“When obedience is in the ascendant, He will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist you with all His Almighty power.”
— Oswald Chambers
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
–1 Corinthians 15:56-58
Beloved, there is a great lie being foisted upon the Church today. It says something like: “Oh yes, we can talk about the victorious Christian life, but surely it’s just an idea… Theology gone wild, you know… Just look at life. I mean all of us struggle. We are just going to have to wait for heaven to be freed from all this mess in our lives… Romans 7:24 you know, it just tells us how wretched we are…”
- O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Please stop.
Romans 7 doesn’t prove the life of a victorious Christian false. Rather, it proves it true. Defeat in our lives gives the strongest evidence that the entirety of the Gospel is true. All the way through the whole New Testament runs a bedrock theme: THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS IMPOSSIBLE.
What?
Yeah, if you try to be a good Christian on your own, Satan is going to eat your lunch and pop the bag just for fun. Further, you might as well have some jam in your pockets, ’cause your gonna be toast.
It does not matter how sincere you are. You can just love G_d like crazy and try really hard to follow all of His perfect and wonderful principles for living… and you will fail.
Romans 7 actually even points out that those who are living in victory can get sidetracked so very easily. We live in and amongst our flesh and our brains. We can’t get away from them. They are a law at work within us. It takes a miracle for anyone to not fall almost immediately into lust, thievery, division, gluttony, drunkeness, etc. It’s a war.
BUT G_d!!!!!
Oh, do i love that phrase. G_d is in the business of the impossible. He is really good at being Who He Is. Read the rest of the verse and the next in the dreaded Romans 7.
- Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Oh, and then Paul, inspired by the Spirit about Whom he speaks, hits it out of the park with the rest of Romans… and oh by the way, ALL of his other epistles. Read ’em yourself. i triple-dog dare you :-).
In Christ. By the power of His Spirit living within us, we do not sin. There, this silly blogger said it.
He said it because the Bible says it
- There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2
Seriously friend. Start reading it all for yourself. This will be no sort of “cherry-picking” exercise. It will quickly become apparent that man is designed to live with the very Spirit of G_d living in and through him. When we OBEY this law, something wonderful happens. We become His ambassadors. We say what He says, and do what He would have us do. Under the weight of His glory, we take on the behavior of heaven.
And to try any other approach to life – no matter how well intentioned – will simply yield a desperate, defeated, foul, and ugly death.
So, the next time we are tempted to keep holding onto that sin under the guise that we could never get rid of it anyway – plus its not that big of a deal – and we all have a need once in a while, and-and-and… Concede to the truth that there is NO WAY we can do it. And that we are wretched hot juicy messes. And nothing else.
Then, however, submit to the whole-truth and bring to bear that G_d is more than able to bring about a fear-free life of abundant joy and lots of other stuff, if we would but obey Him by allowing His Holy Spirit to dwell in, inform, empower and bring victory to our lives. Further, that the good news of the Bible is an infinite proposition. Absolute surrender to the Author and His truth yields a life of total victory.
Hard? Impossible. But G_d!
“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
— John 15:9-15
Victory in Jesus was written by Eugene Monroe Bartlett Senior.
I heard an old, old story,
How a Savior came from glory,
How He gave His life on Calvary
To save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning,
Then I repented of my sins;
And won the victory.
Refrain:
O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him,
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood
I heard about His healing,
Of His cleansing power revealing.
How He made the lame to walk again
And caused the blind to see;
And then I cried, “Dear Jesus,
Come and heal my broken spirit,”
And somehow Jesus came and brought
To me the victory.
Thanks to Andrew Wommack for the inspiration on our lunches being stolen.
