Imagine the effort required to open up a barricaded door, to then enter a room that you were never intended to see, and finally, to fight a foe that is already dead. How foolish would it be to expend all that effort simply to struggle with a vanquished enemy? And to repeat this exercise over and over . . .
That small exercise in imagination is my feeble attempt to describe what the Bible says is our proclivity to battle something which God has already conquered. Listen to what this devotion in "None But The Hungry Heart" has to say about this subject: "The moment that you begin to fight with it (sin) —no matter how resolutely you may struggle against it—that moment is when you begin to experience sin as your master. For it is then that we forsake our true position, which is one of freedom from sin as a master."
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1)
Again, a quote from NBHH: "Let it be remembered we are to fight ‘the good fight of faith,’ which consists of resting in our position of freedom, not in obtaining that position. We are to fight not for it, but from it. He alone has obtained it. It is our Father’s free gift. Let us be fully abiding in the One who is Life, and sin when it acts, will find us dead to it." - E.H.
What is the proof of our victory from and over sin? Calvary and the Resurrection. What the Lord Jesus did there is what counts, and what He did becomes a growing force in the life of the Christ follower when it is seen, and rested in by faith. This is the starting point of our identity in Christ. Until we are ground in the foundational belief of the work on the Cross, we are doomed to repeat our battle that we experienced before their relationship with Jesus Christ. He has set us free! There is nothing but liberty for those who are His. But the opposite is also true, there is no liberty for those who do not belong to Him. The beginning of all spiritual growth is faith in that fact.
God is the first and only Cause. “For God so loved the world . . . " (John 3:16) is the first move in God's redemption journey for His creation. "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." (1 Pet. 5:10).
The scriptures are packed with reminders of God pursuing us in His desire to see all of us saved from the destruction of sin. But there is a condition in the action of God, there must be a real, authentic hunger and desire for Him. It is a fixed principle with the Lord that He does not move until we convey our desperate natures and surrender our selfish ambitions. "Come near to God and he will come near to you . . ." (James 4:8)
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them . . ." John 6:44)
Source: None But The Hungry Heart | None But The Hungry Heart |
