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Jesus wins the race every time

Luke & Darth fight it out…
Over the weekend one of the speakers I heard was Judah Smith, dynamic Pastor of the City Church in Seattle. Preppy-looking, charming and hilarious, Judah preaches like no one I have ever heard before. Although he comes across as very contemporary his insights into the bible were quite stunning.. (bit like him actually… is it wrong to say that about a Pastor..? ;) Hope my husband isn’t reading..!)
Judah Smith

He did some great teaching on ‘firstness’ which I probably won’t do nearly enough justice to, but basically he was saying that we need to always be second. Jesus should always be first. He is always first, it’s just that we don’t always recognise it or give Him the credit. In the context of a running race, if you come second, the person before you is always better, faster, more skilled, gifted. Is that how we see Jesus? Because the truth is that he is always more, better, faster, etc.

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!    Romans 5:15-17 (NIV)

Just love this passage. How much more does God provide for us. How much more does He love us. How much more than anything we can ever imagine, How much more is He, than us…

Judah gave a great illustration – you know the old star wars movies where Luke is fighting Darth Vader. He was like ‘Jesus & The Devil are not like Luke & Darth’. It is not a dual – there is always one outcome – Jesus is the victor. Is the victor, was the victor and will be the victor. He is always greater, faster, more…

And how hard is that to always do? Seems easy right? but how often do we put ourselves in first place, think that we can do it all, in our own strength. How often do we take credit for something forgetting to give thanks to God, or how often do we just plain forget to even consider who goes before us?

As Judah said: God ‘was’ before there even was ‘was’. (love that quote..) He was there before there was even ‘the beginning’. That makes my head hurt to even consider, but it also kind of puts it in perspective for me too. Everything that ever was – God was there, and he was there before it, He is always first, before and more…

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