This morning I woke up with a very
clear understanding of what I needed to explore on a doctrinal level. Throughout
the night I wrestled with differing thoughts on how sin, grace, repentance and temptation
play out on a practical level in a believer’s life, with all in question simultaneously
tag teaming in the ring of my cognizance, with my mind floating from the one to
the other and then a sudden calm. My restlessness a thing of the past with
clarity now shrouding my understanding to a long life question I was unable to
nail down with accuracy. With a clear
direction in my head it’s now up to sound doctrine to drive the reality home
and hopefully change the way I perceive this very important focus and in turn help
others with similar struggles.
I am wonderfully amazed how my great
God brings light into the areas of mottled darkness. A garbled thought to begin
with and then it’s as if the light switch is flipped in a dark room with the equation
solved without the help of any doctorate. How I love moments like these, where
God in His goodness helps me understand a particular concern I am tussling
with; the wonders of God’s brilliance who can fathom it…
From an early age we are called upon
to fight and battle along our journeys in order to be noticed by our peers.
Competition is fierce and only the top students and sports-persons ever really get
recognized. Pride is instilled in us all from a very young age and it is up to
the individual to put in the effort to be rewarded, it is as simple as that! With
almost all concluding that hard work produces results. “You get out of life
what you put into it”; worldly wisdom drives this truth home; it’s all about
me, me and more of me. But the grace of God is all about unmerited favour. Two
opposite extremes!
So up until we are born again and able
to see God for whom He is through the eyes of faith and repentance from dead
works we remain locked into the mentality of a temperament of self-preservation.
And even after salvation many of us, in fact I would dare to suggest that the
majority of Christians find it near impossible to relinquish in absolute
surrender their struggles with pride, which is an enemy of the cross. I surmise
that is why both the Apostle James and Peter had this to say about pride; "God opposes the proud, but gives
grace to the humble." What I am about to
unpack will be recklessness to some but it may just be life changing for
others.
Firstly, let the Word guide us as we
look to establish a few truths…
We must learn to separate our human rationale
from our now God given Spirit which we received at our spiritual conversion;
the day we were born again an awareness to comprehended spiritual things had now
became a part of our persona; whereas prior to salvation we were blind towards spiritual
matters. No matter how hard we looked into divine truths we always arrived at a
skewed conclusion with “self” always influencing the outcome of the equation.
It’s who we are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, blind to the bigger picture. There
is no wiggle room for any ifs and buts, these are the facts! – Without God
removing the scale from our eyes, although we have a perception of sight we are
in fact blind. The Lord Jesus gives us this insight – “Jesus
answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless
one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."” (John 3:3) - Our souls must be fashioned
and enlivened anew. We must be born from above in order to see the deeper
meanings to life with God on His throne; the Bible is what reveals these truths
to us with God the Holy Spirit guiding us into all truths. But prior to “regeneration”
we are not privy to these truths. However now that we have been “born again” it
is crucial to understand the differing roles of the flesh and the Spirit in our
lives. The flesh by nature will always govern us towards pride and sin whilst
the Spirit of God leads us into the paths of righteousness with our reliance
upon His graces.
This monster “pride” is a deep rooted
seed that must be obliterated from our lives; an impossible task for those who
have not found forgiveness and repentance through faith. For those who are yet
blind to spiritual truths. As Christians we must understand the “how to” in the
equation to be liberated from that beast. Pride is the utopia of all that is
sinful; it exalts us to a point above correction. Satan was filled with pride
and resisted God and was able to sway one third of the angels to follow him.
And I would remind you that he is a spiritual being. We find so much concerning
this topic in scripture I am not sure it is even necessary to expound the idea
as all should be familiar with God’s view concerning the proud. Let me use some
of Solomon’s wisdom to drive home the prominence of the point; “Pride
goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)
Regardless
of where we may find ourselves in our struggles against sin it is imperative
that we understand that “humility” must be our launching pad as we approach the
throne room of grace to be freed up to serve God with holiness as our
objective. It must always be about looking to Jesus for sustenance.
Pride in any form whatsoever excludes that delivery. If I accuse someone else
of a weakness and excuse myself, pride is alive and well and the chance of me
finding grace could very well elude me, a very real reality in our lives. Remember
the account of Peter when he made his brash statement, which I believe was very
sincere at the time; “Peter said to him, "Even though they all fall away, I will not." And
Jesus said to him, "Truly, I tell you, this very
night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times."
But he said emphatically, "If I must die with you, I will not deny you."” (Mark 14:29-31) – We all know the end of that
account…. - And what of the man and Apostle Paul; he was a man like no other
and he obviously understood this better than any other. Look at his delivery
when contending for the faith against other Christians who opposed him as they
forced him to pen these words- read 2Corinthians chapter 12 to get the full
picture – but for the sake of time I have selected a single verse to stress my
point; “I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I
ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these
super-apostles, even though I am nothing.” (2Corinthians
12:11) – We have no boast outside of Christ. He has finished it all! We
must understand this truth and it must be cemented into our personalities as we
learn to use grace as a means to our end, God and heaven with all its glory.
With
that now established how do we overcome the lessons of life with proficiency?
It is obvious that we must repent from dead works (any thing we do to find
favour from God on our own merits) and apply ourselves with faith towards our
God. We must trust Him to get us home. Our dependencies must be locked upon Him
and not have any confidence in our independence, our own abilities will only
ever generate pride. Our enslavements to His provisions are a gift and not a
work; “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God, not a result
of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians
2:8-9) - Therefore boasting
(pride) in any form must be eradicated from our minds. It is the goodness of
God that leads a man into repentance. David understood this after he had fallen
into sin with the woman Bathsheba; “Wash
me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my
transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I
sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in
your words and blameless in your judgment.” (Psalms 51:2-4) – However we must understand our
breach with regard to our own actions pertaining to our own sinful natures. It
is up to us to seek out God’s grace to be a part of our lives as we require His
help to change our natures and not our own abilities to see us through.
The
Christian has been afforded the privilege of finding grace to overcome. We are
also instructed to come to our God and Father in confidence to seek that grace
out. The instruction is clear; “Let
us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and
find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) - Let “us”
(the Christian) “draw near” so that we may find a “help in time of our need” to
get us through the trial which is God’s mercy and His grace. It is God who will
decide our outcomes in and through any given trial. There is a responsibility placed
upon us as individuals to learn this lesson and apply it correctly into our
lives. I acknowledge that I am so far from applying this truth into my life
with absolute proficiency, which in itself teaches me to be even more dependant
upon my Lord and Saviour. Will we always end up as victors in our application?
Sadly that answer is no, but we most certainly should be maturing as Christian
in our application of our faith towards God.
Temptation should drive us towards the lesson of
our need to find God’s grace to overcome. We have one of three choices in the
trial: try resist in our own strength, succumb to the pressure of it, or call
upon our God to give us unmerited favour as we receive strength from Him to
overcome and resist. This will be our lot in life on this side of heaven.
However when we learn this lesson well it will leave us in a place of humility
as we understand that it is the grace of God that has brought us through the
trial. Boasting will never have any place in our minds as we understand that it
is the goodness of God that has got us through whatever we face on a daily
basis. If and when we fall, repentance must drive us to seek out God’s
forgiveness for our sin. This will be an onward cycle that will be with us
until we give up the ghost.
Let
me end off with these encouraging words; “What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) – God help us all
to learn this lesson well, Amen and Amen!
Signing
off
Tyrone
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