Dear Church Family,
Jesus established a high standard for God’s people to live by in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:48 puts it clearly, “Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” Just reading that should make us all realize there is no way we can meet that goal. Terry Johnson provides hope for us with some stark words first. “Take seriously your own depravity. Don’t be naïve about your own potential. You cannot live the Christian life in your own strength. It is not a ‘bootstraps’ kind of thing. If you think you can, ‘you have not yet considered how great the weight of sin is.’ Sin is too strong. Depravity is too pervasive.” You might be wondering where the hope after that quote. Please wait.
Terry reminds us that being perfect is a process. The Bible calls it sanctification – ‘being made holy.’ It must be seen in terms of warfare. Rarely does the victor win a war instantly. It can take weeks, more likely month and often years. While justification is the one-time act of being declared righteous in the sight of God, sanctification is “a day by day process of growth in grace.” As in a war, “Vigorous, even violent action is required if we are to gain victory over sin.” He quotes J. C. Ryle who wrote, “A holy violence, a conflict, a warfare, a fight, a soldier’s life, a wrestling are spoken of as characteristic of the true Christian.” Paul tells in Romans 7:15, 19 to describe the battle he waged, “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep doing.” Paul goes on to lament his wretched state. Where is the hope?
The hope comes in Jesus’ words in John 15:5 “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Terry paraphrases this wonderful, “Only as we are united to Christ can we amount to anything spiritually.” In Christ our sins are forgiven and in Christ we have and now are being made holy. Here is the hope. “In Christ the power of sin has been broken. The Holy Spirit unites us to Christ in his death to sin” per the teaching of Romans 6:5-6. In Christ the old sinful self is crucified and we are made new. Therefore, we are no longer slaves to sin.
Jesus has provided a sure power source of us in our battle against sin. Note the delightful trade made by our Savior, “Not only has something been taken away (the power of evil), but something else (the power of God) has been given. God has given us the His Spirit, and ‘where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’” Jesus has bestowed on all His people the gift of the Holy Spirit. We do not live in our own strength, but in the strength only the Holy Spirit can give. We can pray for the fruit of the Spirit to be seen in our lives. We can claim the words of 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify your through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it.”
In Philippians 3:12 Paul keeps the proper focus, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold on me.” May that focus be ours as we glorify our Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit!
With great hope in His grace,
Pastor Gillikin