Superheroes are born in the minds of people desperate to be rescued. – Jodi Picoult

Christopher Hellenthal was still garbed in his Spider-Man costume from a superhero-themed event at the trampoline park where he works when he spotted a man in a wheelchair in heavy traffic in Jonesboro, Arkansas on August 4^th. He jumped out of his jeep and ran to assist the man declaring: “I got you.” The disabled man was struggling to get across six lanes of traffic when Hellenthal swung into help. He’d been waiting at the light and saw someone needing help, so he quickly rolled the man to safety seconds before the light changed and rows of heavy traffic advanced. Hellenthal’s heroic act was captured by a street camera and then shared on social media by local police who thanked him for helping the man reach safety.

“I had a bunch of adrenaline pumping through me” said Hellenthal, 20, adding he had to act quickly in bustling midday traffic. “I was just kind of thinking, ‘I’m wearing this suit; it’s gonna be pretty funny.’” After rolling the man safely across the road, Hellenthal swung back into his Jeep which was blocking traffic “because the light turned green pretty fast.”

Most superheroes have dual identities. Clark Kent is Superman; Bruce Wayne is Batman; Wonder Woman is Diana Prince. And every Christ-follower has a dual identity, though, unlike superheroes, our dual identity shouldn’t be a secret. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. We’re both of this temporary world and of another eternal world in Christ. That means something wonderful – every Christian can be a hero…and should be. 

No, we’re not swinging through the city on a web or leaping tall buildings or even using bracelets to block bullets. Every Christian has been rescued from sin and death and freely given forgiveness by God’s grace. God’s plan for us is to now be His rescuers. That means…

Every Christian can be a superhero. 

Every person we meet needs to be rescued just like we were. They need to be forgiven by a holy God and need a new heart, a new life and a new destiny. Most are disabled by sin and carry the heavy baggage of guilt. 

We can honestly tell those we meet, “Be like me!” Not in how we live but in how we’ve been rescued. We can be a source of hope, letting each one know that they too can be rescued. Because of Christ’s cross, they can have peace with God which can give true inner peace. We must point them to the only true Superhero, the Lord Jesus. As Paul said, For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord (2 Corinthians 4:5). 

The most important superhero story is about our Superhero, and every Christ-follower has a rescue story. At some point each one of us was rescued. Jesus Christ, our Superhero, searched for us, found us, sacrificed Himself in our place so He could rescue us. Jesus paid our unpayable debt, forgave us and gave us new life for this world and everlasting life for the next. Sharing with someone else how they can be rescued is heroic!

Being heroic means being transparent that though we have new life, we still struggle with the old one. Each of us must continually dodge the “kryptonite” of temptation. Through the power of Christ living in us, we can have victory. When we stumble, which we all do, it’s not defeat, it’s a setback. We get back up by confessing and repenting of our sin. 

Because of the transformation Jesus has made in us, we should be heroic before others. It’s not that we’re nice, it’s that we have a new nature. Our purpose is to honor our Superhero, pointing others to Him. 

Most superheroes hide their identity. That’s not God’s plan for His “superheroes.” He wants those who meets us to see Jesus in us. It should attract them from the darkness of this world to the light of Christ in us!

A church should be a league of heroes. 

Many superheroes receive their superpower from some outside source. Spiderman was bitten by a genetically altered spider. The Hulk was exposed to gamma radiation. Something was done to them that radically changed them. The same is true of every Christian. On our own we may be “good” relatively speaking, yet apart from God giving us a new heart, we’re not good. Our own dark side is only conquered by Christ’s power living in us. 

God doesn’t want us to “do better.” Instead, He wants to depend on His power to transform us. It begins with the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). At the moment of salvation or what the New Testament calls the new birth; God begins making us radically different. 

Consider two famous superheroes, Batman and Spider-Man. Batman is rich and a strong man with lots of cool gadgets. His superpowers though stem from his external possessions. Spider-Man has a few accessories too, but he’s a superhero only because of the spider powers he received when he was bitten by a genetically altered spider. His very nature has changed. Now he has a new power accessible to him, but it’s from the inside out.

Jesus Christ in us makes us more like Spider-Man than Batman. Something foreign to our sinful humanity has entered us and changed our very nature. We now have super spiritual resources we didn’t have before. 

Spider-Man became something more than human, while we instead are being restored to our full humanity. We’re becoming more like Jesus. 

But we’re not alone. We’re in a war against evil and need the assistance of others who’ve also been rescued. We unite together to sometimes rescue each other in this conflict, encourage each other and partner together to be part of Jesus’ rescue plan. We work together to rescue those captured by the Evil One by introducing them to the Savior who rescued us. 

A local church family then is God’s Justice League of transformed Christ-followers seeking to be more like Jesus. Christ’s superpower within us is best and first seen in a “family” setting, whether physical or spiritual. 

So, how are your superpowers? Are you letting Jesus live in you? Are you pulling back the mask of your true identity? Are you swinging into others’ lives, heroically helping them or seeking to rescue those imprisoned by our diabolical Enemy?