2004-07-30
Good Morning Dear Ones,
After reading through Paul’s illumination of the mechanism of the conflict between the flesh and the spirit that goes on within us in RO 7: 14-24, we are finally given the one and only solution to this kind of slavery in RO 7:24-25a, “What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death? Thanks be to God, Who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ!’” You’ll remember that last week, I had cited JN 8: 34-36 which is another confirmation of this great truth. “Jesus said to them, ‘I am telling you the truth: everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave does not belong to a family permanently, but a son belongs there forever. If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free.’” As if that is not enough, look at RO 6: 6, “And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on His cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin.”
I really wanted to understand how we could be made new in union with Christ, so I did some digging in the Scriptures to get the answer to that question. Just knowing that having faith in Him and repenting wasn’t quite enough for me. The connection between 2 COR 5: 17 and COL 3: 9-10 was like a gift to me from the Lord. “When anyone is joined to Christ, he is a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come…Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new creation which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in His own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself.” This connection is a major wow for me! When I taught one of the many Precepts courses, it contained vital information on the nature of justification, sanctification, and glorification. We were justified, i.e. deemed acceptable by God as Abraham was in GN 15: 6, when we came to faith and repented of our sin in the past. We will be glorified, i.e. given a resurrection body which is immortal and taken up to heaven with the Father, in the future. But, what about the present? What’s happening to us now? Sanctification, i.e. the process by which God gradually is perfecting us, is the answer to that question. COL 3: 10 gives us the description of what is going on in this process of sanctification-“renewing us in His own image in order to bring us to a full knowledge of Himself.” Inching along toward full spiritual maturity is another way of describing this process. As for renewing us in His own image, I see that as the often painful process of learning God’s lessons through having to work through tough circumstances in our lives. Deep within my soul, I believe that God is always in control of this process, just as He was when He told the devil he could do anything he wanted to Job except to kill him in JOB 1: 12. He knows exactly how much trouble He will allow the devil to bring our way-just enough so that we have to work hard and be strengthened in the process of dealing with it. Our God has no evil in Him, so we can trust that He won’t allow so much trouble that our spirits are broken by it. The story of Job is a great example of this.
What makes us a slave to sin? This happens when we allow Satan to have dominion over us. Because of our faith in Christ and in the full impact of His Atonement, we have been given the ability to choose whether or not Satan will have dominion over us. Before coming to faith, we had no choice. One thing that upsets me terribly is to think of all these young people who grow up without any exposure to true faith in their lives. Satan is given full control, and this serpent of evil runs with it. 1 PET 5: 8, “Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy, the devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” Young people commit acts of disrespect, violence, destruction, and other evil with no redeeming conscience to offset this behavior. What mankind can do when God is not a part of their lives is nothing short of frightening! When a believer sins, what he calls his conscience and is really the Holy Spirit, reminds him that he has done something terribly wrong. If the person is a true believer, he will stop the wrongful behavior and atone for it immediately. It is more likely that he won’t choose to engage in that behavior in the first place. That is because all true believers recognize that we have been called to living holy, sanctified lives in both the OT and the NT [LV 11: 44-45; LV 19: 2; 1 PET 1: 16]. That call doesn’t come across as nonsense to him, because he understands, through the Holy Spirit, matters of the Spirit [1 COR 2: 14-16].
In looking back over my own life, I can now state that the first part of it was a pretty sorry mess. I’ve mentioned several times that I fell into the wrong crowd and was headed for trouble with the police in my middle school years. From before that time, I was a hard kid to raise, because I had an attitude of disrespect for the authority figures around me, arrogance which now disgusts me to think about, and had become a very “clever” liar to get myself out of jams. By no means am I perfected now, but at least I have pangs of conscience about my past misdeeds. My parents had no idea what future God had mapped out for me, but they figured that my mind wasn’t being sufficiently challenged. That’s why they sent me to an all academic high school from which students could be sent back into an ordinary high school if they didn’t meet the tough standards required. That helped but it didn’t solve the problem of my attitude. Only maturing and coming to Jesus Christ could do that. I share this story, because I know true faith in Jesus Christ can pull every one of us out of whatever snare the devil has set for us.
PRAYER: O Lord, You are our Creator with power we can’t even comprehend. In this prayer, You bring me to repeat the message You gave David so long ago in PS 8: 1-6a, 9, “O Lord, our Lord, Your greatness is seen in all the world! Your praise reaches up to the heavens; it is sung by children and babies. You are safe and secure from all Your enemies; You stop anyone who opposes you. When I look at the sky, which You have made, at the moon and the stars which You set in their places-what is man, that You think of him; mere man, that You care for him? Yet You made him inferior only to Yourself; You crowned him with glory and honor. You appointed him ruler over everything You made; You place him over all creation…O Lord, our Lord, Your greatness is seen in all the world!” When Satan took dominion of the earth from You, Dearest Abba, You knew it would happen. Mankind has disappointed You with their sin. And yet, You continue to love us and to have compassion for us-so much so, that You sacrificed Your only begotten Son on the cross, opening the way to salvation for us. We are Your undeserving creation, whom You continue to love and gift with life-saving faith. We are indeed poor in spirit, but You promise us in MT 5: 3 that with enduring faith, we will inherit Your Kingdom. We can’t do this without You! Today, we stand before Your mighty throne boldly and with the confidence You told us we can have in EPH 3: 12 to offer You heartfelt thanks for the gift of the Holy Spirit You have given us. We dedicate ourselves to not wasting that gift. To that end, we purposely open our spirits to allow the Holy Spirit to join with them and take leadership in our lives. Thank You for giving us Your Son, Jesus Christ, Who pulls us out of the morass of slavery to sin. Thank You, Dear Father, for giving us Your perspective, the new perspective, on the circumstances and people in our lives. We love You, Lord. In Christ’s name, amen.
Next week, I am led to take a closer look at RO 6: 1-7, which will allow us to examine important relationships that shed light on the process of sanctification. This will hopefully give us insight into God’s perspective on our lives that we didn’t have before. I have often said that I think the Bible is God’s “love letter” to mankind. Of course there are stories that teach us lessons He wants us to know in it which show negative consequences to making wrong choices. If God didn’t love us unconditionally the way He does, He wouldn’t have taken the time to show us how to make wise choices. That’s what any good parent will do for his children. God knows that our circumstances sometimes bring us pain, suffering, loss, and disappointments, but He offers us the kind of encouragement in the Scriptures that we can’t find from any other source. God always tells us the truth, and that is how we know that His encouragement is not empty and without meaning. God’s plan for us, as outlined in the Scriptures, is why IS 25: 1, 4 is such a treasure. “Lord, You are my God; I will honor Your name. You have done amazing things; You have faithfully carried out the plans You made long ago…The poor and the helpless have fled to You and have been safe in times of trouble.” Each of us can nestle in God’s loving arms, knowing that He gives us the ability to endure in our faith and overcome any test Satan sends our way [1 COR 10: 13]. We are truly a blessed people when we hang on to our faith, trusting and obeying our Creator.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn