Editorial – Victory a gaze away

Distraction is defeat. Winners look to The Winner – and never look away!

Hell hates holiness. No other explanation need be sought for the global power of political correctness in our day. You can be holy, or you can be ‘PC’ – the attempt to be both will tear you apart. In the first instance, you are freeto please God; in the second you are compelled to please men. Question for in front of the mirror… Who is your Lord – your Creator, or society’s bullies?

In its earliest appearances, political correctness was about respect for our fellow human beings, using language less likely to offend, more likely to accord respect. Today it’s the bully’s favoured weapon against free speech. Societies whose recently deceased relatives fought a war to protect their descendants from militarised thugs who would have shut down freedom of thought, speech and assembly, exterminated Jews and imposed their murderous cull on all who were deemed to have ‘life not worthy of life’ – these same indebted societies – are now lamely surrendering their bloodbought freedoms to a new generation of thugs. Only this time the bullies are fellow citizens who have weaponised the media and tame politicians to champion their fictitious victimhood at the expense both of sanity and of our democratic freedom to disagree.

Amazingly, this constitutes ideal social and political conditions in which God’s glory – and existence – can be made visible by a ‘holy nation’, a nation of unbribed souls within the world’s nations. The challenge is immense, the costs (in human terms) likely to be sacrificial – but such a people exists for whom the task is gloriously possible. These people have died… and now live by means of an indestructible life that renders them invincible against a hidden enemy who is second only in power to God Himself.

The consistent testimony of Biblical history is that God, Our Maker, is opposed to compulsion. In contrast, the work of Satan always enslaves the human spirit. God is Love. Jesus was able to say: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). So let’s observe…

A wealthy young man desired to be His follower. Jesus challenged him to sell up and give to the poor and watched with compassionate sadness as the young man – possessed by his possessions – walked away downcast. Jesus could have run after him as some would today (no doubt appealing to their global ministry’s urgent need of funds!) but, in fact, Our Lord made it difficult for him to join and easy to walk away. No coaxing, no control, no compulsion…

Free… and impervious

Those whom the Son of God has set free are free indeed; a self-forgetting community, fixated on the Crucified (and Risen) Saviour, vividly distinct from and within their societies. They are ready casualties of their own kindness as they proclaim (amidst hostility) Jesus risen from the dead and God’s free gift of eternal life in His Name. As they keep their steady focus on Jesus, they prove impervious to both bribery and intimidation – unmoved by either the accolades or anathemas of their peers…

‘Steady focus on Jesus’ – now there’s a thought for the modern Head-less Church! Feeling guilty about her failure to ‘fix the world’ and desperate to win the world’s favour, she looks less and less like the glorious Bride of Christ and more like a fevered wedding planner – diary awash with appointments and ‘to do’ lists. Now there’s compulsion! Yet the true glorious church is only ever a gaze away… Paul saw that our transformation into the likeness (holiness) of Jesus involves nothing more than ‘beholding His glory’ – we are changed as we gaze. (2 Cor 3:18)

The implications for Christian warfare are obvious. To disable the Church and render believers impotent in this world – and displace freedom with compulsion – the only weapon Satan needs is…

DISTRACTION. The devil need not worry where our focus lands – so long as Jesus is out of focus and some other ‘good work for God’ dominates our attention. Satan has no fear of a Church that looks like an overwhelmed social work department – but all of Hell trembles when the Bride has eyes only for her Groom. I am not at all denigrating the Church’s proper social action, HOWEVER… We must always be more ‘pro’-Israel’s Messiah than pro-Israel; always, more pro-Lord of Life than proLife; always more determined to preach the justice of Calvary than to seek justice for ourselves. Pre-occupation with preaching Jesus is the true apostolic succession!

Let’s not miss the point. God’s Word – so lightly regarded by many modern Christians and ‘churches’ – is the neglected key to our transformation through restored focus. Jesus said: “these are the scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39)

Peter described the true, Jesus-centred, Cross-fixated, Bible-trusting Church as a separated nation – separated to make God known to the nations: “…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

He addressed them as ‘aliens’ in the world – folks who were not politically correct. Because they were holy, they chose to live in harm’s way and preached Christ to their hostile society… to save their enemies.

Pardon refused!

The apostles were united in their understanding that “one died for all, and therefore all died” (2 Corinthians 5:14). This means that Jesus’ spotless selfsacrifice is full and sufficient pardon for all humanity – a pardon, however, that can be received and enjoyed only through repentance and faith. Otherwise, we are like the 19th century death row criminal granted a US Presidential pardon… who threw it back in the President’s face! The prison authorities were thrown into confusion. How could they hang a man whom the President had pardoned? The highest judge in the land handed down his ruling that a pardon (no matter how highly authorised) was of value only to the criminal to whom it pertained. If he held it of no value, the hanging should take place as if he had not been pardoned!

Paul said: “…we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all people, especially of those who believe.” (1 Timothy 4:10 – my emphasis). Faith which looks to Jesus Christ as Saviour and repentance which bows to Him alone as Lord are how the Judge evaluates our respect for heaven’s pardoning mercy. Salvation is not universal, we are pardoned and escape judgment at the Cross – or not at all. (John 5:24; Acts 4:12)

The believer’s transition from the domain of darkness to God’s glorious realm of light is described in terms of (co-)death and (co-)resurrection. Both the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus are inclusive of all who believe: “You have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3); “you were dead” in “trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1); “one died for all and therefore all died”. (2 Corinthians 5:14). He describes Christian baptism as union with Christ in His death: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, (emphasis mine) in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life”. (Romans 6:1-4)

It’s crystal clear that, in some real and objective sense a Christian can be said to have died (the Greek tense at Colossians 3:3, Romans 6:2 and 2 Corinthians 5:14 is aorist, it’s done, finished, complete). Likewise the Greek text of 2 Corinthians 5:17 requires that we note the absence of the verb ‘to be’ and, with a short fanfare ‘ta-da!’, we render: “If anyone is in Christ… new creation!”

It seems to me that our evangelical brains are not fully engaged with the vast scale of God’s provision for our victory as followers of His Son – and “children of God”. We are rightly appalled by today’s affluent celebrity triumphalism that is better known for its empty claims than for its Biblical soundness – but dark forces do not flee before market forces… There is no question, however, that God’s Word uses the language of invincibility to describe not only the Lord Jesus, but also His followers. We are “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). This is so because, in Christ we have not only been united with Him in His death (Rom 6:5) but also in His resurrection: “… you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” (Colossians 2:13-15)

With our victory so final, so secure, why is it that today’s society is so little impacted by the Church and her triumphant Gospel? In our Saltshakers/ Foundations gatherings we emphasise the ‘Hebraic’ nature of our faith. What could be less Hebraic than relegating these mighty doctrines to mere mind-toys with no practical application to daily life? Repeating patterns of failure in our discipleship are strong indicators of enemy entrenchments – strongholds that can be demolished by those who know how to wield their ‘weapons of righteousness’. (2 Corinthians 6:7; 10:4)

Rehearse the truth

Our sins (e.g. anger) “give place” to the devil. (Ephesians 4:26-27) The chapter which lists (for Christians!) the sins of the flesh begins with the command: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery”. (Galatians 5:1)

Our victory over sin stands or falls on our ability to keep our victorious Commander in view and wield the sword of truth against the ‘father of lies’. Ought we not, every day, to rehearse the powerful doctrines of our faith, turning irreversible truth into believing prayer, declaring the glorious facts of our Hell-confounding union with Jesus Christ? Darkness is spiritual deception. It will never give ground to anything but the final authoritative truth of God’s Word wielded by an army that fights from “above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God”. (Colossians 3:1) He came in the flesh to win our victory for us.

Joshua was warned that God’s Word should not ‘depart from his mouth’. God intends that we vocalise and rehearse the truth – constantly. Recitation reinforces hearing and “faith comes by the hearing of the word”. You have died in Him and have been raised up with Him to re-take ground surrendered to evil. How much victory do you want – and how much do you want it?