March 11, 2023
You remember in our last chapter, we talked about what faith looks like when it comes to clinging to the Rock or finding ourselves on sand in a hurricane. The only place joy can survive in a hurricane is inside a hurricane-proofed building on a solid-rock foundation. In this post, I wish to delve further into what that rock-solid foundation looks like in our practical Christian life. We will go into more than just the following affirmation, which is indeed our foundation and storm-proof building: I believe the Bible is God’s true Word, that I need to believe it, and that the gospel of Jesus’ redemption of all who trust in Him is true.
The question is, what does Jesus’ redemption of me (you plug in your name) practically mean now? How does that work itself out in the middle of my storm?
I suspect that a lot of the Christian church has missed the all-or-nothing reality of our redemption. God’s Word tells us, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12). This is past tense, folks, so how in the world are we still feeling ongoing sin rising up within us on a very regular basis everyday–whether it be temptation to actually commit something grossly unfaithful, like taking a porn dip, or “just” snapping unkindly at our children or husband or whoever is near us at the moment because our inside is a turbulent storm. We know that storm is out of our control. No matter how much we preach to ourselves over God’s faithfulness, we know that only one thing is going to change that storm–God Himself. His peace passes all understanding. If we have any experience in the Christian life, we realize that it’s Him flipping a heart switch that makes all the difference. So if He has already banished our sins from us as far as the east is from the west, then isn’t the fact we’re still fighting these sinful storms a contradiction??
Uh, oh, don’t go there, you say. Contradiction. That means, something’s wrong with this picture. Either, God’s Word is actually not the absolute truth we have been trying to build on or I’m not actually saved. Right? Pretty black and white it seems. That means, I’ve been self-deceived all this time. That means I’ve been trying to do this Christian thing by my own carnal strength. That means, what I think I know of God is all a lie. That means……oh no, this is a bottomless pit!
Well, isn’t that just where the devil wants us. Bottomless pit means no hope. Bottomless pit means no foundation. Bottomless pit means that he just blew all that rock out from under our house with an a-bomb of circumstantial evidence. Yes, circumstantial evidence.
Let’s just stop to consider where the sin I’m fighting is coming from, because the answer to that is everything in getting ourselves safely back into that hopeful place built on the rock truth of Scripture, not circumstantial evidence. Well, the Apostle Paul makes that pretty clear actually. “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. 20And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it” (Rom 7:18-20). So here, we have two parties. We have “I” (which is me personally, my spirit, that God has fully regenerated and cleansed) and we have “the flesh” that has set up residency inside of “I.” So let’s ponder a scenario. We are forced housemates with someone who we consider an enemy, who we call Mr. Flesh; perhaps a prison cell mate is a better picture, because we have no choice as to who we are living with. We put up with Mr. Flesh but avoid, with all our might, spending time with him or even talking to him. If we can keep him on one end of the house (or cell), we’ll be very happy. He does everything against all our moral standards; they are the opposite of what we would want to be associated with. He hates what we love; even more significantly, He hates the One we love–Jesus. Yet, this enemy doesn’t share our desire to go separate ways. Mr. Flesh is obnoxious, always trying to get in our hair, taunting us with music we loathe, always asking us to join him for a meal, bringing up past pain that we’re trying heal from, tempting us to sin, taunting us with suggestions that Jesus isn’t actually good, and on and on. Now then, would we beat ourselves up for being an awful person because we just listened, for example, to heavy metal trash that is now going through our heads because that housemate refused to take it to another room? Of course not! We know it’s his fault, not ours! And yet, this is the exact scenario we find ourselves in day in and day out every moment that the Holy Spirit doesn’t actually banish Mr. Flesh from entering our space. A lot of the time, the Spirit allows him access. But why?
Before we get to the why, we have hopefully established a critically important foundation to our joy–that our redemption is all or nothing. “I” am either fully redeemed and fully chosen by God to receive from Him the status of sonship and good from His hand, or “I” am not at all redeemed and am presently under His wrath and condemnation and the object of all His loathing. There is no in between! So it is paramount to establish and be certain of which category we are in, because the purpose of our suffering is thereby understood. Are we enemies with Mr. Flesh or friends?
In light of our Mr. Flesh story, we know that the sin that keeps trying to surface is not evidence that we are not redeemed. On the contrary, the fact that we are bothered by–and more intensely–hate that sin is proof that we are in fact redeemed. It is evidence that we are in fact enemies of Mr. Flesh. If we didn’t hate that sin or didn’t have any concern about its presence, then we should have reason to be deeply concerned over whether the “I” has been truly cleansed.
Jeremiah 24:3-7: “‘Jeremiah,’ the LORD asked, ‘what do you see?’
‘Figs!’ I replied. ‘The good figs are very good, but the bad figs are very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten.’
4Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5’This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6I will keep My eyes on them for good and will return them to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. 7I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD. They will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with all their heart.”’”
On the flip side of this, the passage continues to show what happens to the “bad figs” by saying (v 9): “I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.”
Mr. Flesh and all his friends are a ticking time bomb. However, God has ordained for His people to overcome and prosper!
2 Peter 1:3-11: “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4Through these He has given us His precious and magnificent promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10Therefore, brothers, strive to make your calling and election sure. For if you practice these things you will never stumble, 11and you will receive a lavish reception into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
We come back to the question now—why do we even have to co-exist with Mr. Flesh? Why do we have enemies at all? Why did the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection not completely transform the landscape of the world instantly? Why the battle?
We’re going to get to that in our next post, so stay tuned!
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