It’s the person looking for glasses that are perched atop their head or someone searching for keys that are still in the door. Paul tells us in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” A familiar verse—so familiar that it contains something that’s hidden in plain sight.
What is it?
One of the most radical strategies in the world—the concept of overcoming evil with good.
Christ died for us while we were still sinners (a nicer way of saying while we were evil). While we were in a state of rebellion, He did something extraordinarily good—He died for us. In other words, He made the decision to overcome our evil with His good (exactly what Paul will challenge disciples to do in 12:21). It’s all there in 5:8—hidden in plain sight.
In a world infatuated with my way, my rights, and my truth, this sounds foolish, ridiculous, and possibly like something associated with toxic positivity. It appears that we’re advocating offering ourselves as a doormat for the world to trample on. Is that what we’re doing—or are we making a radical decision to follow Jesus?
And what is the difference?
Let’s start with Jesus—overcoming evil through good is certainly His way and if we are able to give it a brave hearing, I think we’ll also find it to be the way of faith, hope, and love. It’s based on the premise that to effect positive, permanent change we must change people’s hearts. And how do we do that? We live lives of redemptive love, where we meet evil head on with good.
This is precisely what Jesus did. We’re told in Acts 10:38 that Christ “went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.”
But He didn’t stop there. He continued to practice good all the way to the cross where He bore our sins in the ultimate act of goodness. And by the way—how did that work out? How many millions of people, because they experienced the goodness of Christ, have had their hearts changed and their lives transformed? There’s nothing that compares with it and it all happened because God was and is committed to overcoming evil through good.
So that’s our mission. Like our Lord, we are to go around doing good. More to the point, we are to continue to do good even when we meet with evil in return. This separates the children from the adults. Doing good isn’t particularly hard; doing good when it is met by evil—well, that’s a different story. But it also happens to be when our light shines the brightest.
Does all of this make us a doormat? I suppose that depends on your perspective. Does Jesus strike you as a doormat—or the strongest, most courageous person who has ever lived? Does the cross strike you as weakness—or a powerful act of redemptive love where Jesus’ life wasn’t taken but given? Which is more adventurous: to curse darkness or to live as light?
Your answer will determine your outcome.
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 