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the Rev. Alex D. Graham III at agraham@stmartinsepiscopal.org.
This series will take us through big beliefs of faith, using the book Café Theology to consider the big story of God and how it affects our smaller stories of faith.
Week 9: The Lamb Wins—The Final Victory of God

This week, the Rev. Alex D. Graham III teaches us about God’s final victory which He accomplishes through Jesus Christ, and how it is relevant for us now. 

A common term, you might have heard is “spoiler alert.” Perhaps you are having dinner with some friends, and the topic of conversation turns to movies: Have you seen this new movie? Have you watched that Netflix series? Of course, there are always a few people who have seen the series, and so they begin discussing it amid those who have not seen it. Eventually, the conversation turns toward the most important part of the movie—the climax—which typically comes at the end. And, then someone will say: “spoiler alert!” What they mean is: “cover your ears,” because we are getting ready to talk about what happens at the end of the movie—how the problem or tension in the story is resolved.

The Bible is a story too. It has a beginning, conflict, and a climactic ending. Today, we will look at the spoiler alert for the Bible’s greatest story–the way God ends the story. We will look at how He solves the problems of sin, suffering and death. 

Perhaps the best place to start is at the very beginning. After God creates His beautiful world, we see that sin and evil show up in the third chapter of Genesis. And the rest Bible is about how God fixes this problem. How will God resolve the conflict that plagues His creation? And so, most of the Old Testament looks to when God will fix the problem and renew His creation.

Fast forward to the New Testament, and we see that Jesus is the Promised One whom God sent to “put the world to rights.” And when we read the Gospels, we see glimpses of what God’s restored world looks like. When Jesus heals a paralytic, we see what God’s kingdom (His rule) will look like when it encounters the sick. He brings restoration, and healing. When Jesus casts out demons, we get a glimpse of God’s power to force out that which is evil. These accounts give us small pictures of what God intends to do one day with His entire creation. 

Of course, the greatest achievement of Jesus is what He does on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. When Jesus dies on the cross, he atones for our sins. God punishes Jesus, for the bad that we have done. This means that our sins are forgiven. But, it also means that the problem of sin and evil has been dealt a fatal blow. But, of course, the story of the cross doesn’t end in death. Three days later, Jesus rises. He comes back to life. 

The importance of Easter cannot be overstated. That is because when God raised Jesus was to new life, it had cosmic implications. Jesus’s resurrection affects you, me and the world. This is something that St. Paul gets at in 1 Corinthians 15, when he says that Jesus’s resurrection was the “first fruits” of God’s renewal of the world. Paul uses an agricultural term, first fruits, to describe God’s plan to remake the world. Paul says when Jesus rose from the grave, it was the first fruits, or beginning, of the entire harvest—a harvest that includes humanity and all of God’s creation. The good news is that what happens to Jesus will happen to us. Paul puts it this way in Romans 6, “For if we have been united with Christ in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His...Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.”

This is good news, of course, but we naturally ask, “When? When will this take place? In Romans 8, Paul writes: 

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” 
Romans 8:19-23

Here, Paul says that we, His collective creation, longs for renewal. But how long do we have to wait? 

Well, it is important to remember, that Christ accomplishes salvation in two stages. The first part includes what Jesus has already accomplished: He atoned for our sins, through His death on the cross. He rose from the dead—both are the signs of the new creation. And, He sends his spirit to his people---something that we see at Pentecost. When Jesus sends the Spirit to inhabit his people, it is not only to make us feel better or so we are not alone. (Of course, it is all these things, but much more.) The coming of the Spirit of God is the reality of the future age; it is a heavenly reality, but brought into the present. We might say it like this, when the Spirit indwells us, this is God, bringing the reality of His kingdom into our present lives.

So, as Christians, we live in this tension between “the already, but not yet.” Already because we presently experience God’s forgiveness, adoption into his family and God’s Spirit. But, “not yet,” because things are not complete. So, we wait for Jesus’ return when He will finish his work to renew all things. This will happen at the second comingThis is also a truth that we affirm when we say the Nicene Creed

Speaking of the of Christ, we say: “He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.”

Perhaps to best place to look at Christ’s final victory is in Revelation, Chapter 21. There John gives us a vision of a beautiful and wonderful future. 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be His peoples and God Himself will be with them; He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the One who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also, He said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

Revelation 21:1-7 NRSV

This is a beautiful image of the future that awaits each of us who are in Christ. And this image is very practical and relevant: It is a picture that gives us hope. It helps us carry on despite living in broken world. Because it shows us that Jesus Wins! And so, despite what happens to us in this life, with St. Paul we can confidently know that 

“...We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 
Romans 8:38-39 NRSV

Questions for Reflection:
  1.  How does the Bible’s “spoiler alert” shape the way that we read and interpret the other parts of the Bible?
  2. God’s great renewal project is accomplished in two phases, the already, and the not yet. What aspects of redemption do we experience now (already)? What aspects of redemption have yet to be realized (not yet)?
  3. How does knowing that God will secure final victory give us hope and purpose amid our trials?

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time ofthis mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. 
Amen.
The Book of Common Prayer, page 211