In the summer of 2024, over 10,000 athletes from 203 countries gathered in Paris, France, for the biggest global sporting event of the year.
Photo credit: jcomp
The Summer Olympic Games only take place every four years, so the anticipation grows as it gets closer! For years, these men and women train, prepare, and dedicate themselves to their sport in the hopes that they will be selected to represent their country. Many of them have inspiring stories of challenges they had to overcome on their journey to the biggest stage in international sports.
The motto for the Olympics is “Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together.”1 This emphasizes how each country selects the best of their competitors for their side: the fastest, the most talented, and the strongest. If this is what our nations want in the people who are on their team, it made me wonder what kind of people God is looking for?
Weak
In complete contrast to the Olympics or any other sport event, the Bible tells us that God is looking for those who are weak. “For when we were still without strength (weak), in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). This doesn’t mean physical weakness. Instead it is spiritual weakness. Spiritual weakness means that we are unable to do what is right. Even the people who try their hardest and have the best intentions will make mistakes and not always do the right thing. We are unable to live the way that God wants us to.
Sinners
But then the Bible goes a step further and tells us that God goes further too. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Now it’s not just the “weak,” but “sinners.” Sin - our rebellion against God and His ways - is not something we like to talk about. But the Bible tells us that all of us have sinned (Romans 3:23). All of us, at some point in our life, have turned away or resisted what God tells us is right. But why did it say that Christ died for the weak and for sinners? That seems like such an extreme action! The answer is in the first part of the verse - God wanted to demonstrate His love. Sin brings death to us, physically and spiritually. But God looked at sinners in love, and wanted a way for them to have abundant spiritual life. So He gave His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die in the place of lost sinners.
Enemies
This is the most stunning one of all. The Bible not only tells us that God reached out to save the weak and sinners, but it also says: “when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son…” (Romans 5:10). It would be shocking if two countries were at war and one of them invited the athletes from the other country to participate on their team. That is unimaginable! So how can we explain this kind of invitation that comes from a holy God? How can we understand a forgiveness that even goes to an enemy? The answer is what we’ve already talked about: God’s love. God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness! (Exodus 34:6) He wants you to stop being an enemy, and for you to come to His side - into His family. He wants this so much that He gave His Son to die for you, and three days later He raised His Son from the dead so that He can give you life! If you are spiritually weak, a lost sinner, and an enemy of God, the good news is that you are exactly the type of person that the Lord Jesus came to save.
1 olympics.com/ioc/olympic-motto
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