Life in Christ
All of us carry around a mental
picture of ourselves, our condition, our standing with God, our future. We know
that the devil’s strategy to derail God’s work in us and through us in the
world is accusation (Rev.12:10). In other words, on the past and on what we have
done or not done to displease God. This goes hand-in-glove with promoting a distorted
image of God as one perpetually wearing a scowl, clutching a moral scorecard
for each of us, scanning them relentlessly do so not to miss a single misstep
we make so he can unleash his vengeful judgment on us in full strength.
This lie about
God feeds the lie that we must focus on our past and vice versa. A downcast
spirit and a waste of time are the products of these lies. And the devil’s hope
to undo us and God’s work. After Christ’s cross and resurrection lies and illusions
are the devil’s only weapons. He can only distort and mislead in a parasitic
way on the truth of God established in and by Jesus Christ. A spirit burdened
by a past foisted on us anew by satanic lies can only paralyze us from genuine
growth in grace and divine purposes.
A true grasp
of the truth of Jesus’ love and forgiveness banishes all spiritual depression
and enables f0orward progress in knowing and loving God and participating in
his work in the world. It does this by helping us reimagine our lives in a
future tense, the kind of person we can and by divine grace will be rather than
the past. It reveals God to be One wearing not a scowl but a smile of welcome and
paternal tenderness. In light of this revelation alone can we see how
disappointing and painful it is to this, the true God, when we allow ourselves
to entertain and fall prey to satanic falsehoods. 2 Peter 1:3-9 lays this out
with devastating clarity.
3 His divine power
has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of
him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Thus
he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so
that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world
because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. 5 For
this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with
goodness, and goodness with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and
self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, 7 and
godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with
love. 8 For if these things are yours and are
increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For anyone who lacks these things is
short-sighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins.
Did you get
that? God has given us EVERYTHING we need to live for God, even sharing his
life. Thus we can and must add goodness to our faith, knowledge to our
goodness, self-control to our knowledge, endurance to our self-control,
godliness to our endurance, mutual affection to our godliness, and love to our
mutual affection. The increase of such things increases effectiveness and
fruitfulness in living for God.
BUT . . .
should such be missing in our lives, we prove ourselves poor-sighted, even
blind, unable to see beyond ourselves and our pasts. That is, prey to the devil’s
deceptions, having forgotten that God has forgiven us our sins and given us a
new life driven by the identity and future we share in Jesus Christ.
Can it really
be that simple? Yes, it can and it is. Only our enemy tries to make us believe it
can’t.
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