As I daily pursue purity and holiness, that is the life of a Christian, I am often reminded how I fall short, so very short! But when I begin to compare myself to someone else, I truly miss the whole point. In the pursuit of holiness and purity, the process of sanctification, I am looking to Christ, and for all of us there is NO comparison! Just one sin in the presence of a holy and glorious God is not permitted. We commit numerous sins each day. Lying, coveting, lusting, idolatry and the list could go on and on. I am reminded of something I read in a book recently. In justification, we can never earn or work for this salvation. It is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. But in our daily sanctification, we MUST work out our salvation with fear and trembling, Phil 2:12. And then we see in vs. 13 that the work in you is from God. So we have a collaboration between God and us as we work daily to be like Christ. Wow, this can be so perplexing! We can become bogged down and frustrated, knowing that we can never live up to Christ! And that is so true, we cannot.
But in Romans 6-8, we see very important scriptures for this very idea. Romans 6 tells us that, "that since we are united with Christ, we have died to sin, and cannot live in it any longer(2-5)." Paul says, "we are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ(11)." "In the past sin brought about ever increasing habits of wickedness(19), but from now on we must display the ever increasing habits of righteousness(19,22)." In chapter 7 we see the bitterness of this struggle to live a holy life in our mortal/sinful bodies, and we all face it as followers of Christ. We see Paul talk about not understanding his own actions(15), and he does not do the thing that he wants, but he does the very thing he hates. And (19) he does not do the good he wants, but the evil he hates is what he keeps on doing. This sounds like schizophrenia to us, but it is a struggle that we all fight and wage war against daily as followers of Christ. But the peace and glory that comes from the opening verse of chapter 8 is the encouragement we need in those times. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus(1)." This chapter begins with a great encouragement and it ends the same. "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present not things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.(38-39)." In other words, NOTHING can separate us from God! Wow, if that doesn't encourage you, drive you to your knees, then I can't imagine what else could.
In 1 Timothy 6, Paul addressed this, speaking to Timothy saying, "fight the good fight of the faith, flee the sin that can easily ensnare you and run to Christ!" We say it to one another, we read it in times of Bible study, but this is a reminder to us all. We never need to stop encouraging each other, to never stop praying with and praying for each other. And I would invite you to do just that. Let the Holy Spirit lead you to encourage and pray for those He brings to your mind. And as I said at the first, this is a day in the life of a follower of Christ.
Blessings to you in Christ,
Greg Brown - Missionary to Guatemala and One Way Ministries Staff
