War

We have too many wars. Not just violent wars, but wars on religion, terror, poverty, drugs. Sometimes we go to war with ourselves. I sometimes seem a bit numb and detached to‘war,’ sort of like I feel numb to 'sin.' However, I'm forever indebted to the men and women who gave their lives in war so I might be free in a similar but not as significant way that I'm indebted to Jesus who laid down his life for me that I might be free from sin to live.

On the topic of war, there is certainly a lot of war in Christianity, and I don’t mean battles between doctrines. In Exodus 15:3, the people of Israel call God “a man of war.” In Judges 3:2, God makes a point of teaching those people war. Why?

God teaches us war because we are at war with Him and we cannot forget it. He teaches us war because sin wants to destroy us but he wants to save us. He teaches us war because we cannot become at peace with this fallen world. We deserve destruction but he spares us. And war shows us a glimpse of what we are being saved from.

God destroys sin and sinners for the same reason we’re glad we destroyed the Third Reich and the same reason we fought against slavery in America (no need to correct me, history aficionados). God shows violence and wrath and war because he is saving us from something far worse. I don’t understand every violent or martial act of God, nor do I understand or agree with every war America enters; however, I still see the beauty of the gospel in how God sacrificed for me just like I see the beauty of the gospel in how men and women in our country do the same. More than that, God calls us to be soldiers for the gospel just like he called Christ to be the firstborn in the new creation and king over all. As Christ fought so shall we fight, and as Christ died so shall we die, and as Christ was raised to life so shall we be raised again.

In Matthew 10:34 Jesus says ‘Do not think I have come to bring peace, but a sword.’ The martial imagery is not unusual, for the Word of God is referred to as a sword in Hebrews 4:12 and Ephesians 6:17. Ephesians 6 references lots of pieces of armor in our struggle against the forces of darkness and the spiritual forces of wickedness. Paul references those on Christ’s mission as ‘soldiers’ in Philippians 2:25 and Philemon 1:2. Indeed, we are called to fight the good fight in 1 Timothy 6:12. And we definitely need to be ready to fight, because sin is crouching ready to attack (Gen. 4:7, 1 Peter 5:8).

However, it is not to say that we are merely defending ourselves. Matt Chandler brilliantly comments in The Explicit Gospel on when Jesus tells Peter in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. Gates are not a particularly offensive or aggressive tool. God must be saying more than “defend yourselves,” He is actually launching an attack on all evil, on all sin. He doesn't just react to evil; he goes out and destroys it. That's how he frees us, through proactive, sacrificial love.

God has won the war, but He has decided to put us in the battle after the fact so we emerge as victors and not casualties. Mortifying sin is about putting sin to death, aggressively. The wicked peoples of the Old Testament reflect the evils of sin, they epitomize it in many ways. And God put Israel to war against them made sure that every generation would know war (Judges 3:2), and sometimes they lost. They always needed God their savior to fight their battles, and they died when they did not trust Him; the Psalms convey this frequently.  Physical death and pain and violence are real, and they are awful. God uses them, like everything else, to point us back to the gospel. To get to the time of no more pain and tears in Revelation 21, we must ourselves die to our flesh; we must die regularly and often, picking up our cross daily. Christ is our example, but more than that He is our savior, our great king who won the war for us. Let us follow Him to death and victory in new life.