2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
The one thing that I haven’t done yet in this segment of our series is to address the meaning of the title of it, “Satan, The Accuser.” We need to be reminded that God has commanded us not to bear false witness in EX 20: 16. Truth is held dear by our Lord and should be by us as well. HE 4; 12, “The word of God is alive and active, sharper than any doubled-edged sword. It cuts all the way through, to where soul and spirit meet, to where joints and marrow come together. It judges the desires and thoughts of a man’s heart.” This verse gets right to the heart of a force which Satan hates. He hates the truth and uses is lying accusations as a weapon to cause us pain. In the heavenly court of the last judgment, we all know that some will be condemned and that others will be given eternal life. When we have abiding faith and are obedient to God’s commands despite Satan’s temptations and arrows leveled at us, we see the truth in RO 8: 1, “There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.” Simple, straight to the point, and a wonderful blessing! Those who are condemned are the fools who have given in to Satan’s lies, believed his deceptions, and were afraid of his accusations. Their fate, spiritual death in the lake of fire, is much different than that of enduring believers.
A lot has been said about grace (unmerited favor), mercy, and peace in the Scriptures. Today, God leads me to begin discussing some of these verses which allow us to have a deeper understanding of the love He has for those who love Him. It will make the truth of RO 8: 28 come even more alive than ever before in our minds. “We know that in all things God works for good with those who love Him, those whom He has called according to His purpose.” Kay Arthur has written extensively on the subject of spiritual warfare. In her book on that subject, she gives a wonderful acronym which helps us to gain a deeper understanding of God’s grace. G = God’s; R = Riches; A =At; C = Christ’s; E = Expense. God’s riches at Christ’s expense. We recently saw a production at New Life Church in Woodbury, MN called “Crown Him.” It is the story of Christ’s passion from the time during his public ministry when he was healing so many people and doing miracles through his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. This production was beautifully done and really gave us a graphic experience of the suffering that our Lord went through to take on the sins of the world. What a great act of unselfishness on both God’s part in sacrificing His only Son and Christ’s part in enduring such humiliation and suffering so that people who were his enemies could have the opportunity to be saved. I often cite RO 3: 24-25 which describes Christ as the propitiation for man’s sins (a perfect, acceptable substitute for us) as a free gift of the grace of God. Christ’s great sacrifice on the cross also consummates the prophecy of IS 53: 6, “All of us were like sheep gone astray, each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on Him all of us deserved.”
RO 8: 31-32 sheds further light on the truth that Satan hates. “In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us? Certainly not God, Who did not even hold back His own Son, but offered Him for us all! He gave us His Son-will he not freely give us all things?” That latter question really makes sense. If the Father loves us enough to sacrifice His own Son then surely He will keep His promise to see to all our other needs. EPH 2: 4-5, shows us even more about the extent of the grace that God gives us. “But God’s mercy is so abundant and His love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience, He brought us to life in Christ. It is by God‘s grace that you have been saved.” Even the faith we have to believe is a gift of grace. No effort on our own part could do that. The good deeds that God has prepared us to do [EPH 2: 8-9] are a natural outgrowth of the salvation and justification that have already taken place, but they are not what brings salvation. Only the free gift of God’s grace does that. There is no way a man can buy his way into eternal life by paying money or doing deeds (what we Jews call “mitzveh’s”). It is only because God’s righteousness is imputed to us once we are saved that we will live our lives doing good deeds.
We must remember that Satan, the Accuser, likes to remind us of our sins. He causes us to be tempted to hold grudges, refuse to reconcile differences with another person, tells us lies about ourselves to make us feel unworthy. He likes for us to feel ill, miserable, worthless, unloved, unprotected, guilty, and helpless. When we refuse to give into Satan’s efforts to mess up our minds and destroy our faith in God, we know that we go into the court of the last judgment with Christ as our Advocate and be judged with grace as “innocent” despite Satan’s will that we should be judged “guilty.” It was no accident that Paul normally closed his epistles with his wish that the community of believers would have grace and peace. He wanted them, and us, to remember the most excellent and extraordinary grace that God has made available to us. When we do remember that, Satan loses. I have picked up on that, which is why I end my messages the way I do. We are the children of an awesome and gracious God Who adores us. He deserves our adoration in return.
PRAYER: O Lord, You know that Satan levels his horrific lies and accusations toward us and wants us to understand that Your power is greater than his. There are people who have heard Satan using a relative to tell them they are worthless and their lives don’t matter. Satan want us to believe that he is more powerful than You and that he can provide better for us. These are lies, and You have proved that over and over again throughout mankind’s history. To You, every life is important, and Your will is to bring as many people to salvation through repentance and faith in Christ as possible. It never hurts for us to be reminded of the magnificence of Your grace. We acknowledge, praise, and thank You for the grace You have extended to us. We recognize it’s great value to our lives and You are superior over Satan, the deceiver. Even those of us with disabilities, who hold jobs for which society offers no prestige, who aren’t pretty in the Madison Ave. definition of that, who are the “least” as Christ puts it in MT 25: 40, are held precious by You. You see each believer as You see Your Son-as one to be loved, cherished, and given honor by some assignment to join You in Your work. PS 2: 10-11 contains wisdom for each of us. “Now list to this warning, you kings; learn this lesson, you rulers of the world: Serve the Lord with fear [reverence]; tremble and bow down to Him; or else His anger will be quickly aroused, and you will suddenly die. Happy are all who go to Him for protection.” When put together with what we learn in PS 47: 8-9, we can know why Satan can never hold dominion over the earth forever. “God sits on His sacred throne; He rules over the nations. The rulers of nations assemble with the people of the God of Abraham. More powerful than all armies is He; He rules supreme.” We come to You in humility to confess our sins and to offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, honor, glory, trust, obedience, praise and thanksgiving. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, there is more to say about grace, mercy and peace. Our awesome Abba is on the job 24 hours a day, seven days a week to see to it that our every need is met. Because of that, we can face Satan at his game and win against him. We are on God’s side. As Christ stated, “God is in Me and I am in Him,” in JN 14:11, we can be assured that our own lives are hidden with Christ in God [COL 3: 3] when we endure in faith though our pain, suffering, and loss. It is comforting and refreshing to know that though His grace, God has allowed us to be on the winning team. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn