Intimacy is Found on the Battlefield
February 10, 2020
Do you feel bored with your faith?
One couple in a Texas church were the ideal churchgoers. They were at church every Sunday, read dozens of Christian books each year, prayed and read their Bibles each morning, and were very generous. They served in many different areas of the church and were truly seeking to center their lives around Jesus, but still felt like they were missing something. They had a restlessness that wouldn’t go away with books or sermons. They eventually felt called to go to Berlin to serve Muslim refugees. When they arrived and began living on mission in this dangerous place, everything began to make sense and the boredom vanished.
Over the past few years in American Christianity, there has been an emphasis on our identity in Christ. It seems nearly every sermon, book, and blog speaks to this facet of the Christian life. This is a wonderful reality and is a much-needed topic of conversation for our day, but there is one implication of being a child of God that is not talked about much that I believe is the key to overcoming boredom: living on mission.
If you are in Christ, you are a child of God. John 1:12 declares, “For everyone who believed in Him, He gave the right to become children of God.” Galatians 3:26 says, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16). “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1a). “For all who are led by the Spirit are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). “I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18).
When we place our faith in Jesus, we are adopted into the family of God. This means you are not what you did in the past. You are no longer an addict! You are no longer defined by the sexual sin of your past. You are not earning your way into God’s family, but rather you have been fully adopted in His family. This is one of the most beautiful truths in the whole Bible. Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, you are fully a son or daughter. What amazing news?!?
There are many more wild implications of this reality, but I want to focus on just one in this post.
In the movie Gladiator (one of the best movies of all time), the scaredy-cat son of the King, Commodus, waits until the war is over to ride his horse onto the battlefield. Commodus is not a true warrior but hides in his dad’s castle until the war is over. He stayed in the safety of the castle, enjoying many of the benefits of the Kingdom. He had the choicest food, the biggest bed, and all the entertainment he’d ever want, but he longed for more.
Many Christians are experiencing the same thing. We read all the books, listen to all the podcasts, attend all the church events, but still don’t feel satisfied. What if the reason we feel bored and unsatisfied is that sonship is meant to lead to the battlefield, rather than the safety of the castle? What if intimacy with the King isn’t found in the safety of cultural Christianity, but on the battlefield? What if the intimacy we long for won’t ever be found in more spiritual disciplines, but wild mission?
You are not just a son, but a prince who’s meant to battle side by side with the King.
It is clear in Scripture that there is coming a Day when the world will be in perfect peace. The Devil will be defeated once and for all, no lost people will be on earth, and the value system of the Kingdom will overtake the value system of the world, but we are not there yet. On that Day we will get to party with the King in the Palace for eternity, but we are still in wartime. There is a real enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy. There are still people on earth who are going to hell when they die unless they hear and respond to the Gospel. There is still a value system that is discipling the world into chaos. We are not in peacetime yet, but wartime.
When the son of the King wrongfully thinks it is peacetime or plugs his ears to the reality of the war, he will idly stay in the castle delighting in all the benefits of the Kingdom while His Dad and the rest of the men are out in battle. But, when he rightfully knows the times he lives in, he will allow his sonship to embolden him into wartime courage on the battlefield. Sonship doesn’t mean safety, but sacrifice. We get the perfect example of sonship in Jesus- who did not live in safety, but rather compelled by His identity, sacrificed His very Body on the Cross.
The Bible is clear we have a mission as sons and daughters of God. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses…” (Acts 1:8). God never said, “Stay and hide in the castle.” Nowhere in the Bible do we see a person who was saved and set free, who wasn’t also sent on mission as a soldier. What a privilege that we get to go to war beside our Dad, the King of Kings, with the foreknowledge that our Kingdom eventually wins the war?!?
Let’s let our sonship lead us to live on mission. Let’s not be like Commodus, hiding in the palace while Dad is on the battlefield. Safe Christianity doesn’t work for long. Intimacy is not found in safety but on the battlefield. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to make us abundantly aware of God’s incredible love for us as our Dad, and let’s allow that sonship to drive us to lay down our lives for the cause of Christ. You are not just a son or daughter, but rather a prince or princess called to fight side by side with your Dad, who is also the King!
If you feel the restlessness and angst of the Texas couple, maybe God is calling you to take a step of faith into battle. If you feel bored with “safe faith,” maybe the King is summoning you, His son or daughter, to operate in a facet of your identity you haven’t accessed yet. You are not just a pawn on the battlefield, but a prince or princess leading the way, with real authority and inheritance. Royal blood is flowing through your veins. Is it time to go to war?