Heroes vs. Villains
Pt. 1 - Affinity Wars
I. Introduction
I can remember it vividly. I would rush home from school on my Huffy Dallas Cowboys Edition Bicycle to make sure that I got there in time to watch Batman. I would watch his epic duals with villains like The Joker and The Riddler. With all of the subsequent “bams”, “booms”, “pows” and “zings”. But before the magic of TV or movie screens there were these great literary works called comic books! In these masterpieces we were introduced to heroes beyond Bat Man. Heroes like Spider Man, The Flash, The Black Panther, Aqua Man and even The Wonder Twins! We also introduced to villains like The Penguin, Venom, Magneto and Lex Luther. As I reflect back on the stories of these shows and books, I am reminded that it seems like there was always this struggle going on just under the surface. Everything in Bruce Wayne's life, Peter Parker's life, Bruce Banner's life and in their hometowns of Gotham, New York city or Dayton, Ohio would seem great. All was calm. Everything is copasetic but just beneath the apparent calm there was this undercurrent of chaos. Just under the appearance of normal there was this war being waged. As I thought about this I also it reminded me of a passage in Romans.
Text: Romans 7:14-24 (MSG)
I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary. But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope.
21-24 (ISV) - So I find this to be a principle: when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me. For I delight in the Law of God in my inner being, but I see in my body a different principle waging war with the Law in my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that exists in my body. What a wretched man I am!
This passage in Romans reflects the reality of the comics I grew up on. There is this war going on that produces heroes and villains.
This passage reveals a dirty little secret about Christians . . . about us that no one really wants to talk about. We just want to keep this hidden and under wraps. We would prefer to deny it or act like it doesn't exist and in doing so we continue to lose the undercover war that is being waged.
Paul refuses to play this game and puts this secret right out in the open so that we have to deal with it and address it.
We are all living with the reality of duality!
No one in the room wants to be honest about it but the truth is you are in fact Batman, but you are also Bruce Wane. You are Spiderman but you are also Peter Parker. Come on look at your neighbor and tell them "I am Superman!" But if we would be honest, we also need to tell them that we are also Clark Kent. There is this reality of duality going on inside of us! And as much as we don't like to admit it, talk about it or own up to it the fact is just because you become Spiderman that doesn't mean you lose Peter Parker. In fact, the truth is for most of us whether you get Batman, Spiderman, Superman really depends on the circumstance I am currently facing, the day, whether I have had my coffee. This is what Paul talked about when he talked about the struggle inside of him.
Sometimes I want to help people and sometimes . . . Sometimes I want to be with people and sometimes . . . Sometimes I want to rescue and sometimes . . . Sometimes I want to respond in grace and sometimes . . . Sometimes I want to hug you and sometimes . . . Sometimes I want to listen to you on the phone and sometimes I want to . . . Am I being too honest for you today. I know you look all holy on Sunday, but if we could see you after a hard day at work on Thursday!
Paul said it like this, "I want to do good but evil is right there with me." There is a war waging on the inside of me. The guy who wrote 75% of NT, highly educated, schooled in the law, spoke 7-14 languages, apostle, healer and this guy said, "I’m Superman, but I have some Clark Kent days too!" Paul is addressing the affinity war going on just below the surface. On Sunday it looks like everything is good and great, but just beneath the surface there is a very real struggle. There is an affinity war going on inside of us. It is about our want to, our desires, our longings, our affinities. "A natural liking" or preference for certain things or people. I want to do right, but I was captured in sin for so long that I tend to give into things I have affinity for that I don't even want to do. So, we might as well get it out there in the open. I am not a hypocrite . . . I am human! I am a hero and depending on what happened today I may actually act like a villain.
We must come to grips with the fact that, according to Paul, this is not only a war . . .
We are in an ongoing, never-ending battle!
If we are going to be a villain, we don’t have to do anything. We can just go through our day and ultimately our affinity for anger, pettiness, selfishness, our own way, our own rights will rise up and show off. However, if we want to be a hero, we are going to have fight some battles and win some victories. This is not a one and done fight. It is a lifestyle of every day dying killing the old man. Someone of us died once when we accepted Christ. However, the truth is that in order to be more Superman than we are Clark Kent we must die daily. We want to come to church, get saved, and that’s it but it doesn’t work that way it’s a lifestyle from that day forward. We hide our villain. But hiding it doesn’t mean you handle it. Paul tells us in Romans 6:6, “Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer captive to sin’s demands!” And then he goes on and says in verse 12-14, "That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God."
So, Jesus' death wins the victory, but we must participate in the victory. We fight the daily battles of killing our old man. The war is won but we must fight the daily battles.
Sanctification isn’t you lose the old you. It is that you learn to arrest the old you. Deliverance isn’t always instant freedom it is learning to daily manage desires - affinities must be arrested! That is why Jesus says in Luke 9, "If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross every day and follow me. The reason a lot of us spend more days as a villain than we do as a hero is because we only manage our desires on Sunday and the rest of the week we let them run wild! Deliverance is I want to but decide not to. Deliverance is I wanted to tell you, but I become a hero when I fight that urge to submission. I went to church on Sunday, but on Tuesday you did my kid wrong and I wanted to respond, but today I chose to offer grace. You cost me time and money and I want to give you a piece of my mind, but instead I hero up and hold my peace!
Just because the truth is we are living in a reality of duality doesn't mean we can't win! It does however, mean that we will have to go to war!
Oh, wait I forgot to read to you verse 25 and since there were no chapters to end Paul's thoughts, we must go into Chapter 8. Listen to what Paul says and find hope and help today!
Text: Romans 7:25
Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
Romans 8:1-3
With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.
You can win this war because this war has been won!
Listen to what Paul said. He describes this incredibly frustrating battle. He even declares himself to be a wretch more often than he desires. He says, "I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? But then when it seems like this duality is impossible Paul finally comes to this conclusion. There is an answer. The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does.
In other words, to win this war . . . to find deliverance we must rely on the deliverer. We must simply rely on the help we have. It isn't about will power, instead it is about His power. We must let Jesus stay on the throne on Monday not just on Sunday! The power to win is available if we will access it. Rely on the help we have! Our will power runs out at about 1:05pm this afternoon, but His power is unending! We can win because He won! So, we must allow Him to win in us daily!
So, today we must be brutally honest. Too many of us are losing the war simply because we have affinity for what is destroying us. We are comfortable with anger. Comfortable with hate. Comfortable with lust. Comfortable with chaos. We hide it. But the truth is we are villain more often than we are hero. Today, we pull the covers back and we allow Jesus to invade our comfort zone and we rely on His strength and we get back in the war and we fight daily until we win!
