THE PROVISION OF VICTORY
Last lesson we learned that
our goal as a Christian is to glorify God by becoming like Christ.
Becoming like Christ means we need to emulate Him by being set apart
as He was. We learned this meant to be set apart from sin, the world,
and self and to be set apart to holiness, the kingdom of God, and
servant hood and others. These goals sound impossible to achieve,
yet they are what God expects of us. How are we to achieve such high
reaching goals?
We certainly cannot reach them by our own efforts. We are by nature
sinful. Our flesh is sin. Paul, in talking about his battle with sin,
says in Romans 7:17-20, 24, “Now then it is no more I that do
it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in
my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me;
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that
I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if
I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me…..O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from
the body of this death?” Paul, considered by many to be the
greatest Christian who ever lived, found that he did not possess the
ability to achieve these goals or to simply have victory over sin.
He said that in his flesh was nothing good, NOTHING.
Paul described his flesh as being very sin. To Paul, his flesh was
a cesspool of vileness and filth. Job tells us, “Who can bring
a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one!” Job 14:4. It simply
is not possible to bring a righteous and holy action or thought out
of a foul and sinful vessel like our flesh.
Jesus also warns us that we do not have the ability to achieve these
goals by ourselves. “…for without Me ye can do nothing.”
John 15:5. Essentially, Jesus tells us that the only way we will ever
accomplish these goals is with His help. We live in a body of sin
and cannot walk in righteousness, but Jesus is holy and righteous
and if we go to Jesus to get victory over sin and to live for Him,
then it will work. OK, how do we get this help and how is this help
made available?
Let’s return to Romans 7 verses 24-25. “O wretched man
that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What are you trying to say,
Paul? Let me paraphrase this, “I thank God – that victory
over this body of death and release from its power is available through
Jesus Christ our Lord.” Paul declares emphatically that Jesus
is the source of victory over sin in our life. In John 15:5 we learned
that Jesus taught us that we cannot do anything without Him. Just
prior to that statement Jesus said in John 15:4-8, “Abide in
Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except
it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am
the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit: …Herein is My Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.” Hmmm,
so Jesus is the very source of victory in our Christian lives. We
must abide in Him and He must abide in us, for by doing so we bring
glory to God the Father. But how is it possible for us to abide in
(which really means inside of) Jesus?
When we accepted Christ as our Savior something very interesting took
place. Yes, we indeed were saved and went from going to Hell to going
to Heaven, a change of great note and infinite value. However, what
Jesus did for us gave us much more than just a ticket to Heaven. Paul
explains this in Romans 6:4-7, “Therefore we were buried with
Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness
of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection:
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body
of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."
