This is your Independence Day!
"For sin shall not have DOMINION over you,
for you are not under law but under grace."
(Romans 6:14)
Our forefathers, who found themselves under
the dominion of England, decided that it was
time for them to declare their Independence!
For them, this decision led to a bloody war.
Victory DID come, but not without great cost!
It’s the same for us believers: Jesus has set us
free from the DOMINION of the devil,.. and the
cost was: The very life of Jesus!
I used to believe that it was MY job to fight the
devil,... to win the victory, through God’s power.
But, the Bible clearly states that the devil is a
defeated enemy! (I Peter 5:8) Jesus already defeated him at the cross! There is no NEED for ME to try to
defeat an already defeated foe!
(Lions don’t "wander around roaring." Lions must
depend on stealth! They sneak up on you! That
is their main weapon! That’s how they get close
enough to you,... close enough to pounce on you!
If a lion is roaring,... you will hear him coming and
run away! The devil’s a "roaring lion" because
he was wounded at the cross!)
Although satan is still alive, and trying to lead you into sin, he does NOT need to be obeyed! He tries to convince me that little sins are o.k., and he
tries to make me afraid of him, and, if I DO sin,
he’s right there to accuse me before God!
But, his power to control you is gone! Jesus has
"condemned sin... (destroyed sin’s power) in the
flesh" (Romans 8:3) The power of sin over you
has been destroyed,.. and condemned! It’s no longer
your master! You are NO LONGER it’s slave! It no
longer has control over you! You now have a NEW
Master. You are now a slave to righteousness. You
have "the gift of the Spirit,... self-control."
(Gal. 5:22-23)
This is YOUR Independance Day! If you’ve never
understood this before,... YOU don’t have to fight
the devil,.. Jesus already fought him and won! You
and I NO LONGER have to SERVE sin! We have
been set free to serve the Savior,... not out of an
obligation, not out of a duty, but, out of love!
Although we are INDEPENDENT of sin,.. we are
to be DEPENDENT on Jesus! We are to believe
in HIS victory for us! We are to trust HIM to live His life through us! We’re to REST in His finished work!
Imagine a baby inside of its mother,.. if he could
talk, he might say, "I am IN MOM!" He might say,
"My Life is MOM!" That baby is totally dependant
on his Mom! He depends on her for oxygen, for
blood, for food,... for life! Apart from his Mom, he
can do nothing!
That’s us! We are IN JESUS! HE is our very life!
We depend on Him for victory,.. for peace,.. for joy,.. without Him we can do nothing!
Look at John 15,.. where we are told by Jesus that
"I (Jesus) am the vine,.. YOU are the branches!" The
duty of the baby is to DEPEND on the Mother! The
duty of the believer is to DEPEND on the Savior!
He told us, "Without Me you can do nothing!" (vs. 5)
Notice, He didn’t say "without My power, you can
do nothing." No,.. He said "without ME you can do
nothing!" Notice, He didn’t say "without prayer you
can do nothing"... He didn’t say "without fasting you
can do nothing".. He didn’t say a lot of things,.. but, he DID say, "without ME you can do nothing!"
Jesus wants to be OUR VERY LIFE! He was the
ONLY One who has ever successfully lived a life
totally pleasing to God! How can you or I be able
to match that? WE CAN’T! Jesus must do it in us
and through us! The Life of the Baby is the life of
the Mom! The Life of the Branch is the Vine!
Return to the Garden of Eden, for a picture of how
it was meant to be,... How God set it up to be, and
how NOW, through Jesus, God brings us back to
the Garden! Adam and Eve were free,.. there was
no list of rules, no laws to govern their thoughts or
actions,.. there was just God and them, "walking
together in the cool of the evening." (Gen. 3:8)
Yes, there was ONE restriction,.. don’t eat of that
one tree. That was it. For all they knew, that tree
was poison! God did tell them, "the day you eat
of it, you will die." (Gen. 2:16-17)
But, God intended for His two new creations to be
in fellowship with Him,.. to enjoy their time together, to get to know each other,.. and to
provide for their every need! God wanted them to be fully and totally dependent upon Him! He wanted to be everything to them,.. He wanted to be their very life!
You know the story,.. it all came to an end when
Adam and Eve decided to "be independent" of God
God,... to go their own way,... to try to make a life
for themselves APART from God.
But, the story has a happy ending: We can now
come back to God,.. He has cleared our debt,.. we
can be returned to a place of fellowship with God,
we can walk and talk with Him,... we can sit at His
feet and learn from Him, we can get to know Him,
and trust HIM, to meet our every need! HE can,..
once again,.. be our very Life!
If you have taken Jesus as your savior, and given
your life to Him,... then HE IS INSIDE OF YOU. He’s not inside just to sit in there and watch what you do,... He is in there to LIVE AGAIN THROUGH YOU,... to be your life, to meet all of your needs, to be all that He can be, in and through you!
Gary <><
