.svg)
If you died and went to heaven and stood before God, and God asked you, why should I let you into heaven, what would you say?
“Because of Jesus. You must let me in because of Jesus and his life and death for me, not because of anything I’ve done.”
This fall we’re talking about this thing, JUSTIFICATION = how you, a sinner, can stand before God and God say to you, “You are righteous. You are perfect. And you deserve to live in heaven forever with me.”
Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 33: What is justification?
“Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.”
Let’s read the story of David in 1 Samuel 17.
Israel and the Philistines are at war. And the Philistines say to Israel, “Let’s have a one on one fight between our best warrior and your best warrior and whoever wins that fight = that side wins the war. And if we win then you have to be our slaves and if you win then we will be your slaves. Our champion is Goliath, pick yours, and let’s go.”
Why doesn’t anyone want to fight Goliath?
Goliath is the champion of the Philistines, their greatest warrior. He was a giant like 7ft, maybe 8ft, maybe 9ft, maybe 10ft tall. Goliath’s armor weighed 125lbs. Just the tip of his spear alone weighed 15lbs.To fight carrying that much weight, to wield a weapon that heavy - Goliath was a giant.
And the Philistines were a warrior people. They loved fighting like the Spartans, like the Vikings. Goliath is the champion of these warrior people, their best fighter. And Goliath had the best armor and weapons.
Not even King Saul of Israel was willing to fight Goliath and Saul was supposed to be the champion of Israel. But he’s not acting like Israel’s champion.
Saul promises tons of riches to anyone who will fight Goliath but still no Israelite wants to fight Goliath.
No one until David shows up and he says he’ll fight and beat Goliath.
Have you heard of representational fighting?
Another big reason no one wants to fight Goliath is there is so much at stake = this whole war comes down to this one fight. This is a dual of champions, the fate of all is going to be decided by the winner of the duel. When Goliath steps out as a representative of the Philistine army and challenges Israel he’s not challenging the whole army like, I’ll take all of you on. Goliath is asking for a fighter from Israel’s army to represent Israel. Earlier in the passage he shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. ”This is representational fighting and this happened back in the day. Goliath was fighting as the legal representative of his people. And when David takes up the challenge he is going out to fight as the legal representative of all Israel. And so David is not just fighting for Israel, he is also fighting AS them. All of them. If David loses then they will all be treated as if they lost and they will become enslaved to the Philistine people. If David wins then all Israel will be treated as if they won. David’s victory will be counted to every Israelite.
Remember David is young, like a teenager? Why would David do this? How is David different from all the other soldiers?
David hears Goliath insulting the God of Israel saying that God is not able to save Israel from Goliath. But when David looked at God he saw the Almighty Creator of the universe who holds the cosmos in the palm of his hand.
When David looked at Goliath he was just some guy who was10ft tall. And David believed that God loved his people. The previous chapter,1 Samuel 16, tells us that before this happened David had already been anointed the new king of Israel. David knew he was Israel’s champion.
Was it much of a fight?
No! Goliath was insulted when Israel sent young David out to fight him but Goliath didn’t realize he was really fighting God.
Is the point of the passage: Just be brave like David?
The point of this passage is not - “Be brave like David and God will deliver you from whatever Goliath you’re facing.” The point is NOT, “Have faith like David and nothing bad will ever happen to you.” That’s not true. The point is to see God as David sees God; it is to have the faith of David.
What does everyone see when they look at Goliath?
Death.
What is everyone afraid of?
Death.
What should everyone be afraid of?
Death but not because death is the end but because death is not the end… because death brings you face to face with your Maker. Which is inside all of us - all of us know death is not the end but that you will come face to face with God.
What does David see when he looks at Goliath?
His eyes are fixed on his Lord and he sees his God who is bigger than death and bigger than our sin.
How does David point to Jesus?
All four gospels in the NT describe the place where Jesus is crucified as Golgotha which they all say means, “the place of the skull. ”That’s not a physical-geographical name like the hill Jesus was crucified on was somehow skull shaped. Golgotha is a theological name. It refers to Goliath’s skull. David brought Goliath’s skull to Jerusalem and now this is the place where Jesus, the son of David, is fighting a battle of champions, the ultimate representative battle, where if Jesus wins all his people win. Golgotha, the place of the skull, is the place where the ultimate Judge will use the ultimate weapon of the enemy against the enemy himself. What David did with Goliath Jesus will do with Satan on the cross.
The devil’s power over us is death. Because of our sin we deserve death and hell. So Jesus takes our sin and our death and our hell for us on the cross in our place. With Jesus on the cross the devil thinks he’s won, but in reality on the cross Jesus takes death, the weapon of Satan right out of his hands and uses it against him to save us.
The Bible says perfect love casts out fear. You no longer have to fear ultimate judgment because of the ultimate David. That is where real courage comes from - death and judgment can no longer touch you. David is not superhuman. Of course we want David’s faith and courage. One of my favorite authors once said real courage is slowly kindled and it’s slowly kindled by wonder. So fix your eyes on Jesus and the wonder of his salvation.