Driving in Reverse (part 2)

Christians tend to struggle in their walk and in their understanding of their relationship with the Lord.  In the last post we took a look at the condition of our soul before God stepped in.  The sum of our entire existence was sin prior to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

So how do we to view ourselves after we’ve surrendered our hearts?  For most people, we continue to see ourselves in our previously fallen state.  Not only do we see our failures, but we continue to see ourselves as failures.  That’s an entirely different perspective than just seeing our mistakes.  When we see ourselves AS the mistake, we’re not seeing ourselves the way God does.

Yes, we were riddled with sin.  But when we dropped our façade and yielded our hearts to God, He miraculously cleansed us from ALL of our unrighteousness.  Cleaning us up wasn’t all He did either.  He imputed the righteousness of Christ … His very righteousness … into and onto us.  From the Father’s perspective, we are righteous through the blood of Christ.  We have complete right standing with the Father.  From His vantage point, we are holy, blameless, spotless, sinless.  He calls us His children and we call Him Father.  But it’s hard for us to fathom that a holy, righteous God would want a dirty, nasty, orphan to call His own.  Apart from Jesus, it would never and could never happen.  But IN Christ, we have become His family.

Galatians 2:20-21 — I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (NIV)

And maybe the most difficult part of seeing ourselves the way our Father does is because we aren’t perfect (yet).  We continue to struggle day-to-day with sin in our lives.  We see every weakness and failure being quickly told by the enemy, “see, you haven’t changed.” But the reality is our spirit has been changed.  We are a new creation.  The outward part, our flesh, continues to wage battle, and we’re told this is the case.  Jesus told His disciples …

Matthew 26:41 — “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (NIV)

Before we accepted Christ as our Savior, our spirit was dead.  We wanted nothing of God or from God.  Remember, according to Romans 5:10, we were His enemies and it was His infinite love towards us that drew us to Him.  He made our spirit to come alive unto God through the sacrifice Jesus made at the cross.  We now have a spirit that is alive and willing, but our old corrupt nature will continue to battle against our new-found life.

Galatians 5:17 — For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. (NIV)

That does not mean we are to yield to sin.  We are to continue to strive towards sinlessness.  The deception comes in rapidly that will hold us bound, often times, for years if not our entire lives.  And we end up living broken, incomplete, unfulfilled lives because we believed the lie instead of His truth.

More on that in the next blog as I finish this short series.

— Pastor Rick