The Christian Faith is one that bears
one ultimate target for every true believer; that is the attainment of the
fullness of the nature and personality of Christ Jesus who is the Author and
Role Model of the Faith… This is the heart cry and deepest desire of every true
believer; to be able to live and do like Christ while on the earth and to carry
out His assignment to the latter…
But the believer being flesh and
blood, and yet living in this world, will often be faced with a battle between
the lustful desires of his natural body/flesh, and the Christ-like desires of
his renewed/born-again spirit… As the Word says in Gal. 5:17 (NLT) “The old
sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy
Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful
nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your
choices are never free from this conflict.”…
This daily unavoidable war of
flesh and spirit faced by the believer causes him to be left with a choice of
doing that which the Spirit desires which is pleasing to God, or to do that
which his flesh desires which is an act of selfishness leading to sin against
God… Many end up trying by all means to avoid falling for the temptations of
the flesh only to discover they keep falling again and again as they keep
trying… Some end up giving up on the Christian life-style seeing it an
impossible task and resolving that the Christ-like life is unattainable; while
others keep on trying and keep on failing and also keep on asking forgiveness
from God for the same sin over and over again…
One thing is certain: man in his
natural state cannot live pleasing to God and any self-motivated effort to do that
only ends up futile; and the desires of the flesh cannot be overcome by trying
or fighting it, but rather by taking a conscious decision to choose the desires
of the Spirit, which then enables the release of divine ability/help from the
Holy Spirit to overcome the temptation… As the Word says in Gal 5:16 (NLT) “So
I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you
won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.”…
It is however important to note
that a good understanding of the work done by Christ on the cross by His death
is the way to true freedom and victory over the flesh and its desires… Many
acknowledge that Christ took upon Himself their sins and died in their place,
but not so many recognize that at the point of being born again (receiving
Christ as Lord and Saviour) and being baptized (in water and Spirit), they (their
old sinful body/nature/flesh) also died with Christ on that cross… Many believe
that the death and blood of Christ took care of their redemption/justification
(restoration to fellowship with God), but not so many reckon that Christ’s work
on the cross also took care of their sanctification (the death of the old
sinful nature crucified with Christ and the ability to live a life pleasing to
God by the new life and Spirit of Christ imparted to them at New Birth)… Many
failures in one’s Christian walk are rooted on one’s ignorance of this truth,
which the Enemy always takes advantage of…
As the Apostle Paul explained in
Romans Chapters 6-8; the Christian walk is a walk of faith in Christ Jesus and
His work for us on the cross… He stated that the relationship between the
natural unsaved man and his inherited sin nature which causes him to commit
sins, could be likened to that of a Master and a Slave; the man is a slave
bound to serve his sin nature his master, even against his own will, as it an
inherent relationship which cannot be easily broken… The man (the slave) may
not want to obey the desires of his sin nature (his master) most times but he
discovers that the task master is often too powerful for him to disobey and he
can’t but fall each time he calls… Though his acts of sin doesn’t make him a
sinner, but his nature of sin makes him one; just as the saved believer may
also fall into acts of sin but is not called a sinner because he does not have
the sin nature in his renewed spirit but rather the nature of God, and has only
been a victim of the weakness of his natural flesh/body and is also quickly
convicted by the Spirit; he confesses his failure thereby restoring his
fellowship broken by the sin act without losing his relationship with God…
The only way to freedom for the
enslaved man from his master (his sin nature) is either by the death of the
master, so he could go to a new master, or by the death of himself, so his
master would have no authority over him anymore, as he cannot have two masters
at a time… But then, it turns out that his master (his sin nature) cannot be
killed and remains alive as long as he lives… But he has one other
option; which is to die himself so as to be free from his master; so taking the
way of death, he will finally find liberty from his cruel master who always
forces him to do things against his own will…
This is a picture of the work
which Christ did for us; He was crucified and died on the cross, bearing not
just our sins but also bearing us (our old sinful nature/self) which had been
our master and which caused us to always fulfill the lustful desires of our
bodies; and in His resurrection, we are also resurrected with Him as we died
with Him, and therefore we are no longer slaves to that old master (sin) but
now having a new Master (Jesus Christ) who does not force us to do His will,
but rather gives us the ability by His Spirit in us to live according to the
desires pleasing to God… The old life is disconnected from the old master (sin)
as it is terminated by death on the cross, and the new life connected to a new
master (the Lord Jesus) begins by the resurrection from the dead… Reckoning
one’s self as dead to the old sin master, even though one still lives in a
physical body with fleshly desires; and letting the desires of the new life
powered by the indwelling Spirit of Christ gain ascendency and priority over
the desires of the old life powered by the already crucified/dead sin nature,
is a sure way of victory in that continuous war of flesh and spirit in the
believer’s walk of holiness before God; bearing in mind that un-willful acts of
sin confessed would always find forgiveness with God because of the shed blood
of Christ which paid once and for all for all sins…
The Apostle Paul also likened the
relationship between the sinner (the unsaved man) and the Law as given by God to
Moses, as that of a Husband and a Wife… The wife (unsaved man) is married to a
husband (the Law), but the husband makes demands of the wife which she could
never be able to meet no matter how hard she tried, she was never able to
satisfy the desires of her husband; therefore she desires freedom from her
husband’s oppressive rule… But then again, she (the man) has few options:
either she seeks a divorce, kills her husband or she kills herself; so as to be
free to marry another husband, as she cannot have two husbands by law; but it
turns out it is impossible to divorce or kill her husband (the unchangeable Laws
of God); so in a desperate need of freedom, she must kill herself, so that her
husband would have no rule over her any longer as long as she is dead to him
now; and she decides to take the option, then she finds rest…
The above also is a picture of our
old life (the wife) which strives by all means to obey the Law (the husband)
but never succeeding… We discover that the death of Christ on the cross with
both the sins of the believer and the believer himself in Him, also marked the
death of the old life which was bound to keeping all the Law given by God with
little or no hope of succeeding, and the beginning of a new life having Christ
Jesus as the new Husband who does not just make strict demands on us but He Himself
fulfills in us the same demands He makes of us, so that the wife (man) would
simply trust and depend on her new husband (Christ in him in the person of the
Holy Spirit) to help him fulfill the demands without struggles… This is what is
referred to as the grace of God made available to the believer through the Holy
Spirit in him, which enables him to do that which he would not have been able
to do naturally: living a sin-free life without many shortcomings, which
pleases God…
Therefore, also reckoning one’s self as dead (by one’s crucifixion
with Christ on the cross) to the old husband (the Law) with an old life powered
by self-efforts to keep all the laws, and now married to a new husband (Christ
Jesus) with a new life (by one’s
resurrection with Christ), powered by the free grace of God given through
the Holy Spirit the believer’s indwelling helper; one ceases from personal
labour/work to please God, but rather depending on God’s Spirit to fulfill
God’s demands… As the Word says: “For God is working in you, giving you the
desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.” Philp. 2:13 (NLT) “For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by
works, so that no one can boast.” Eph 2:8-9 (NIV)...
By faith, dead and divorced to the old; yet alive and married to the
new... That is the victory secret of the
Christian life!
Nice Day Friends!
#GodIsStillInCharge
#ItsAllAboutJesus
www.sycaminternational.org
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