Heroes

As you’ve probably noticed, most of the Bible is comprised of real life stories of real live people. The Lord never intended that doctrine or teaching would exist without lives that exemplified and embodied the reality of that teaching. Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only . . . faith without works is dead (James 1:22, 2:20). Of course, the supreme example of the connection between Truth and Life is found in the Lord Jesus, The Word became flesh . . . (John 1:14). This was always God’s intent – the Truth embodied in the lives of those in whom that Truth indwelt. The ultimate measure of God’s goal for His people is not how much they know, but how much of what they know has been fleshed out in their daily lives.

With that in mind, I feel it becomes obvious why (as mentioned above) most of the Bible is made up of stories of people related to, or not related to, God and His Word. In spite of the unfortunate advent of assigning undue celebrity status to the “greatest among us” which has swept Christianity, it still remains true that those whom the Holy Spirit presents to us in Scripture are worthy of our admiration.

In an attempt to better understand these men and women, I spent some time recently searching for their common traits. Though I realize we must never place anyone anywhere near the Lord Jesus as our focus or standard of what must be, we can nevertheless take an honest and objective look at people like Abraham, Jacob, David, Paul and others in our generation. We can, in a sense, be followers of (them), just as (they) are of Christ (1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1, 3:17).

Here is what I discovered; the following are what I believe are the three most consistent characteristics or traits of those who have honored the Lord in their lives, both in ancient times and in our present generation.

1) Humility through repeated failure. Without going into detail in this writing, I found that this was needed to develop the kind of humility and lack of self-confidence which would allow for the establishment of a genuine faith in, and reliance upon, God for all things (i.e. compare Luke 22:31-34 with John 18:15-27).

2) They have lost their lives. They have decided to be “disciples” rather than simply children of God. They have given up all personal ambition and live only to Him. He is the Lord of their lives in the truest sense; they no longer live unto themselves but unto Him in all things (John 12:24, Luke 9:23, Matthew 10:39). They also seem to realize, joyfully, that in losing their life, they haven’t lost anything worth keeping – they’ve gained another life which is much better. As one author put it: “Willingness to die is the price you must pay if you want to be raised from the dead . . .”

3) They know the Bible extremely well. They seem to have taken very seriously such passages as, 2 Timothy 2:15, 2 Timothy 3:16, John 8:31, etc. They minds are saturated with God’s Word and as a result, they share His view of life, His confidence and His happiness.

The consequence of the above decisions on the part of these disciples of Jesus is a life lived by faith not by self-effort. This allows for rest; There remains a rest for the people of God; he that has ceased from his own works has entered into his rest (Hebrews 4:9-10). It also grants the Lord full, unhindered access to them so that by His Spirit He can shape who and what these disciples become; It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me, and the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God. (Galatians 2:20).

In getting to know these people better over time, I can’t help but be amazed at their integrity, calmness, commitment and resolve. This is the way they are, this is who they’ve become after years of failure, self-denial and consistent study of God’s Word. But of course who I’m really seeing is Christ in them; Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27b). I’m seeing men and women conformed to His image, God’s ultimate purpose for us all.