World War II officially ended with the unconditional surrender of Japan. The documents were formalized on the deck of the USS Missouri on September 2^nd, 1945. After the end of the war, it took more than three years to bring home the 3.5 million Japanese soldiers, sailors and airmen who were stationed all around the world.

Interestingly though, there were some 3,600 HOLDOUTS who could not or would not surrender. Mostly these men hid in jungles on islands scattered around the Pacific. When the war ended, flyers and leaflets announcing the good news were dropped from the air, but those soldiers just ignored them.

The holdouts carried on guerilla campaigns, surviving by hunting, fishing and stealing livestock from local farmers. Hiroo Onoda, a 22-year-old second lieutenant was one of the holdouts. He and three fellow soldiers hid on the island of Lubang in the Philippines. Over the years, each of his companions died off leaving only Onoda to continue the fight.

The Japanese government sent envoys to encourage Onoda to come home, but he refused to surrender waiting on an official order from his senior officer. The authorities actually tracked down his commanding officer. They had him travel to the Philippines dressed in his old uniform and he ordered Onoda to come home. Thirty years after Japan surrendered, Onoda was officially relieved of his duties and finally returned to Japan.

Onoda’s story might seem crazy to us. Why would anyone keep fighting a war that has already been won? But that is exactly what many Christians do!

We seem to ignore the impact of what happened during Easter week. We often overlook the full effect of Christ’s substitutionary work. With His death and resurrection, the war was won. Through Him, we achieved our judicial victory over sin and death (See I Cor. 15).

We no longer need to fight for spiritual victory over the sin. Instead, we can live in the glorious victory that Christ has already secured for us.

“It is finished” is much more than one of the seven sayings of Christ on the cross. It is a monumental statement of fact. The war is over! He won it on our behalf. We now get to live out the realities of being one of God’s kids.

So, this week is a great time to come out of the proverbial spiritual jungle we might be hiding in. Stop the “ground war” with sin (you can’t win anyway!) and embrace the concept of redemption. Think through Passion Week. Read and reread the gospel accounts of what Jesus went through for us. And take to heart His statement that the payment was made in full- it is indeed finished.

No reason to holdout!