A Horse Named Justify—and How the Justified Always Win

He
first attracted attention with an impressive win in his first start on February
18, 2018, then followed up with two more victories, including the Grade I Santa Anita Derby. Justify then won
the 2018 Kentucky Derby,
the 2018 Preakness
Stakes, and the 2018 Belmont Stakes to
win the Triple Crown.

 

Justify is only the second horse
to win the Triple Crown with an undefeated record, following Seattle Slew. Justify is descended from
Seattle Slew and Secretariat,
who also won the Triple Crown. Of the 13 Triple Crown winners Justify is the
first who did not race as a two-year old.

I don’t follow
horse races, and only when the national media grants them attention do I pay
closer attention. Regardless of my interest, horse races inspire people, and they
can offer a morale boost to a public desperate for a sense of victory. The film Seabiscuit depicted the “against the odds” account of the eponymous horse and
its rider, both considered too small and slight to compete, let alone win. They
proved the critics wrong, and the unlikely pair became Triple Crown winners. They
provided an entertaining and engaging string of victories for a defeated,
down-on-their-luck public during the Great Depression.

From this
background, I looked closer at this incredible string of victories for the
newly-triumphant young racehorse named Justify. Justify is a descendent of some
Triple Crown winners, for example. NPR also reported that
he had not started racing until after his second year (he was
foaled in 2015), which usually means that he didn’t have a chance in the Kentucky
Derby. But he won that race and the other two with it. This horse’s rise from February
of this year to today is nothing short of incredible, especially because he hasn’t
lost a race yet.

How did this horse
have such grace and prowess to surge out so soon?

Perhaps his name
has something to do with it. How did Justify get such an interesting name? His
sire (father) was named Scat Daddy, and the dam (the mother) was Stage Magic. How
did the owners or the trainers get Justify from those names? I still haven’t
found the origins of his name, but there is something to that name which may give
us a better explanation for his meteoric, unexpected, and unprecedent rise to
victory.

Justify means “show
or prove to be right or reasonable.” There’s nothing necessarily wrong with a
horse coming from relative obscurity to unparalleled victory. It’s certainly
not reasonable, since it’s unexpected. Another definition of “justify” may help
explain: “to declare or make righteous in the sight of God.”

The second definition
is more telling. For Christians, we are justified by faith in Christ. We are
taken from death in our trespasses to life and honor, seated in heavenly places
with Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-6). Justification, or righteousness as the term
appears in the Bible, is an indispensable gift, one which every believer in
Christ Jesus receives, but one which not only takes the believer from death to
life, but also from losing in death to winning and reigning in life:

“For if by one man's offence death reigned by one;
much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of
righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:17)

Because of the gift of righteousness by faith, we
become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus (Romans 8:17). Our Heavenly
Father and His Son are champions, and we partake of their glory (1 Peter 4:13).

Because of the gift of righteousness, other
promises come true in our lives:

“In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou
shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it
shall not come near thee.” (Isaiah 54:14)

When we understand our righteous standing in Christ
Jesus, we don’t worry about the attacks and the setbacks in this life. We we
may have started out late in the fight or the race, and we may not have the odds
on our side.

But none of that matters:

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt
condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their
righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.” (Isaiah 54:17)

With righteousness comes a promise of glory!

“Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the
righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.” (Psalm 112:6)

In fact, because of God’s gift of righteousness ,
we receive a winning crown, too!

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy
4:8)

The race for the believer in Christ Jesus is not
about getting ahead of everyone else, because we have been made hyper-victors
in Him (Romans 8:37), but it’s about resting in His power and letting His grace
take from worst to first, from lost to found, from least to greatest (cf. Luke
15: 1-31).

Throughout God’s word, justification is tied with
victory of all kinds, and especially in cases where victory cannot be attained
or assured through our own efforts. With this mind, it comes as no surprise to
me that a horse named Justify would have such a sudden, unexpected series of victories—and
his wins serve as a reminder for how all of us can win, can reign in life
today.