About two years ago my life took an upward turn of infinite proportions. Within a moment everything I thought I knew about love and morality and purpose and God all changed. No longer did I have locked in my heart a desire for the selfish gratifications of lust, greed and pride. No; something absolutely fundamental to my being changed. I, by the sovereign grace of God, was born again to a living hope. The bondage of sin that enslaved my soul was broken; done away with. In Christ I died. With him I was buried. With him I was raised.
…and that’s when the war began.
As Christian’s we must understand that before our conversion we laid on eternity’s battlefield as though dead and conquered. There was no battle; no struggle. We had no armour with which to cover our flesh, nor muscle to cover our bones, nor breath to fill our lungs. It was as though the enemy needn’t know we existed, for the slain pose no threat to anyone. Indeed our lifeless bodies served only as a footstool for the enemy to gloat about on. Oh what pitiful creatures we were! Blind to all movements of God and numb to all jabbings and mockeries of the enemy!
And then – altogether instantly – our eyes were opened, our lungs were filled and our muscles found foreign strength and tightened up. Yes, and even then, at that same moment, armour and weaponry were made available to us. The enemy, who had since Adam gloried at our demise, turned a sharp, unbelieving eye, to the resurrected soldier that stood, sword in hand, on the field he thought was his.
This is why we still struggle with sin! We struggle because of grace; grace to see and fight the wickedness that pervades us. Before we couldn’t see the battle all around us. Now we fight! Now we resist! And there can be tactical defeats through the course of a war, but by the grace of God through faith in Christ, brethren, we will conquer! And so my prayer is that today you will press on to know the Lord and resist the devil with all your God-given might!
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