"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek."
You may have heard the saying that goes something like this: "With great power, comes great responsibility". If you are a comic book fan, or a fan of the movies that have come out over the past few years featuring comic book heroes, you may recognize this phrase. Surprisingly, I found this quote attributed to one Stanley Martin Lieber, also known as Stan Lee, creator of most Marvel Comic superheroes like, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic 4, Iron Man, and Spiderman in whose comic book those words were uttered.
So how does Spiderman bring about biblical wisdom? Well, he probably doesn't really, but we can correlate what was said in that comic book into a lesson or biblical thought. Here's that thought.
Doctor and gospel author Luke tells us in Luke 12:48 this: "But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." This plays well in helping to support this theme.
We have been approved by God, and entrusted with the gospel message of Jesus Christ (I Thess. 2:4). That gospel message has the power to give eternal life. I used to be a fairly avid comic book reader. The aforementioned superheroes from the first paragraph are the ones I read most, but I read many. All of the superheroes had some sort of super 'power'. Iron Man had his inelegance, funding, and his iron suit that made him virtually invincible. The Fantastic Four had a plethora of things going on their; rubber-band type body, invisibility, a body as hard as a rock and as strong as a mountain, and of course we have the human torch. Spiderman, well, we all know what happens to a person when he is bitten by a radioactive spider. While all of these superheroes had a collection of powers that seems almost awesome and unstoppable, as a Christian, you have an even greater power.
In all those comic book superheroes, I do not remember a ONE of them, and there are hundreds, that could give eternal life. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, and the work done by the perfect sinless life, and sacrificial death of Jesus our Christ, YOU have the power to offer eternal life. You can make Spiderman look like a powerless little jumping spider. You can make the incredible Hulk look like a weakling getting sand kicked in his face. You can be more powerful, and offer REAL, not comic book make-believe power to people who are in desperate need of it.
However, with great power, comes great responsibility. MUCH has been given to us. God TRUSTS YOU with His message of salvation. Much like the servant who buried his talants in the ground, you will have done no one any good at all if you do not put this investment that God made into you… to work for Him. Much IS expected of us. Time is short, and it is high-time that we start living up to those expectations. Rather than 'bring a child to work day', we need to have 'bring a friend to Christ day', and that needs to be every day.
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