The Quest For Truth

Proverbs 16:6 says that by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. After we experience the grace of God and overcome sin in our lives, we are warned not to take the grace of God lightly. Because now we are ones who have tasted the goodness of the Lord and experienced the resurrection life of our Lord. We are now mature believers in the Lord understanding the goodness of the Lord. If after experiencing all these, we return to a life of sin, then our plight is indeed miserable. Because the Bible says that it would have been better if we had never known the Lord. This is where the fear of the Lord comes. We have to fear the Lord as fear in a real sense because it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. By the fear of the Lord, Joseph ran from Potiphar’s wife when she tempted him to commit adultery with her. We fear God because we know the goodness and the severity of the Lord. To those who have been given much, much is expected from them. Similarly we have to fear the Lord and depart from evil lest the day comes when we find no place for repentance. The Lord is merciful and gracious but let us not take His grace lightly.

The Apostle Paul at the close of his life called himself the chief of sinners. In another place he calls himself the least of the Apostles because he persecuted the church. It is true that we have to look at Christ and what He has done for us on the cross. We are no longer sinners but saints. We have been made righteous in Christ and we are now a holy nation. Our experiences may say something different but we don’t look at them but rather look at the facts of God as found in His word. But after we overcome sin by faith and enjoy the victory of Christ there comes a tendency wherein we are tempted to be proud. So now we have to look at the past and consider our experiences and confess that we are sinners if not the chief of sinners and remember that it was by grace alone that we overcame. Not by works lest any man should boast. Our victory over sin is because of Christ alone and not because of anything in us. So, the Apostle Paul called himself the chief of sinners because he remembered how he persecuted the church. After you overcome, remember the life you lived and give glory to God for what He has done in you. The more grace that you receive the more you will see the sinfulness that was in you and you will be humbled more and more as you progress in faith.

The Christing life is not a lifelong struggle against sin, the devil and the world. We are not supposed to live fighting but resting in Christ. Someone may say, “If I do not fight then won’t I lose the battle.” That is where faith comes in. Resting involves having faith in God. We do not worry whether we will produce fruit or not. We leave it in the hands of God. He is the one who is going to produce fruit in us through the Holy Spirit. We believe this fact in faith because Christ is the vine and we are the branches. We just abide in Him and He produces fruit for us. We do not even have to struggle to abide in Him because God in Christ has already made us to abide in Him. We accept this in faith. We may fall and sin at times but even through our mistakes we learn more how to abide in Him. We learn not to fight sin but to allow God in Christ through the Holy Spirit to fight our battles and so we rest in Him. This is the true meaning of faith and victory in Christ because the just shall live by faith. Our whole attitude should be of faith in God which is resting in Christ.

It is a blessed thing to realise how miserable and unworthy sinners we are without Christ. Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Too many times our problem is a too high estimation of ourselves. We have to be defeated again and again until we come to the realisation in our spirit man that we are indeed wretched people with no hope in ourselves. Before his deliverance and triumph in Christ, the Apostle Paul cried out, “O, wretched man that I man….” We will keep trying to live the Christian life in our own efforts until we realise that we are indeed hopeless cases of humanity. There is no good in us and the good that we want to do, we do not. Rather it is the evil that we do. But the day we realise our hopelessnes is the day we can receive our hope in Christ. It is the day we realise our inability and our sinfulness that is when we can receive the righteousness of Christ. That is what surrender is – when you realise you are not able and only Christ is able and so you give Him total control over your life. Your will is no longer yours. It belongs to Another. Your goals, ambitions and desires take on new meaning as you see them in the light of God’s word. Your life is now totally in the hands of God. You are willing to obey Him no matter what the cost. You surrender to His every command and you give up all human efforts to do the will of God. You will be happy wherever you are whether as a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord or as a mighty warrior in the kingdom of Christ. You die to yourself in order to live for Christ. Without such a death and resurrection we are indeed miserable sinners.

If we want to move from faith to faith and from perfection to perfection, we have to open up ourselves to the surgery of God on our lives. The imperfections that we have have to be carefully cut by the divine knife of God. So we need to have an attitude where God is free to work in us. We have to open up ourselves and surrender ourselves to the hands of God to do whatever He sees fit. When we do this God arranges situations in our lives to perfect us and bring us to maturity. We have to see the hand of God in every situation whether good or bad. Nothing comes to us unless it is allowed by God Himself. And all things are for our good and for His glory. During times of trial we need to search the word of God and respond accordingly. We need to seek godly counsel and we need to accept whatever God is trying to teach us even though it may be painful. As you surrender and become quite, God Himself will speak to you through His Holy Spirit and will guide you.

The Christian life is not a fight to overcome any foe or enemy. It is not a struggle wherein the victory lies in the future. Our fight is a fight to hold the ground that Christ won for us on the cross. The victory has already been won and now our job is to maintain that victory at any cost. So before we start out to wrestle the enemy we have to find out what is the ground that we are supposed to hold. The victory that we have to hold on to is the finished work of Christ on the cross. We have to realize our new identity as Christians. We are now saints. We are righteous in Christ. We are more than conquerors. Because Christ has overcome the world we also have overcome the world. Sin, disease and sickeness are now underneath us. We have to accept these things by faith because the Bible says that the just shall live by faith. It is by accepting these things by faith that we position ourselves to fight the enemy. We should not look at our experiences but rather substantiate the victory of Christ in our life by faith. The experiences will change as we keep on applying faith. So realize that you don’t need to conquer to become a conqueror. You are already a conqueror and a king and priest in the sight of God because of what Christ accomplished for you. So take up your weapons and fight to hold the ground that Christ has won for you.

The Christian life is a life of rest but at the same time it is also a life of fighting. We have to fight the good fight of faith and the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. But in all these we depend on the Spirit to lead us in the battle. We fight and we win because we fight from the standpoint of rest in the victory of Christ. We can handle the pressures and the trials of life because in the inner man God supplies us the strength. There is a strength that is not natural to the people of the world because we are resting in Christ. They think that they can break us but God steps into the situation when we are thrown into the fire. The greater the battle the closer God becomes to us. In the midst of our darkest moments we can rest assure that God is there waiting to reveal His glory in us. Nothing can shake us because we do not fight with human strength. We fight our battles with faith knowing that the victory is ours for we cannot fail when God is with us. The most common mistake that Christians make is that they think they have to fight the battle with their own resources and strength. But the moment we look at ourselves we will fail. We have to fight the battle with not only faith but also patience. We have to rest in faith and wait for the Spirit of God to move us. Through practice we will come to the place where we make fewer mistakes and hit the mark more often. With each victory our confidence in the leading of the Spirit will increase and we will start fighting the good fight of faith at higher levels. As you move from resting to fighting be prepared to suffer hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Recognise the hand of God in allowing every difficulty and trouble in your path to perfect you and make you pure as gold. Those people whom you cannot handle have been allowed into your life to perfect you. They are there to sharpen your rough edges. Don’t move into the flesh and try to handle the situation in your own strength. Search the scriptures, seek the mind of God and apply what you learn in those difficult situations and God will give you wisdom. But as long as you move in the flesh and lash out and take matters into your own hands, you will not accomplish the will of God in your life. We have to fight with the wisdom of God and the leading of the Spirit. We are more than conquerors because even death cannot defeat us. The very hairs of our heads have been numbered so that the enemy cannot touch us unless God permits. And whatever God permits will be for His glory and for the advancement of His church and kingdom so that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.