William was feeling down. Really down. He was trying his best to live up to the standard expected of a Christian. He was doing all the things he knew to do. He attended every service at church. He prayed and read the bible. He attended a small group. Despite all this he seemed to have an on-off relationship with God.
Outwardly William seemed to be doing well. Others in the church looked up to him but William was struggling. Struggling with a hidden sin. A sin that was proving just too hard to remove. The process was the same. William would give in to this private vice and then, full of shame and remorse, he would repent and ask God to forgive him. After that, he would feel better, for a while at least. Then it would come back to haunt him. He would sin again. William was caught in a cycle.
The sin actually wasn't the worst part of it. This cycle of sin, repent, sin, repent was getting to him. William felt like a hypocrite and he felt that God was running out of patience with him. It seemed harder and harder to convince God to give him 'just one more chance'. The weight of condemnation was getting to be too much to bear. William questioned whether God still forgave him. He found himself in an ever increasingly dark place wondering how much longer he could carry on like this.
Now in response to Williams predicament I could have typed a blog post about how to defeat sin or crucifying the carnal nature or tapping into the power of God but I want to go a bit deeper today. I believe there are many like William out there. They have been touched by God. They believe in Jesus. They are trying to follow him but something is holding them back. Something is dragging them down and it's more than sin.
It's a spirit of discouragement and condemnation!
This same spirit works through a number of circumstances. It works in the person for whom the ministry hasn't proven as fruitful {or rewarding} as they thought it would be. It works in the person whose hope of entering into ministry hasn't materialised. It works in the heart of one waiting for a future spouse without ever meeting 'the one' or in a person who has met the supposed one but 'the one' didn't see it that way. Discouragement can attach itself to a variety of circumstances. You blame yourself. You blame God for not coming through for you. You blame yourself again. You look for the missing link. You try to find that special something you need to do to bring about what you want. In Williams case it was a besetting sin.
I want to share 3 things with you today but first let me tell you what they are not. They are not 3 magic keys to get you what you want. They are not 3 key principles to help you remove the 'thorn in your flesh'. No, this is about a much deeper work and these 3 key points will revolutionise your life and walk with God.
1 - Know and believe what the gospel really is.
I know, I know. You ALREADY know what they gospel is, don't you? Well you may be surprised. Many of us get the idea that we are saved by the grace of God. It is not by our own merit but by God's unearned favour and yet that faith is tested. Somehow we reach the point where we think grace is finite, limited, in short supply. Oh, maybe God's got grace for better Christians but not people like me. You see the problem? You've got 'grace +'. It's grace AND something else. It's grace plus a certain level of consistent holiness. It's grace plus a regular performance level. It's grace for a season until you're mature enough to live under the law. I want to encourage you that this is most certainly NOT how grace works.
The gospel tells us that we are saved BY grace THROUGH faith and that not of ourselves, it is the GIFT of God. How do we receive this wonderful gift? By FAITH! In other words, if you have faith enough to believe then God has got grace sufficient for you.
This is really big. In fact it's so integral to your walk with God that when we drift from this life changing truth we give a foothold for condemnation and discouragement to come in. There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Why? Because Jesus took the condemnation for you. Stop striving to be good enough and start surrendering to the amazing grace of Jesus. It takes true humility to stop relying on your own merits and goodness. Encountering and surrendering to this grace may break you a hundred times but every time God will refashion you a little more into his image. Jesus lived a life of absolute reliance on the Father in heaven. We have a predilection for relying on ourselves. A soul addiction for trying to earn God's favour. A fetish for striving to be 'worthy' and here is the second thing you need to know.
2 - You are not worthy, Jesus is - That's the point.
How we cling tenaciously to this insistence of 'paying our way'. We are like shame faced, proud beggars being handed the keys to a brand new mansion and fishing out some grubby coins in our pockets and insisting "I can't just take house off your hands for nothing, here, let me give you something for it" How on earth will your doing good or not doing wrong cover even 1% of the price of the eternal life Christ purchased for you? Jesus said Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. That word poor means beggar. You and I are beggars before God. We are unworthy. We have nothing to give him and yet the scripture describes us as supremely blessed. How is this so? Is it because of the few coins of good works that you pulled out from your pocket? Of course not. That's absurd, but notice how the old meritocracy thinking of the world tenaciously grips your mind. We fear that God isn't entirely gracious, that he is standing there with his hand on the light switch turning his acceptance of you off then on then off again.
How can you even live like that? The good news is that you don't have to! If you fear you are not worthy, let me put your mind at rest. You are not. I am not. We are not. Jesus is!!! That's the point. There are none righteous, no not one. None of us could hit the standard. Jesus did it for us. Jesus lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. He has defeated death by rising from the grave and is now seated in the place of power and authority operating on our behalf!
So true is the statement that religion says do, but Jesus says done!
3 - Faith is the battleground
This is a true eye opener. What is it that links us to this amazing grace? It is simple faith. If you have faith enough to believe then God has grace enough to save you. You see there are certain things the devil can do nothing about. He couldn't stop Jesus blood paying for your sins. He couldn't stop Jesus rising from the dead. In fact he cannot stop Jesus, period! What's more, Satan cannot stop the grace of God so what does he go after? He goes after your faith.
Your faith is the conduit through which God's grace comes to you. Satan's ploy is to leave you in such a slough of despond that you no longer believe God's grace is sufficient for you. Discouragement and condemnation are primary tools of the enemy that are applied to have a corrosive effect on your faith.
I know the last thing you feel like doing when you are in this situation is to fight but that's exactly what you need to do. The biggest battle is not the battle against sin but the battle for your faith. Your faith is both the battleground and the coveted prize. Jesus is immovable, undefeatable, unchangeable. However, turn your trust from his grace to your works and now that assurance begins to wane. That's why my hope is not in the outworking of my own holiness but in the resurrected Christ. I have absolute confidence precisely BECAUSE I have no confidence in myself. I have absolute confidence because my confidence is in Christ! In Christ you have absolute assurance, confidence and security.
How to fight to win.
In Hebrews 4 / 14 - 16 we read how Jesus is our great high priest. He lived the life we should have lived. He did it for us. He is without sin and what's more he invites us to come to the throne of grace. The throne of God's freely given favour. The place of God's extravagant goodness and blessing. Who qualifies to come to such a place? The person who is covered by the blood of the high priest Jesus who is not only high priest but the one final sacrifice for all sin. He ever lives to stand on our behalf. Wherefore come...not with quivering and fear. Not with reticence and doubt..but come with BOLDNESS and CONFIDENCE. Come to the throne of grace where you will receive mercy and grace to help in time of need. God's grace is sufficient for you. God's presence for his children is not turned on and off like a light switch but is more like a light sensor which automatically comes on when you are present.
Sometimes we let our emotions rule. Discouragement makes us feel like God is distant. Don't ever judge reality on the basis of your emotions but judge reality on the basis of God's word. God says come with full confidence. Not confident in yourself but full confidence in the shed blood of the Son of God who is raised up and accepted into heaven. The devils aim is to use condemnation to keep you from the throne of grace. God's aim is to invite you into that place so that condemnation cannot keep a hold of you.
God has not withdrawn his presence from you. If he had you would sin with seeming impunity because you wouldn't feel any conviction about it at all. Don't make your faith subject to being free from sin but put your faith in the one who is already free from sin and will, on that final day, receive you to himself in glory where you will be miraculously transformed and sin will not even be present with you.
In the meantime, when ever condemnation and discouragement begin to wear you down, come to the throne of grace with confidence. God doesn't have his hand on the light switch. In fact, for those in Christ, there is no light switch at all. God never switched himself off from you. He was there all along.