City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

Romans 8:28, 35-37

Reflection

I took the picture you see here on August 15, 2014. Cindy and I were in Lyon, France, and visited the ancient Roman amphitheater. It’s not easy to find. It’s tucked away in a part of Lyon not well trod by tourists, but it’s a place that has survived 1,844 years in part because it is where a young Christian girl made a sacrifice for the Kingdom that we still talk about because she was assured nothing could separate her from the love of Christ.

In 177 AD, during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius a vicious persecution against the church took place in Lyon. Blandina, fifteen years old, was arrested, along with other Christians in Lyon, by the local legate (Roman military ruler). She was demanded to renounce Jesus at the threat of torture. She refused, saying “I am a Christian.” She was tortured all day until her tormentor decided there was nothing more he could do to make her recant.

The next day Blandina was taken into the amphitheater pictured above where she was forced to watch the other Christians tortured and killed. She was asked again to recant but refused. Blandina was then tied to a stake (commemorated in the picture above) in the amphitheater for the wild beasts to devour her, but when they did not attack and the fire kindled did not consume her, she was put into a net and thrown to the bulls where she was finally killed. Fourth century historian, Eusebius, writes, “Even the Gentiles confessed, that no woman among them had ever endured sufferings as many and as great as these.”

This story and the accounts of the others who gave their lives for Jesus during the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius are not mere legend; they are recorded in a letter delivered by Irenaeus, a contemporary and presumably a witness, and he is quoted at length by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History. Lyon would eventually become a Christian city. I have no doubt the sacrifice of Blandina and the other martyrs contributed to the city’s conversion.

Romans 8:28-37 is great security to any believer if properly understood. Paul does not promise that all things will work out to our good but “for good,” the ultimate good, which is the good that honors God and advances His kingdom on the earth. God loves us, but that does not mean it is all about us or even principally about us. Romans 8 promises if we are born again and continue to love Him, nothing will separate us from His love. But that we will not be separated from His love does not mean we will be separated from tribulation, distresses, persecutions, deprivation, or death. See v. 35-37. The security that comes from His love does not free us from the certainty of life in a fallen world, but it does free us from the bondage that leads to a meaningless one.

What is promised is that if we are born again and continue to love Jesus and follow Him through these things we will “overwhelmingly conquer” (v. 37) just as Jesus overcame the world (John 16:33). To conquer and overcome the world does not mean to escape from it but to change it.  No army conquers by escaping; no soldier overcomes by leaving the battlefield.  But a soldier who trusts that death is not the end is willing to sacrifice his life on the battlefield for the greater good of winning the battle and conquering the enemy. Death is the last enemy that will be overcome (I Cor. 15:26). Until then we are tasked with overcoming, i.e. changing, the world, and we do that by trusting in God’s inseparable love, which enables us to make the sacrifices necessary to be a catalyst for change.

Application

Perhaps none of us will ever be called upon by King Jesus to sacrifice our life all at once, like Blandina, for the sake of the Kingdom. Instead, we are asked to sacrifice little-by-little, day-by-day, decision-by-decision (Luke 9:23). Being secure in His inseparable love frees us to make those sacrifices.

Prayer

Lord, help me always to trust in Your love so I may sacrifice and be useful in the advancement of your kingdom on earth. Amen.