The Unlikely Super Series Is Set

Few would have bet early on, or even after the baseball post-season began, that both the powerful club from Philadelphia and last year’s defending champions, the New York Yankees, would be watching the World Series at home after a rousing round on their favorite golf courses.

The Phillies great Roy Halladay had just thrown the first post-season no-hitter since Don Larsen and was on the top of his game – literally. He was accompanied by a formidable defensive and offensive lineup to say the least. Many picked them to go all the way. But they would most likely meet their match in the Bronx Bombers who had every reason to think they could repeat as champs with having an arguably better lineup than last year's. Most fanatical and casual fans of the sport were looking forward to a serious and competitive series.

But when the ALCS and NLCS ‘diamond dust’ settled, the two highly favored teams ended their seasons – and both on rather ironic notes. For New York, former Texas super-star Alex Rodriguez struck out, looking to end their comeback hopes and giving his prior team a little something to gloat about along the way. Then on the other side, perhaps the Phillies' most feared batter, Ryan Howard, also ended his team’s dreams by being struck out to end the game and his team’s quest for a series ring. The bottom line was that both of the favored clubs fell short of their goal and, in some ways, are today no different than teams that were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention half way through the season. And even now, one of the remaining two teams, Texas or San Francisco, will eventually see their coveted prize evaporate, leaving them only the bragging rights to say, “We almost won it all."

In one very special way, this year’s post- season series became odd reminders of a serious Bible reality. It is something declared throughout Scripture, but explained most clearly and quickly in Romans chapter three. The Apostle Paul is dealing there with the universal problem of human sin. Unlike with pro sports, where only the few blessed and talented few get to participate, in the game that is real life everyone competes from birth and until they draw their final breath on earth. And according to verse 23, everyone across the board on the human roster has failed totally. Paul relates, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

That fall is nothing insignificant. Actually it represents the single most important aspect of life – every life! In short, it means “to miss the mark” just as will every single major league baseball team but one. The problem is that whoever does hit the mark this year and bring home the highly prized hardware to their cities and fans will not likely win it again next year. New York found that out the hard way in 2010, despite owning the league’s most gigantic payroll.

Missing the mark in failing to win baseball’s biggest prize, or any or major sport for that matter, is ultimately quite meaningless. It is temporary and the excitement eventually fades. Few can even recall who were the winners of the 4 major sports from just 3-4 years ago. But missing the mark when it comes to achieving the standards of a holy God has temporal and eternal consequences – the latter being too horrible for the finite mind to grasp. (Hebrews 10:31, Mark 9:45-46)

But in stark contrast, there is only One who can fully meet God’s standards. He made it possible for everyone in the contest that is life, death, and eternity to make God’s team. But there s a hitch – a huge and significant one. It is not what most would expect and it is revealed in that very next verse just after the hopeless and dire situation of human sin is declared. After writing how all have missed the mark of pleasing a holy God, Paul sharply turns the theological corner with verse 24. There he states, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Salvation is a free gift of God’s mercy whereby even those who have badly missed the mark are justified in God’s eyes through Christ. In Christ they can be seen positionally as sinless – something else somewhat difficult for the human mind to grasp. But Paul explains how this all comes about later in Romans 5:1-3. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.”

Many kids grow up in America with some dreams of making it big in one realm or another. If more Christian parents would direct their children to ‘make it big’ in with spiritual matters being priority one, the nation would not be in its current condition. That is another whole issue.

But a select few will one day wear World Series rings. A handful may be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame or have their names written on hockey’s coveted Stanley Cup. But the true and lasting winners are only those who have “hit the mark” and achieved the righteous standing before God that comes only through a personal faith in Jesus Christ. He is the One who died in their place. He is the One who paid the price to make them positionally holy and eternally justified. And He is the One who guarantees their forth-coming inheritance and their heavenly residence.

I would have loved to hit a ‘walk off’ grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning in the seventh game of a world series. Who wouldn’t? But that is little more than temporal insignificant rubbish compared to what Peter describes for those who ‘hit the mark’ squarely in Christ.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:1-5)

Bill Breckenridge