We can put it off because of His Victory!

[Sons to Glory!]

We had awesome back & forth fellowship in the brothers' breakfast this morning. After some good sharing, a brother then made a summarizing statement by saying, "We can only put off the old man because of what Christ already did!" In other words, our role is to take that objective fact and make it our subjective reality. This makes so much sense and aligns things in scripture and our experience. So often we see this principle in scripture, like in Philippians 2:12-13: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure." Many other such verses, showing the fact in Christ but then how we must align,came to our minds and were shared. I love this kind of fellowship!

Of course I've heard this for years, and those I'm with have had much fellowship around it. But this morning it all seemed so simple! We often get hung up (at least I do, and I suspect I'm just like you . . .) on why isn't the objective reality of the victory that Christ won very apparent in our experience? His victory is the truth, but now we choose to believe and act on this truth or the lie. And then we speak the truth . . . or the lie to one another. And we walk and abide in Him accordingly - or we believe the lie that God doesn't love us, we don't measure up, the bros are out to lunch, etc.

And this even takes care of the apparent Armenian/Calvinistic dilemma. The objective truth is here/present/now/real - the total victory in Christ. But we must still choose to align with the victory moment by moment, using our free will. "I place before you life and death. Choose life!" It's that simple. I hope I'm conveying this adequately, as it was quite nourishing.