I have always loved overcomer stories. I remember as a kid reading Jim Thorpe, All American. Later I loved the movie by the same name.
Hoosiers, Rudy, and Bang the Drum Slowly all captured my imagination. I wanted to be the boy who overcame great adversity.
Sharon and I just found a movie that probably wasn’t successful commercially. It’s called Raising the Bar: The Alma Richards Story. Since we use Amazon Prime for free shipping, we got this thrown in.
The movie is about the 1912 Stockholm Olympics (twelve years before the 1924 Paris Olympics—the setting of Chariots of Fire, another great overcomer movie).
The lead is a young man who grows up in a very rural part of Utah. His name was Alma Richards. I won’t spoil it for you in case you decide to watch it. Movies used to be made like this. But now such movies are dinosaurs.
One of the reasons the Bible is so appealing is that it features lots of overcomer stories. David versus Goliath is the ultimate overcomer story. Gideon and his little band of 300 defeated an army of 120,000 Midianites (Judg 7-8). Joseph—who was nearly killed by his brothers, sold into slavery, and wrongly accused and sent to prison—rose to become the second most powerful man in all of Egypt.
In seven letters to seven first-century local churches, the Lord challenged believers in all of the churches to be overcomers:
To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God (Rev 2:7).
He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death (Rev 2:11).i
To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it (Rev 2:17).
And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations (Rev 2:26).
He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels (Rev 3:5).ii
He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God (Rev 3:12).
To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne (Rev 3:21).
Did you know that Nike means “victory”? The Nike brand is named after the Greek goddess of victory. The expression he who overcomes is a translation of the Greek verb nikaō. The related noun is nikē. The verb and noun occur thirty-four times in the NT. Believers should be victors in this life. That is God’s desire for us.
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5). Overcomer stories remind us that even in this life, humble people are sometimes exalted. But at the Bema, we will learn about a lot of people whom the world considered losers, but who will ultimately be shown to have been great victors when the Lord Jesus announces them as part of His band of overcomers.
Keep grace in focus and you’ll remain on your way to hearing the Lord’s, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
i This verse, like Rev 3:5, is an example of litotes, or understatement. No believer will be hurt by the second death. The point is that the overcomer will be blessed abundantly. I will write a separate blog about Rev 2:17 soon.
ii As with Rev 2:17, understatement is being employed. The name of the overcomer will be exalted by the Lord Jesus at the Bema. He will not only not blot out the name, but He will emphatically endorse it. See this article for more details.
