He who will fight the devil with his own weapons must not wonder if he finds him an overmatch.
~Robert South (1634-1716)
But, seeing that we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him; because we know that Christ, having come back to life, is no longer liable to die. Death has no longer any power over Him. For by the death which He died He became, once for all, dead in relation to sin; but by the life which He now lives He is alive in relation to God. In the same way you also must regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in Christ Jesus. Let not Sin therefore reign as king in your mortal bodies, causing you to be in subjection to their cravings; and no longer lend your faculties as unrighteous weapons for Sin to use. On the contrary surrender your very selves to God as living men who have risen from the dead, and surrender your several faculties to God, to be used as weapons to maintain the right. For Sin shall not be lord over you, since you are subjects not of Law, but of grace.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Romans 6
Oh beloved, it is true. There is a most-definite path to victory for the believer. We have been given everything for life and godliness. There is now, within us, the Source of the universe(s) which exist. We have been subsumed into our Creator, and this same Lamb – slain before the foundations of the earth – now lives out His Life within us and through us.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They are mighty for tearing down the strongholds of the enemy. In truth, nothing can stand against them. In the power of the Holy Spirit, Sacrificial Love, the proclamation of the Gospel, and intercessory prayer combine forces to decimate all opposition.
And so, the pouring out of our lives cannot be stopped.
The prayers of the righteous avail much.
The sharing of good news cannot be ignored.
But there is an enormous problem for the believer. Everything around us is designed to appear as though a different weapon might be more useful in the battle. And so again, we often hold back the Love, our prayers, and speaking the gospel – trading them for other weapons.
We trade our prayers for complaining, thinking (incorrectly) that continuing to identify problems will help bring about their solution.
We exchange Love for pity, because somehow we think if we just feel sad for other people’s plight, we will somehow make a difference.
We give up sharing the gospel with words, and think that just doing nice things for others, or participating in politics will spread the good news.
But then it gets worse….
When the secondary approaches fail, instead of defaulting back to victory, we tend to go further of the path of Life. The soul pulls back from the flow of spirit, and begins to reattach to the fetid tendrils of our flesh.
Love fades to fear
Joy devolves into weakness
Peace breaks out in disagreement
Patience is replaced by politics
Kindness spoils to bitterness
Goodness missteps to bad choices
Faithfulness de-integrates in hypocrisy
Gentleness turns to defending our own rights
Self-control mutates into Self-indulgence
Sin. Yes beloved. Sin is the problem.
Sin is not necessarily the doing of bad things. No sin is defaulting back to myself to try and get the job done. But the problem is now even bigger. In the past, I could not even save myself – and now I am trying to use the same failed weapons to save both myself and others.
There is an answer, but we really don’t want to see it. For, even though we are failing to make any progress through the dense jungle of our ever-increasing failures. We keep buying into the lie that doing the same thing a bit harder, faster, or whatever might just get us through.
Can we see it? The path to victory and life goes straight through death. And while most of us have gladly, and with great thankfulness, come to understand that Jesus Christ did indeed die for us. We are hesitant to see the reality of what being in Christ really means.
We died with Him too.
There is no basis for our own success in working through the battles of life. It never was possible. And so, the One who created life (and is Life) did die that that foe would be defeated. We, being created could only (sooner or later) fail and die in those failures. But, in both taking us through His death with Him, and triumphing over death, this same Creator made the way through the problem for us.
And there is no other way. He is The Way. He is The Truth. He is The Life. Any other attempt is as silly as trying to cut a diamond with a dull, plastic knife. So, are you failing beloved? It is not the tools. It is the attitude of the user. You are still reckoning someone alive that should be reckoned dead: you.
Time to die. Tonight is a very good night for this. Fear not. For on the other side of reckoning this truth true, is a Life that cuts through any resistance as it bursts forth in the freedom for which it has been set free.
