An Unfair Advantage: Victory in the Midst of BattleSample

Courage Beyond Fear – Part 1

While I share with others the stories of amazing warriors in the Bible, I think the enemy makes a deliberate attempt to hide the truth that the toughest and most courageous warrior in Scripture is Jesus himself.

I have found no greater standard of courage than Jesus Christ at Calvary when he faced crucifixion. For days, months, and even years before, his anticipation was building to that moment. The clock was ticking for him to face his brutal destiny and death. Jesus, the Son of God and the Messiah, had a clear mission directive to trade his life for ours. He was to be the sacrificial Lamb for all the sins of the world. He was intimately aware of the Old Testament teaching and prophecies concerning the sacrificial death that he would face. Jesus was fully a man, and he experienced the same life, hardship, and anguish that the rest of us do. He didn’t exempt himself from the physical pain, emotions, and physiological effects of the human body.

The one advantage Jesus did have during his human life was the same unfair advantage available to us: the advantage that comes when you upgrade your faith for belief. It comes when you move from a vague hope to absolute certainty and conviction—from saying to yourself, “I hope things will turn out right,” to having the unwavering confidence that through God everything is going to be completely right, regardless of how things seem to turn out.

We don’t know exactly when Jesus discovered who he was, but we know from the Bible that he did and thus had an unfair advantage of living without fear once he knew who he was. Fear comes from being uncertain of the unknown; Jesus did not face the unknown. He was keenly aware of what was before him. I wonder if that knowledge ever kept him up at night. Did he struggle with the anguish of what he would face?

Jesus lived his entire life knowing he would not only endure false accusations, arrest, torture, and a brutal murder, but he would also face rejection from his own creation—those who he loved the most. Despite this, he went forward with his mission.