Too Much Man to Walk On

One of the most powerful exhortations I ever received as a teacher was from another teacher who shared with me harmless tagline that has motivated me ever since.

At one point in my career, I had gotten so frustrated with students who insisted on arguing and joking with me every time I asked them to do something. Finally, I blurted out to them, tracing a line across my chest:

"Does it say ‘doormat’ here?" The implied comment: “Don't walk on me. Do as I say.”

Half-jokingly, I then asked another teacher the same teacher, to which he piquantly replied:

"No, sir!" He smiled. "I'll tell you what it says: ‘Too much man to walk on!’"

I liked what I heard! Everywhere I went after that, whether at Los Padrinos, Lynwood, Lloyde High School, or any other site, I told the students and the staff --- "I am too much man to walk on."

Now, I am not partial to self-promotion or self-congratulation, if only because it becomes weak and beggarly elements. I am not much a witness for my own doing.

Yet when I read the scripture, this promise of security and strength is open to all who believe.

Paul the apostle writes:

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2:4-6)

From the moment a believer is born again, he sits currently, presently, and eternally with Christ in high places, at the right hand, the place of honor, next to God the Father.

Furthermore, Christ in us is the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27), not just a faint wish, but a consummate certainty which we may depend on perfectly.

Now Christ is the Victor of all Victories, who scorned the shame, died on the Cross, and made an open display of powers and principalities, and having led captivity itself captive (cf Ephesians 4:8)

The Gospel of John records the Forever Triumph of Jesus Christ for us:

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Jesus made this calm, bold declaration even before dying on the Cross, the death sealed permanent his success and our glory!

John would write in his First epistle the blessed implications of this exalted status for all believers:

"But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

"He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." (1 John 2:5-6)

We should walk as He walked, which we do by the power of the Holy Spirit. How does this transfer into unending victory for the believer in Christ?

"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. " (1 John 4:4)

And

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)

And finally

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

"Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:4-5)

Could anything be more plainly spelled out for the believer? Christ in you, the hope of glory, manifests complete victory, unending triumph to those who submit and believe on Him. He has overcome the world, and in Him we become more than overcomers, hyper-victors who walk through with ease through the wasteland of the Enemy, for Christ Himself laid to all his wiles at Calvary one and for all.

Indeed, by the power of Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, through His forever-atoning sacrifice, every believer can boldly say:

"I am too much man to walk on!"