Much of what we see today in modern Christianity is a lot of different methods for dealing with the onslaught of your issues and life’s circumstances. Usually they are spotted by a number…like “7 ways to a happier marriage” or “15 things you can to do today to please God more” or “8 rules to riches and financial security”. Now what do all these things have in common? Here is a list of a few things…
Trusting in an outward action to produce an inward result
You doing to achieve a certain outcome
They all have to do with the body and soul (mind, will and emotions) of the person, but a person is primarily a spiritual being that has a soul and a body to express their God given spirit
If successful they breed pride “I did it”
If unsuccessful they breed shame, guilt, self-loathing and condemnation “I failed again”
They give glory to the successful person
They give shame, ridicule and sends a person into hiding or bluffing if they are unsuccessful
It is all about what you have to do NOT what has been done (wage vs. gift, law vs. grace)
Is this the way of Christ? Or has the worlds system, the western way of life and ultimately the lie of the evil (2Cor 4:4) one so corrupted our view of God and His ways that we can scarcely see the difference any longer. In the list above there is a common thread: they all put the emphasis on man instead of Christ. Sure they use methods or procedures that are based on the Bible but is the Bible a means to an end? By this I mean is the Bible itself a guidebook to lead us to happier times, richer bank accounts and fulfilled marriages or as some have coined it the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth? The answer may surprise you but it is NOT.
The Bible is the Word of God and John tells us that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14)…so the Bible means to an end is God Incarnate, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Not a better way, not 6 steps to this or that, but the bible has been given to us so that we may find all we need in a Person and in that Person we find our very existence. The Jews of Jesus time made the same mistake (John 5:39) that many of us make in Christian circles today, we are trying to find a way instead of trusting the Way, we are trying to find answers for life instead of trusting in the Life, we are trying to find truth and purpose instead of simply trusting in the Truth (John 14:6).
Answers to ALL the problems, dilemmas, circumstances and trials are always found within God Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ. Many of us try to deal with our fleshly symptoms (Gal 5:19-21), like lust or anger, by trying to control it. Then we come to find out that it cannot be controlled and instead is controlling us, even when we try to suppress the outward actions the inward sin gives it away. At times it feels like we are trying to hold 20 tennis balls under the water only to find that when one gets away from us the other 19 pop up almost uncontrollably. Why is this? Because the flesh can never stop the flesh, these symptoms are meant to point us to the only One that can.
The beauty of the cross is the finished work of Christ. Right now Jesus sits at perfect rest at the right hand of the Father (Eph 1:19-21). Enjoying all that a pure and perfect relationship can bring…perfect peace, perfect joy, perfect love and more within the trinity family. So what does that have to do with me?
At the cross we have been reconciled to God Himself in Christ Jesus (2Cor 5:18-21). This is a fact. Just as Jesus cried out His last word “Tetelestai” which means “It Is Finished” (John 19:30). He promised to bring “Separation to victory” (Mat 12:20) and He did all that He set out to do. We are no longer separated from God, in fact, the first thing that happened is that the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies was torn in two (Mat 27:51)…from the top to the bottom (not by man but by God Himself).
At the cross Jesus took all of your old nature, all of your perverted personality and put it to death (2Cor 5:14, Gal 2:20, Rom 6:3-6). This is a fact. Not only did He do that He also made you brand new and has seated you with Him in the heavenly realm (Eph 2:4-7) at perfect peace with His father. Victory is a past tense event with a present tense reality. Your Adamic nature was so utterly out of control that it perverted all of your personality and the only thing that could stop it from acting the way it does is death itself.
But Christ wasn’t left in the grave (1Cor 15:17), He was resurrected to new life and so have we been. Now instead of being separated from God we have now been brought into union with Him (1Cor 6:17)…this is the victory. And now that we know this we are to trust this reality as our own, we must consider ourselves dead to sin (separation from God) and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:11). The old nature comes back to haunt you in the forms of patterns that it has created to cope with living independent of God, the Bible calls this “The Flesh”. Yet we are never told to do anything but consider that dead (Col 3:3) and instead place our focus on putting on our new nature (Eph 4:24) and being alive to God in Christ.
When you finally get to the end of all you can do (Gal 2:19, Col 2:23) to obtain victory in the Christian life you will find Victory Himself waiting for you to give you the rest that He promises (Mat 11:28-30). Until we come to the point of realization that there is nothing that we can do to combat the flesh and that it must be Him and Him alone that gives us the victory (1Cor 15:57) we will keep waging a losing battle. Why? Because we are living in unbelief (much of which is propagated within church walls) instead of the reality that we are new, even if we don’t think we are or feel that we are, that doesn’t change the fact that “it is finished” and we have been made new creations in Him (2Cor 5:17)
Now when we finally start receiving the victory over these long standing flesh patterns all glory goes to Jesus Himself (1Cor 1:31). For it is nothing special that you can do but simply receive what has been done to you and for you. Pride seeps in when the flesh believes that it can control itself, which then gives way to another fall. But humility comes by openly receiving all that our God is willing to give for it is Him who said “It is better to give then to receive” (Acts 20:35).
He is the perfect standard for goodness and out of His very character He gives to each of us all we will ever need and all we will ever need is found in One Person. So stop “trying” to buck up and do better and instead start trusting in what He says about you…that you are more then a conqueror through Him who dearly loves you (Rom 8:37).
by Dave Geisler