The FIFA Football (or what we might call Soccer) World Cup is one of the biggest sporting events in the world. The most recent World Cup began on 11th June and ran for 39 days involving teams from 48 nations. One hundred and four games were played in 16 cities across 3 countries with more than six million tickets sold.
In the end, only one country could be victorious. After a hard-fought match last Monday morning, Spain won the World Cup by defeating Argentina 1-0 in extra-time. The Spanish team were presented the World Cup trophy to show that they had taken on the best teams in the world and had conquered all to become the new world champions. After years of preparations and weeks of competition, they won the victory over all opposition.
It must have been an exhilarating experience for the members of the Spanish team to receive their winner’s trophy. Their joy was a sharp contrast to all the other teams who had suffered defeats along the way. They had all worked and trained hard, given their best and sacrificed a lot to be included in their nations’ teams and play in the World Cup. However, for all the teams other than the Spanish, it wasn’t good enough. They had been defeated, and they were going home without the winner’s trophy in their hands.
Ted Lasso is a popular comedy series set in a fictional English soccer club. One of the team members frequently says, “Football is life!” We would probably disagree and think that there is a lot more to life than soccer or any other sport. In some ways, however, sport can be an analogy for our lives. We all come up against things that can challenge us or oppose us in different ways. We can give our best and work at overcoming those things that we might battle against. Sometimes we can be victorious, but at other times we can feel defeated. We might do what we can against those things in life that confront us, but for most people, they can sometimes get the better of us, and we can feel defeated.
This week’s New Testament reading, Romans 8:26-39, has a lot of good news for us. Paul writes that, “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (v28 NLT), God gave up his own Son for us so will also give us all things (v32), “God himself has given us right standing with himself” (v33 NLT), and “nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v39 NLT). One of God’s greatest promises to us in this passage is that “overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us” (v37 NLT).
The “overwhelming victory” God gives us is greater than winning the FIFA World Cup or even the AFL Premiership! It is victory over the difficulties, challenges, suffering and struggles of life in this world. Paul describes some of the opponents he faced in verse 35 when he asked if “trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword” (NIV) could separate us from the love of Jesus. When we think about our own lives or the lives of others we know, we can add things like physical or mental illnesses, loneliness, grief, disabilities, financial difficulties, losses of any kind, or many other things to the list. We can face many and different opponents every day of our lives which can threaten us in ways that are so much more serious than an opposing football team. However, in all these things, Paul can say that we are more than conquerors, even super-conquerors as a more literal reading of the Greek wording says, over all these things that can come up against us.
We don’t achieve this victory on our own. Instead, we have this victory because Jesus has won it for us and he gives his victory to us. In Jesus’ life, “he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” as we read in Hebrews 4:15 (NLT). Jesus took on every spiritual opponent we will face in our lives and defeated them all on our behalf. The final was played out on the cross where Jesus trusted God completely and loved us totally by giving his life for us. The cross was Jesus’ victory over sin, death and the power of darkness as he gave himself for us and broke the power of our opponents. Jesus displayed his victory in his resurrection, showing that he had won the battle against everything that is wrong in this world in the same way that the Spanish team paraded through their nation’s streets with the World Cup trophy. Jesus has won complete and total victory for us over all the things we can battle in this world and he gives us the winner’s trophy. His victory becomes our victory. We are super-conquerors over everything that we battle in this world by God’s grace to us in Jesus as he gives us his victory in his life, death and resurrection for us.
Jesus’ victory becomes ours through faith. There is a lot of talk about belief in sport, from the slogan the Brisbane Lions have used on their way to winning back-to-back AFL Premierships to the Commonwealth Bank ads featuring the Socceroos during the World Cup that told us, “Belief is a team sport.” Belief in sport usually means believing in ourselves and that we have the ability to conquer our opponents. Sometimes this works out. At other times it doesn’t. We’ll see whether the Brisbane Lions’ belief can carry them through to a third Premiership in a row this season. For Christians, though, our belief isn’t in our ability to win against the opponents we face, but belief that Jesus has conquered them for us. Like Paul, when we face things that want to harm us, hurt us, isolate us or defeat us, when we believe in Jesus’ victory for us in his life, death and resurrection and we trust that he gives us his victory as an act of grace, we share in his victory and it becomes ours. No matter what opponent we might battle in our bodies, minds or spirits, by believing in Jesus’ victory for us, his victory becomes our victory, and we become not just conquerors but “more than conquerors” (v37 NIV) or super-conquerors, through him.
Last week, the Spanish Soccer team defeated their opponents to become the World Cup champions. They probably won’t be giving their trophy away, especially to the teams that didn’t make it. Jesus is different. Whatever we might battle in our lives, no matter what opposes us or wants to harm us in our bodies, minds or spirits, Jesus has already defeated them in his life, death and resurrection for us. By his grace, he gives his victory to us so we’re not just conquerors over the things of this world, we are super-conquerors. Jesus’ victory and the gift of his victory to us will give us all we need in our bodies, minds and spirits so we can continue on, no matter what we might face, in the belief and sure hope that nothing will ever get between us and God’s life-giving and all-conquering love for us in Jesus.
More to think about or discuss:
- What opponents do you face in your life that might be trying to overwhelm or harm you in your body, mind or spirit?
- What might it mean to you that they will never be victorious over you, but Jesus has won the victory for you & you are a super-conqueror through faith in him?
- How can this faith give you strength, hope or courage in your life? How might you be able to share this victory with someone else that you know is facing their own battles?
Pastor Eugene Online 
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