Rocky at Center Ring

The story goes that as the coach was anticipating the big game, a fan yelled out his support, "We're with you coach, win or tie." That story has an apocryphal ring to it in more ways than one. We don't like ties. We compare them to "kissing your sister." No ties; what we want is resolution.

We want to see Rocky standing in the center of the ring while the referee holds up his hand in victory. We want to watch "The Hoosiers" beat the basketball behemoths from Indianapolis in the state championship. That's the way we arrange things: all tournaments must have a winner and a host of losers lying in their victorious wake. We invent "overtime" so we can have resolution.

In politics, the loser must make a gracious concession speech. He must admit defeat. Then we listen to the winner. He must be gracious too. No gloating (at least not publicly). Election, over; we move on. It brings us resolution to see, in the closing scene, the loser's reaction in sports movies. (We have to know that losing team realizes ignominious defeat, while we want to see the winners celebrating their hard fought victory. In drama, when the villain is about to die, he must realize it's all over; it's an obligatory scene.)

In music, the composition must have notes of resolution; it can't just all of a sudden quit. There must be finality, and a building toward the ending.

We crave finality, and in its more formal sense, we call it "closure." We have ceremonies that finalize things for us. Graduations. Funerals. Weddings. When we purchase a house, we call it, "the closing." When wars are over, diplomats, military men all meet to sign a formal treaty. This puts one war behind us so we can get ready for the next one.

We like periods and exclamation marks to end our sentences; we don't like an ellipsis. We need finality.

God offers all members of the human race wonderful finalities. When a person believes in Jesus, God puts an exclamation point on it-it's done! Jesus speaks of it in John 4:14, ". . . whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst again." "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35). "I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).

Life can be and is messy. Things don't seem to get resolved. The same old same old continues. Wrongs can't seem to be righted; relationships break apart. The Second Law of Thermodynamics rules and we can't stop it. Evil done; evil gotten away with. The good suffer, sometimes big-time. The finality of balancing the moral books exceeds human grasp.

The Bible promises one more finality-the return of Christ (Revelation 20). Then will come the balancing of the books. Wrongs righted while long-suffering truth will see the light of day.

Man craves both finalities-a complete and finished forgiveness for his sins; a complete and finished guarantee of eternal life. Jesus offers both free; a gift. Yet man prefers forgiveness and eternal life on his own terms, without Christ. Man craves the finality which the Second Coming offers, but would prefer it without the Savior. It's not going to happen.

God stamped our need for resolution on our DNA. What we need and crave, God offers without cost or charge to us through faith alone in Christ alone (Romans 4:4-5; John 6:40).