Quote:
Originally Posted by houston
Are we constantly struggling not to sin? Or is there real victory?
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Depends on how you define victory houston.
If "victory" is based on your own works and behaviors the answer is yes, you'll always struggle with sin and the condemnation that comes along with it until your death, and then you’ll realize you were never meant to live your life that way.
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However, if your "victory" is defined by Christ's finished work on the cross on your behalf, you have total victory right now.
If you're saved, God chose you from before the foundations of the world to experience His salvation.
If Christ's righteous life and His death on the cross served as your atonement, the Law has been fulfilled by Christ on your behalf. You own the Law nothing. It's fulfilled for you. The book is closed.
If Christ was your propitiation, meaning He willingly took all the wrath of God for your sin (past, present, and future), God’s wrath and anger against your sin has already been satisfied. Now, God doesn’t address your sin with wrath, but rather corrective chastening. Therefore even when facing God’s chastening you can rejoice in that you can know objectively that He loves you because of the cross.
If you’ve experienced regeneration through the power of the indwelling Holy Ghost, you are now one with Christ, spiritually ONE with Him. Your once dead and lifeless human spirit is now infused with Christ’s own Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit you are a partaker in Christ’s divine nature. That means you’re a creature with two natures. One is a sinful nature that is part of the fallen flesh you have with all its impulses and psychological conditioning. The other is a sinless nature that hates the sinful nature and the things you do when it rises to power. By walking in the Spirit you can escape the sense of condemnation and shame you would ordinarily feel, knowing that you are the righteousness of God in Christ based on Christ’s work…not your own. Throughout life you’ll experience an ebb and flow of victory over the flesh until that glorious day when you will lay down your mortality like a cocoon and come forth pure and holy, glorified, and the treasure that has been hidden in your earthen vessel will shine forth as the stars. The very hatred you’ll have developed in your lifetime of struggling with sin will have strengthened and ingrained in you a love for holiness that will last for an eternity. Now you can life UNHINDERED in your oneness with Christ Jesus, sinless forevermore. Therefore, every battle you face is a sure victory with regards to your eternity. God doesn’t see you as what you are…He sees you as what you will be in Him. And you are His workmanship, not your own. It’s a life of surrendered life and identity.
If you’ve been justified by faith you are robed with a holiness that isn’t your own because Christ took upon Himself your sin, sin that wasn’t His own. It’s a total exchange. You now stand before God as though you’ve never sinned and never will. When the Father sees you…He sees Christ Jesus. Your very identity is hidden in Christ.
If you’ve been adopted, you are now a beloved son of God no matter where you go or what you do. You never surprise God or catch His grace and power off guard.
You now have the privilege of surrendering your identity, allowing Christ to live through you day by day. This process is a daily work of sanctification (becoming more like Christ). It has nothing to do with being a good Christian, or holding religious standards that make you a good Pentecostal, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, or Lutheran. You are not to be conformed into the image of the religions of this world…but rather you are to be conformed into the very image of Jesus Christ. And when you pass into glory, your sanctification will be complete and you will be “like Him”.
If you believe in God’s power as God…you know He will not put more on you than you can bare. You know that God has already ordered your steps. You can trust that no matter how dark the night, no matter how far you’ve fallen, no matter what mistakes you’ve made…through Christ, God will keep you and you will persevere over Hell, sin, flesh, and the world. You were chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world and you will be what God made you to be, a saint…even when you “aint”. NOTHING can pluck you from His hands. Grace isn't some greasy gift that can slip through your fingers. It's not something God gave you to keep, because He already knows you'd drop it and shatter it. You must realize... ou will not, and CANNOT, fall away like those who were never truly of us and only tasted of the heavenly gifts. But you can have blessed ASSURANCE that you are your beloveds, and your beloved is yours.
If you now know this, even sickness and death work towards your ultimate victory. It serves a purifying trial wherein you will feel compelled to be like Christ, and then see the heavens opened before you, the angels singing, and all glory being shown upon you. Now death has no sting, nor the grave any victory. You are triumphant.
And upon your glorification, as said above, you will be sinless for all eternity like Christ. His work having secured this for you, not your own. This life serving as a blessed furnace trying you that you might come forth as pure gold.
Your victory isn’t in your self. It isn’t in your works. It isn’t in your efforts. It isn’t in your religious standards, practices, or traditions. Your victory isn’t in modifying your behaviors. Your victory is in your being identified with Christ and Christ alone.
If this is understood and you have Christ…you have victory no matter what. Jesus is your…everything. Salvation isn’t an equation (Jesus + works = Salvation). No, Jesus is your EVERYTHING. That means it’s simply (Jesus – you =Salvation).
Now, take up your cross and die with Christ. Be crucified with Him so that you might live, not you, but Christ who lives in you. Reckon these truths to be so by faith, accept them, embrace them, appropriate them, and watch them become a powerful reality in your spiritual journey. Reckon yourself “dead” to the law. Dead to sin. Yet alive in Christ, victorious over death and the grave. When Jesus died on the cross… that was your punishment for your sins (past, present, future). When He rose again, that was you…risen and secured in glory.
What a glorious Gospel that disarms all the powers of Hell. Satan wants to keep your eyes on your works so that you never experience the victory that is only found in Christ. The truth is you will NEVER be good enough. God requires absolute holiness. You have to be as holy as God to please God. But if you’ve already sinned just once…you are fallen an infinity from that holiness, never capable of gaining ground by your efforts. No. Now such holiness must be freely given to you, imparted to you, so that you stand robed in the Holiness of Jesus. A perfect, sinless, holiness you cannot and will NEVER earn.
Give God praise and glory.
Now…do you have the victory or what?
We have a famine of biblical doctrinal truths in the land. Most don't even know them. All they know is "works" and a hope that somehow God overlooks their hidden sins and accepts their good deeds. Salvation is so much greater than that lie. In short foundational doctrinal truths that have been forgotten are:
1. Election (God's choice of people to be saved)
2. Atonement (Christ's work of satisfying the law for the Elect)
3. Propitiation (Christ's satisfying God's wrath against the sins of the Elect - past, present, future)
4. The Gospel call (proclaiming the message of the gospel)
5. Regeneration (being born again)
6. Conversion (faith and repentance)
7. Justification (right legal standing)
8. Adoption (membership in God's family)
9. Sanctification (right conduct in life)
10. Perseverance (remaining a Christian)
11. Death (going to be with the Lord)
12. Glorification (receiving a resurrection body in sinless perfection)
Surrender and die... allow God to make you His masterpiece from start to finish.
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