Nemesis

I’ve lived seasons of my life full of sin, full of some of the worst things you could think of: Drugs, illicit sex, pornography, lying, cheating, stealing, just to name a few of my past vices. Today I can gladly say by the grace of God and by the blood of Jesus, by the cross I have been set free and delivered from my past life of sin and shame. But even today as a child of the living God there are moments when my flesh truly desires and longs for some of the sins of my past. It longs to feed on the things that it craves, and will give it the momentary satisfaction it so desperately longs for. There are times not where I walk into the sin of my past, but the desire of my flesh to do so becomes a weight on my spirit and in my life. The desires of my flesh seem truly overwhelming.
This is a struggle we all face. Maybe your flesh does not crave the things I mentioned above that we often consider the more serious sins this world has to offer and tempt us with. Maybe it prefers to tell white lies that make you seem like something more than you are, maybe your flesh wants to talk about your spiritual leaders and those in authority over you, or your peers in a negative way, maybe your flesh just wants to be lazy and spend hours in front of the TV when you know you could be doing something constructive for the Kingdom of God. Maybe your flesh even says there is no God, the gifts of the spirit aren’t real, or I’m going to heaven I can do whatever I want in terms of how I live my daily life and its okay. Whatever the battle is you engage with your flesh, know that you are not alone. We all face the same battle. The only perfect man EVER was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We will not live a perfect life. But let’s realize at the same time that the grace of God doesn’t give us a license to live our lives however our flesh desires to live.
In the Kingdom of God there is Law and there is Order. Many of our modern day churches love to say that the Law has been done away with and we as New Testament believers live under the grace of God. That’s absolutely true but also only part of the truth. If you believe there is no longer law in the Kingdom of God, you have been taught poorly or you are simply looking to excuse your own sin and perversion.
The Law which the apostle Paul refers to as having been abolished by Christ over and over in the New Testament is the Ceremonial Law of the Old Testament Jews, a religious law whereby right standing with God was accounted for by animal sacrifice and other religious acts. The Blood of Jesus Christ was not a release government in our lives or a permission slip to live our lives however we desire and think because we once repeated a prayer we are part of God’s Kingdom. The blood of Jesus paid the “Blood Price” once and for all for our sins. No longer do we have to endure animal sacrifices to the Lord for the propitiation of our sins. We simply receive Jesus’ sacrifice. We believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is the son of God and was raised from the dead and he is our King, and the price for sin has been paid. We no longer walk in sin we walk in life.
However God is a holy God, and he is a just God. He has called us to be holy as he is holy. The word Holy means to have a divine nature, which means to me our nature (in the spirit) and the desire of our hearts if we are truly born into the Kingdom should be to not sin (Paul talks about this over and over in the book of Romans). Not see how much sin we can get away with and still make it to heaven. If that’s our thinking we’ve missed the point entirely, and we can roll the dice and hope that the once saved always saved theology really means “once repeated a prayer = Heaven forever” but that’s just a roll I’m not willing to make, and I haven’t been called to barely make it to heaven. The goal of the believer once we begin to grasp the reality of God, and begin to study the Bible isn’t heaven. Once our heavenly citizenship is secure our focus, our attention, our actions, and our thinking has got to get off of us making it to heaven when we die to us getting heaven to earth while we live! The bible tells us that our DESTINY as children of God is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ Romans 8:29.
Breaking past the point of making it to heaven into living as the image of Jesus on the earth until he returns, a productive Kingdom advancing Heaven on Earth life does not come without a price. Salvation is free; to walk with the creator of the universe in a world that has largely rejected him and is full of sin, to be a true representation of Jesus on the earth is costly. We are constantly being bombarded and attacked with devises from our adversary the devil who walks around like a roaring lion seeking those he can devour. Our enemy is aggressive in coming after us. We must be aggressive in going after him. The great masses of Christians seem to be seeking a problem free, convenient, life without conflict existence on Earth. We even believe we are entitled to that it seems when I hear Christians talk. But my Bible describes FAITH as a fight at its very core when it instructs us to “Fight the Good Fight of Faith” 1st Tim. 6:12. I love Matt 11:12 in the New Living Translation which says the Kingdom of God is forcefully advancing and violent people attack it. Both of these scriptures and many, many more in the bible give us the picture of the fight we are supposed to be engaged in as men and women of faith.
As we forcefully advance the Kingdom of God on the earth and as we fight the devil by taking the gospel outside the walls of the church and proclaiming the good news to the lost, let us not forget that we also have another adversary, the one that we spoke about at the beginning of this writing. That adversary is our flesh. 2nd Corinthians 7:1 instructs us to put our flesh to death by saying: Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God. (NLT). Notice that Paul (in the New Testament after the law had been abolished) instructs us to work towards complete holiness by cleansing our flesh. The usage of the words work toward indicates to me that holiness is a process. God doesn’t excuse sin, he detests it, but he also knows that we are human. We do not have a high priest (Jesus) that cannot relate to our temptations and our battle with sin. So don’t get discouraged if you fail and give into your flesh. If you fall into temptation identify it, don’t sweep it under the rug, and don’t ignore it. GO TO BATTLE WITH IT! Confess it to the Lord because God’s word says in 1st John 1:9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Confess your sin. Get it on the table before God. His word promises a cleansing once you confess it to him. Don’t go back to the sin run from the sin, run to the things of God. Corinthians 7:1 told us to work towards holiness. Romans 12:2 tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds…both of these scriptures (Romans 12:2 and 2nd Corinthians 7:1) show us a picture of a progressive walk toward holiness and purity. It’s up to you how quickly you make the progression. We all know Christians who have been saved for 40 years and still struggle with the same junk they did when they were born into the Kingdom. Don’t let that be you! Renew your mind! Read the word, pray, get good teaching from good spiritual leaders, submit to Godly authority and progress towards holiness in your spiritual life. Most importantly: Keep your eyes on Jesus and his finished work. Focusing on yourself and trying your best to live holy isn’t going to cut it! It never did! That’s why the original law was abolished in the first place. The only way to keep ourselves holy and pure before God is to keep our eyes on him…otherwise the whole thing just becomes about you and your works and what you did and didn’t do. It was never supposed to be about us. It was always and will always be about Jesus! The King of Kings!
The Genesis of this writing was simply to get my thoughts out there because my flesh was waging war against my spirit today. Just reminding myself as I write about the battle we must engage in and the promise of God to be faithful to us in the midst of our battle and the striving towards holiness in our walk with him has encouraged me to keep fighting the good fight of faith! I hope it’s encouraged you, I also hope it’s provoked you to examine your walk and ask “am I progressing towards the holiness God has called me to?” I pray that you are!
Produce Fruit,
Chad