Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
If you live in a place which receives snow and ice during your winter, then you understand the challenges of driving or even walking on icy or snowy sidewalks and roads. It can be frightening when you begin sliding and your feet or tires can’t get their grip on a dry surface. Perhaps you’ve even had the terrifying experience of sliding right off the road in such conditions?
But have you experienced what it is like when your life is sliding out of control? In the past few days that is what we’ve been looking closely at in our “Walking with Jesus” journey as we are with the apostle Peter, writing his second chapter of his second letter.
Yesterday was significant for us as we looked at this statement from Peter in 2 Peter 2:20: “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in the world and are overcome, they are worse off at the end then they were at the beginning!”
In explanation of this yesterday I described people who have been delivered from self-destructive addictive behavior but then yield to the temptation and they return to their addiction. Then I wrote this: And have you seen that when a former addict returns to their addiction, even though they had been free, the addiction gains an even stronger choke hold on them? Peter is saying this can happen spiritually too! Did you know that? When a person trusts Jesus to be their Savior, and they experience the transforming power of God in their life, which delivers them from their sin condemnation and sin bondage, sometimes the sinful temptation of life can be so strong this person, even though born again by Jesus, returns to their sinful ways and finds themselves even more deeply in sin bondage then before!! But how is this possible, you might ask? Today let’s dig deeply into this very troubling issue.
When God declared that He would design and create a species of beings made in His image, (Genesis 1:27) God was talking about several things which distinguish humans from all other God created beings.
First, we humans have an IMMORTAL soul and spirit.
Second, God has given humans the full range of thinking, considering multiple options, weighing the risk and reward of each option, being able to anticipate future results of current choices, then actually making a decision and following through by taking action on that decision. And all of this is wrapped in a moral capacity of discerning right from wrong. God has not created any other animals with these capabilities.
Third, at birth we have a sinful nature and every one of those wonderful aspects of our humanity made in God’s image is tainted by our sinful nature.
When we trust Jesus to be our Savior a new, righteous, spiritual nature is placed in us by God, but God does NOT kill our sinful nature, thus we now have two natures and they fight for our attention, according to Romans 7. Our two natures battle against each other to gain the stronger influence in our minds and hearts and our process of decision making.
Therefore, a wonderful Christian person who loves God and God’s word will feel the inner battle of the devil and dark kingdom trying to tempt their sinful nature to do things which are dishonoring to God. But the Holy Spirit of God will, at the same time, be drawing that Christian to resist the dark kingdom temptations and live a life which honors God. You’ve experienced this and so have I, every day, right?
So, when a Christian resists the efforts of the Holy Spirit to help them live a God honoring life and they CHOOSE to yield to the temptation of the devil and the dark kingdom, and they sin in rebellion against God what is happening here? The Holy Spirit will NOT force the Christian to NOT sin! Oh no, God has given us full freedom to use our will power both for good and for evil! We have the power to say NO to the devil, but we also have the power to say NO to God’s Holy Spirit, NO to Jesus Christ our Savior and NO to God our heavenly Father!! When we do that, when we say NO to God, we are saying YES to the devil and his dark kingdom.
Paul wrote about that to the Christians in Ephesians 4:27,30 with these words: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God and do not give the devil a foothold.” Do you see my friends, Paul’s powerful statement to Christians in Ephesus confirms it is not only possible but likely that Christians will experience saying NO to God and YES to the devil, even though God has given us the Holy Spirit power to resist the devil according to 1 Corinthians 10:13.
But do you see Paul is warning that when we do yield to the temptation, we begin to slide morally, just like my opening paragraph talking about sliding on the ice. Do you see Paul warns us that NO to God and YES to the devil will “give the devil a foothold.” What is a ‘foothold“? You understand what it’s like to put your foot in the doorway as a door is closing, right? That’s what it means! Yes to temptation props the door of your life open to invite more temptations from the dark kingdom! Have you experienced this?
Of course, as soon as a Christians says NO to God and YES to the devil, the Holy Spirit now begins a new work in that Christian, it’s called CONVICTION! The Holy Spirit will lovingly convict the Christian of their sin reminding them of God’s extreme love for them as evidenced by God sending Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sin, according to 1 John 4:9,10.
God’s desire is that we will recognize the Holy Spirit’s conviction and invitation to return to God, and we will confess our sin and repent of it. When we do that, the Holy Spirit does a wonderful work of cleansing our lives from the evil that we had invited in when we sinned, and God the Father forgives us of that sin once again accepting the death payment of Jesus our Savior for that rebellion in our lives! (1 John 1:9; Ephesians 1:7)
But what if the Christian who has yielded to the temptation resists the conviction and invitation of the Holy Spirit to repent and they continue in their sin, yielding to even more temptation of the devil? Did you know that the ‘foothold of the devil‘ Paul writes to the Ephesians about becomes a “STRONGHOLD of the devil” that Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 10:4,5?
The difference between a ‘foothold of the devil’ and a ‘stronghold of the devil’ in the life of a Christian is this: You’ll know it’s a foothold when you feel the Holy Spirit conviction and you respond with confession and repentance and God restores your relationship with Him. You’ll know it’s a stronghold when you hardly notice any conviction of the Holy Spirit and you have no desire or strength to confess and repent and you keep sliding deeper into the sin stronghold in your life.
Now do we understand that the Christian person Peter describes as someone who “has escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and yet is again entangled in the world and overcome,” could be any Christian who has yielded to any temptations so often they find themselves once again in bondage to their sinful nature? It’s important to understand this person is still a born again Christian, but they have re-enslaved themselves to their sinful choices! That’s why Paul cautions us with this statement in Galatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Jesus Christ has set us free! Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of sin slavery.”
Now friends, let’s pause right here, pondering this deeply. You’ve seen this happen in people and so have I. Perhaps it’s even happened in you! And I know it causes us to ask the vital question… is this person STILL a Christian even in their unrepentant sin? That is such an important question we’ll return right here tomorrow to find God’s answer in His Word, OK?
These are powerful thoughts aren’t they. So powerful you might want to rewind and listen to this entire “Walking with Jesus” again. I’m praying for everyone hearing my voice, that the Holy Spirit will help us all understand this fully and truthfully. And I’ll meet you right back here tomorrow…
Today’s Scripture is 2 Peter 2:20.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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