June 2008

My favorite board game is chess. I suppose it is my favorite because nothing is hidden, there are no cards face down on the table that I cannot see, and, unlike games like tic-tac-toe, it is complex enough to challenge no matter how much time is spent attempting to master it. As a child the strategy was relatively simple; capture as many of the opponents pieces as possible, hoping that at the end of the game I had enough material to capture the king.

I remember one day I was playing chess and feeling very good about how the game was going.  I was capturing pawns and even a bishop and a rook and was feeling pretty good about my chances. In fact, I had set my sights on my opponent's queen, when suddenly - out of the blue, checkmate. I had lost the game. I was stunned; I couldn't understand how it had happened. It was only later that I understood that while I was focused on winning the battles on the chessboard, my opponent was intent on winning the war. In order to become a really good chess player, I needed to focus on the real objective, and not be consumed by the less important aspects of the game.

You see Satan's goal is similar to mine as a novice chess player. He desperately wishes to defeat God, and yet although he is able to win some battles, God continues to win the war. When Jesus walked this earth, he was hounded by Satan and ultimately died on the cross. Although Satan won that battle, God won the war by turning that death into the cornerstone of our redemption. Satan is the great tempter and when he is successful in getting us to sin he has won a significant battle. And yet, when that sin reminds us of our dependence on God, when we come to him in repentance and humility God uses Satan's victory as the foundation for winning the war, drawing us closer to his heart, in feet, strengthening our relationship with him as we are drawn closer to God's heart.

A few months ago I officiated at a funeral where I made the following point: Because we live in a sinful world, Satan has a claim on our life. Ultimately, we will all die because we sin. That is Satan's ultimate victory in our life. But it is the very act of death that provides the opportunity for God's final victory in our life, because upon our death we can be united with God in a way impossible on earth. Satan wants to end our physical lives and with every funeral he believes that he is winning. While he is busy focusing on that, however, God is busy winning the war, ushering us into eternal life through the very act of our physical death. When Jesus was on earth, he was successful because he remembered that his purpose on earth was not to defeat the Pharisees but to defeat sin. In dying, he lost the battle but won the war. In our lives, we need to remember that the ultimate goal in life is not to be sinless as much as it is to be forgiven; not to live forever on earth, as it is to live forever in the presence of God. That is not to say that individual battles are not important, but we need to be able to look past the battles that we lose and allow God to turn those defeats into the foundation of our ultimate victory with him.