«Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us». Romans 8:37
DURING THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS World Games held in Seattle on July 2018, something happened which proved that, sometimes, the greatest victories come through apparent defeats. Nine intellectually-disabled youth were taking part in the hundred-meter dash, when, in the middle of the competition, one of them fell. The boy began to cry desperately and then something nobody could have imagined took place. When his fellow runners realized what had happened to him, they stopped running and went back to help him. After comforting him a bit, the nine of them held hands and crossed the finish line together. Craig Keener says that «the crowd offered a standing ovation for ten minutes; by relinquishing personal victory, each of the children achieved a much bigger triumph.»*
When he was going through a time of great anguish, the prophet John was told, «Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals» (Revelation 5:5). «The Lion has prevailed» is a beautiful metaphor. After all, the lion is the king of the jungle, «mighty among beasts, who retreats before nothing» (Proverbs 30.30, NIV).
The big question is: How did the Lion obtain the victory that allows Him to open the book? John describes it with these words: «l looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne . . . stood a Lamb as though it had been slain . . . He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb» (Revelation 5:6-8).
The Lion is the Lamb that was slain. The triumph of the Lion did not consist in devouring its enemies, but rather dying like a Lamb. Christ did not know any other way to overcome than through the path of the Cross, the path that made it possible for us to enter heaven hand in hand with Him.
If you are crying, if you are in anguish, if like John you feel disheartened, then rise up, because through Christ’s death at Calvary your salvation was guaranteed. The humiliation of the Son of God was the greatest victory the universe has ever witnessed. And now «we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us» (Romans 8:37).
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2023
“I AM WITH YOU”
From: J. VLADIMIR POLANCO
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Avineyda Hernández
