I like sports. Each time I watch a game, I look for the backstories. As I wrote yesterday, I was captured by the backstory of Cooper Kupp of the Los Angeles Rams. He and his wife are strong Christians, dedicated in their love and service to Christ Jesus. One of the things he said following the game was that he had a vision from God a few years prior after the Rams lost a Super Bowl. God told him that they would return, win, and he would be the MVP. He told one person of his vision. That is exactly what happened.
He went on, however, and it is this statement that has encouraged my heart today. He said, “It was written already and I just got to play free, knowing that I got to play from victory, not for victory. I got to play in a place where I was validated not from anything that happened on the field but because of my worth in God and my Father.”
He played from victory, not for victory. God had already spoken the ending. That was just a football game. How much more for us as believers? We, too, play from victory (obtained by Christ Jesus), not for victory!
1 Corinthians 15:57: “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Matthew Henry wrote in his commentary on this verse: “Praise for the victory (it is great and glorious in itself), and for the means whereby it is obtained (it is given of God through Christ Jesus), a victory obtained not by our power, but the power of God; not given because we are worthy, but because Christ is so, and has by dying obtained this conquest for us. Must not this circumstance endear the victory to us, and heighten our praise to God? Note, How many springs of joy to the saints and thanksgiving to God are opened by the death and resurrection, the sufferings and conquests, of our Redeemer! With what acclamations will saints rising from the dead applaud him! How will the heaven of heavens resound his praises for ever! Thanks be to God will be the burden of their song; and angels will join the chorus, and declare their consent with a loud Amen, Hallelujah.”
Yes, Thanks be to God, Amen & Hallelujah!
