Christ and The Cowardly Conquerors

In a recent conversation, a new friend of mine Tony helped me recall a revolutionary concept in the Kingdom, one I have mulled over, trained with and drawn strength from many times before. It is an explosive passage out of Romans 8, the ultimate name badge for all who follow Christ. We are "more than conquerors through [Christ]." If you are in Christ, that is your identity. Your calling card. Your infamy in the eyes of the enemy. The freedom in Christ that statement brings is one of the most powerful weapons in your possession. And yet...

When you think of Christians these days, what comes to mind? Nice? Mmm, yes...most people are nice these days, how does that set a Christian apart? It just makes them a firefly, not a "city on a hill." How about weird? Yep, plenty of nuts in the batter. Funny thing is, most people are allergic to them...so that's pretty counterproductive. Maybe role model? Some definitely are, some are just too legalistic to try and live up to. Too high a standard, higher than human even. What about passive? Yes, now we're getting somewhere. So many times, when I encounter a Christian, it's uncanny...it's almost like he or she is trying to be a wimp!

Introverted, non-confrontational, maybe even overly-intellectual...flinching featherlings scared of their own shadow. "What? Share my faith with somebody I may not know very well? OH NO. Maybe someday, but that's WAAAYY too scary right now." And these are the warriors of the Kingdom? Seems to me, from an outside perspective, these Christians have the need for quite a bit of butt-kicking boot camp, and then quite a bit of intense battle-hours logged into their personal stats before they even think about being called a "conqueror," let alone "more than a conqueror."

But that is exactly what Paul hand-wrote to those claiming the lordship of Christ. He didn't say, "Well, Susie is more than a conqueror, but Billy has some work to do." No, by Paul's phrasing we can infer that he is speaking of an across-the-board identity as Christians, not a status to be striven for, dependent upon what "spiritual level" we're on. See, Christ's freedom in us is the only prerequisite to this title of "More-Than-A-Conqueror." So...what does that mean for the massive population of spiritual sissies? This is where the meaning of Paul's phrase "more than conquerors" comes in.

Have you ever wondered what Paul meant here by "more than conquerors?" When I think of a conqueror, I think of a champion, a rugged individual daunted by nothing, never hesitating at the front lines of battle. I think of a William Wallace, a George Washington, a Joshua. I don't know about you, but I feel pretty far underneath those characters on the food chain! It's pretty hard to imagine what it looks like to be more than a conqueror - what's above a conqueror on the food chain?! Here's what I believe Paul was getting at: what's more than a conqueror?... a master.

Here's what I know: from the very foundations of humanity, God gave us dominion. He gave us mastery. Genesis 1:26-28 gives us an account of God's intentions for us as humans - He designed us to rule, and He gave us the character, gifts and abilities to do so masterfully. John Eldredge quotes Hebrew scholar Robert Alter in Eldre dge's wonderful work, "Waking the Dead," by pointing out the way the term rule is used in this context means "a fierce exercise of mastery." We are masterful masters - with dominion over what though? 

Many things, too many to name. Some people use their mastery for good. Many people are non-productive in their mastery, many do not use it at all. And many even use it for evil. But Jesus outlines for us throughout Scripture that those in the Kingdom of God have received (from Jesus Himself) mastery over so much more than tangible creation.

Followers of Christ hold mastery over things unseen, spiritual forces, things of the spiritual Kingdom hiding from our physical sight. This is where the cowardly conquerors bow out of the fight. In Luke 10: 19, Jesus says, "I have given you authority...to overcome all the power of the enemy." ALL the power of the enemy??? If that's not mastery, I don't know what is.

It's innate in every Christian, given as a huge part of our redeemed life - yet it is arguably the most untapped resource in the life of the average-Joe Christian. Mastery. Most Christ-followers just write-off the small things as bad luck, unfortunate circumstances, sin...fill in the blank with your own words. Then we wonder why God allows evil to cycle through this beaten-up old world? It makes more sense to me that there is an enemy of our souls, and this opposition needs opposed. Who better to oppose it than the chosen people, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, to whom Christ gave this mastery over death and all its harbingers? That's us by the way, the Chosen. We all have this status of mastery...some just don't know it yet, and still others choose not to walk in this inheritance.

I find it funny that, upon researching the stance of passivity and nonviolence (for the sake of spiritual conversation, that is) there is a stance people often take called "passive resistance." Sounds a lot like an oxymoron, eh? The dictionary defines "passive resistance" as "opposition to a government or to specific laws by the use of noncooperation or other nonviolent methods." Demonstrators and activists often choose to take this stance to oppose this and that, and I'm sure it's admirable and full of integrity in many circumstances. As I ponder this stance's implications for the Kingdom of God, though, it's obvious this method wouldn't work very well with spiritual forces hell-bent on destroying our eternal selves. What's more, I find that more often than not, Christians have been taking a "passive resistance" approach to following Christ. Far too many Christians do not believe there is spiritual warfare taking place in our daily lives. In this age of Christianity, it's almost faux pas to believe there are spirits engaged against us, trying to tear down our spirits, our marriages, our families. 

C'mon, think about it...it's simple cause-and-effect, right? If there is strife in the world, something has to be causing it, correct? Can all that pulls us away from our original design as masters simply be ignored? Are there no forces at work against that which is for the good of the world and humanity? These are hard questions to wrestle with, but there is a fight before us. Like it or not, it's there, staring us in the face. What are we to do?

It's time to take mastery over that which was meant to be mastered. It's time to rise up in our design and be masters of something greater than ourselves, greater than our often-back-peddling capacity for self. If you don't believe in your identity as a master in Christ's Kingdom, or see no need for it, then your faith is pointless. You are just treading water until the afterlife, unproductively preening for an unimpressed God. This Kingdom, like every thriving earthly kingdom, does not function off the unproductive members. Those branches of the Kingdom tree get pruned in the end. 

So hey, don't get pruned. Walk in your mastery as God's dominion-holder, and thus fulfill your calling, your purpose in this life: to master the elements of good and evil through the power of the Holy Spirit for God's eternal glory. Don't back away from that, step into it.