In 1999, a game simply called “Superman” was released on
the Nintendo 64. This game is more
commonly referred to as “Superman 64.”
This video game is notorious for being abysmal in every possible
category. The story makes no sense; the
controls are finicky; glitches abound; the puzzles are so confusing that the
game is nearly impossible to defeat. On
and on we could go with how dreadful this game is. Personally, I think it’s the worst superhero
game ever made.
The most well-known aspect of this game is that Superman
flies through airborne rings. What’s
more, it’s not even just for a basic tutorial level or something like
that. No, there are 14 levels in the
game; 7 of them have Superman flying through seemingly endless rings. As a Superman fan, it’s sad that the Man of
Steel was reduced to this.
You may be asking me, “Kevin, why are you bringing this
up?” Well, for one reason, you know how much I love superheroes; I've wanted to bring up Superman 64 for a while now, because I wanted to be on the record for saying this game is, as I said, the worst superhero video game ever made. But there's another reason. And this may sound silly to you at
first, but stay with me. This idea of
working hard to go through rings is a picture of how some people think they become
right with God. Let me give you an
example of what I’m talking about.
Years ago, I heard about a man who made the decision to
do nothing more than bow his face prostrate to the ground, only to get back up,
and then do it again. Certainly, he
would have to eat, drink, and sleep, but aside from that, he was going to do
nothing except this act of constant bowing.
Question: why would someone do this?
Because he was jumping through hoops (or, to use the video game imagery,
flying through rings) in hopes of gaining God’s favor.
But sadly this man is not alone. Some people see their need for God, but
rather than cry out to Him in repentance, they get it in their heads that they
must shape up, check off all the spiritual boxes, work hard, and only then will
God accept them. So they begin to
perform for God. They begin to jump
through hoops – fly through rings – in hopes of gaining God’s approval. But the Bible never teaches this. Performance never put anyone in a right
relationship with the Lord.
Greg Grandchamp in his book "In Pursuit of Truth" writes, "We can work and work and work, but it just won't get it done. You cannot earn your way to heaven no matter what you do. And that includes the things you do in church. Many religions have you jump through hoops. Useless. They hand you the rules and regs as you walk through the door. Pointless."
Greg Grandchamp in his book "In Pursuit of Truth" writes, "We can work and work and work, but it just won't get it done. You cannot earn your way to heaven no matter what you do. And that includes the things you do in church. Many religions have you jump through hoops. Useless. They hand you the rules and regs as you walk through the door. Pointless."
What does the Bible say about this? That's the important question. The Bible says that God saves a person “not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy”
(Titus 3:5). Ephesians 2 tells us, “For
by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Notice that last phrase “lest anyone should
boast.” That statement is so true. Can you picture someone saying, “I did this,
that, and the other thing. I jumped
through all the hoops; I flew through all the rings. Therefore, God and I are OK now”? Sorry, but that’s not how it works. It happens by God’s grace, through faith, not
by any works. You see, someone already
did the work. Someone already flew
through all the necessary rings. The old
hymn puts it this way: “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; sin had left a
crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”
You might have wondered why I titled today’s blog what I
did. As you might have guessed, it has
nothing to do with J.R.R. Tolkien’s work (even though I do like Tolkien). First of all, one of the definitions for “lord”
in the dictionary is “a ruler, master.”
On the one hand, some game developer’s years ago thought it was a good
idea to have Superman attempt to be lord or master of flying through rings (bad
idea). But it’s also a double
meaning. You don’t have to be the lord
or master of all those rings in your life that you keep trying to fly through. The good news is you can simply accept the
gift of God’s grace today.
I wish I could end there.
I really do. But someone is going
to read what I’ve said and conclude that I’m stating that a Christian doesn’t
have to do any kind of good works at all.
Read my lips: that’s not what I believe.
I said that you don’t have to do any good works to become a Christian. Good works are vitally important, but don’t
get confused on the order. A person
receives the gift of God’s grace first; then he/she does good works
out of the love, gratitude, and appreciation they feel to the Lord. The motivation is completely different.
Kevin
