.
I know. This news can be quite disturbing. I mean, we all want a superhero; some of us
want to BE a superhero. But if the laws
of physics are against us, what hope do we have in this world? How do we overcome those who destroy our
peace? How do we stop the bad guys?
I will say this: dropping bombs and
shooting guns will never change the world.
At best, it only keeps evil at bay.
And I think we’ve seen this. Wipe
out one bad guy, and two others will take
his place. No, the world is not changed
by defeating the bad people. The world is not changed by men with iron
suits or ones who have been genetically modified. According to God, the world is changed in
another way.
Let me show you God’s strategy against
evil.
In John chapter three, Jesus talks
about being born of water (or “born of the flesh”), and about being born of the
Spirit. He says, “Humans can reproduce only human life, but the
Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life”[1] (John 3:6).
Jesus is talking about the Holy
Spirit; the gift that God gives every believer.
His Spirit falls upon those who trust Jesus to be their Savior. And those born of the Spirit possess the
ability to overcome the world. That’s
the real marvel in this universe; that
God would equip people like you and me to overcome the world. And it all begins by being Born Again.
Because of a person’s faith in
Jesus, God equips them to overcome the world. John the Apostle says, “For every child of
God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. 5 And
who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is
the Son of God” [2]
(1 John 5:4-5). He suggests that the
presence of the Holy Spirit in someone’s life is the greatest power on earth …
reminding us that “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world”
[3]
(I John 4:4). King Solomon proclaims
that the mightiest person in the world is not the one who conquerors a city,
but the one who can control their spirit. “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who
rules his spirit, than he who captures a city” [4]
(Proverbs 16:32). Or, in today’s
language, it takes more effort to control your anger than it does to defeat a
supervillain (just ask Dr. Bruce Banner, he has a tendency to smash things when
he gets angry).
Because of their faith in Jesus,
God equips a believer to become someone new.
They are reborn; although they might look like an average person on the outside, on the inside, they have been transformed (see Romans 12:2).
Okay, so believers are equipped by
God to overcome the world, and they have been transformed by God into someone
new. But how does this deal with all the
bad guys in this world? How does becoming “Self-control Man” overcome
the evil we see around us? Well, let me
remind you that the evil we see is
not the real enemy. The bad guy is bad
because he is not equipped to overcome evil.
He has been influenced by the forces of darkness and cannot resist the hidden powers in this dark world. Don’t forget what Paul has said. “We are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but
against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers
in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places”
[5]
(Ephesians 6:12). To equip us in this
battle against the evil rulers in the unseen world, God arms us with His
Spirit, which enables us to win victories against the mighty powers of this dark world. This also explains why the Armor of God
consists of spiritual practices (righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and
the Word of God), not blasters or lightsabers.
If the real enemy is spiritual, then
it makes sense that we become equipped to win a spiritual battle. Those who have not received this gift are not
prepared to fight a spiritual battle;
they are easy prey for the forces of darkness.
I don’t know if this explains why
many people are attracted to superheroes, but I do know that most have a sense
there is something evil in this world yet have no idea how to defeat it … which
is why Jedi Masters and Superheroes give them hope.
The Christian, on the other hand,
has been equipped to resist evil and is even given God’s Spirit to achieve a
victory. The Christian knows there is evil in this world AND has been gifted
by God to overcome. This is why God’s present
strategy against the bad guys is not to
wipe them out (at least not yet), but to change them from the inside out. It’s God’s plan to save, not to destroy … which is why He sent
Jesus to offer His life as a ransom (see John 3:16-17). And we’ll talk about how the church fits in
with that plan a little later. But for
now, I want you to realize that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who believe
in Jesus because it represents the kind of battle we will face in this world.
One of the saddest things I see
portrayed in film, or in comic books, is
how a person, once evil, stays evil. Bad guys stay bad guys. But that is not what we see in the real
world. In
the real world, we see person after person giving their life to Jesus,
and then God giving them His Spirit. And that person, who previously could not win
a spiritual victory, is transformed.
They are changed from the inside out.
To me, the real superheroes in this world are those who take God’s
message of grace and share it among the wild and wicked people of this
world. That’s the real marvel in this universe; that God would take
the bad guy, change him into a good guy, and
then use him to tell others about Jesus.
This is the kind of heroes the
world needs today.
[1] Tyndale House Publishers.
(2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Jn 3:6). Carol Stream, IL.
[2] Tyndale House Publishers.
(2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (1 Jn 5:4–5). Carol Stream,
IL.
[3] New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (1 Jn 4:4). La
Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4] New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Pr 16:32). La
Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[5] Tyndale House Publishers.
(2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Eph 6:12). Carol Stream,
IL.
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