It was in 1957 that University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman met a middle distance runner named Phil Knight. After graduating with an MBA from Stamford, Knight began importing athletic shoes from Japan, selling them out of the trunk of his car. His first shipment of 200 pairs arrived in 1963. The next year Bowerman and Knight each contributed $500 and formed a partnership in what would become Nike Inc., named after the Greek goddess of victory. They paid an art student $35 for the famous swoosh design that became their logo. It was Bowerman’s experiments with “rubber spikes” that changed the athletic shoe industry and the design of running shoes. He did this by pouring rubber into his wife’s waffle iron! The corporation is now valued in the billions and is famous for its “Just Do It” slogan.
In fact nike (actually pronounced nee’-kay) is a Bible word. Its cognates nikao and nikos are variously translated conquer, overcome, prevail, and get the victory.
In Matthew 12:19-20, we have a wonderful promise from Isaiah’s first Servant Song (ch. 42) applied to our Lord. Interestingly, rather than Just Do It, it tells us seven things that the Lord Jesus will not do: “He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory (nikos).”
And how would this victory be won? O the glorious triumph of our Lord’s total defeat of our enemy! It is so thrilling that Paul uses the word not once but three times in quick succession: “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory (nikos). O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory (nikos)?…But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory (nikos) through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:54-55, 57).
John does him one better, using the word four time in two verses. Again the victory spoken about is ours, but as Paul states, ours through Christ. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh (nikao) the world: and this is the victory (nike) that overcometh (nikao) the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh (nikao) the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 Jn. 5:4-5). Again Phil Knight’s Just Do It slogan falls short of the secret of true victory. It is not in the doing of personal effort but in the believing, placing our undivided loyalty in Jesus as the Son of God, that brings us into victory.
John takes us in the Revelation on a tour of things to come. In heaven he sees the true victors from the darkest chapter in the history of Planet Earth. They are not the successes featured in Nike ads. There is no mention of their footwear. But we are told where they stand. Having been through the fire and the water, John writes of them: “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory (nikao)…” (Rev. 15:2). They, like the saints from other ages have discovered that the secret of true victory is found by making safe passage with the Victor Himself. He who passed through the billows of wrath at Calvary, who gave Himself as the ultimate Burnt Offering, has promised those who follow Him, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee” (Isa. 43:2). This is victory indeed!