Freedom of choice

The good news of Jesus Christ means that I am accepted before God in Christ. This is absolute acceptance, unconditional, a matter of pure sovereign grace. It never changes and does not depend on what I do. Pleasing God is not about my goodness but depends entirely on what Jesus has done.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3–6)

As today’s devotional says, to this a legalistic person might say, ‘That’s antinomianism; it will give men a license to sin!’ But they do not understand; being in Christ means being a different person, a person who does not want to sin, but to live a godly life. While I do have the freedom to follow my sin nature, being in Christ is powerful. As Paul said:

“I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” (Romans 7:21–25)

Just as salvation from the penalty of sin is found in Christ, so also is the solution to this inner battle against the power of sin. The only way to win it is to remain in Christ, abiding in Him:

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And 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 canceling 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 2:6–15)

This tells me to walk in Christ in the same way as I received Him — by faith, trusting Him alone for my salvation AND for the ability to say no to sin and live as God teaches me to live. He restored my freedom of choice. Once my only choice was sin, but now I have another options — the ability to say yes to Jesus, a wonderful gift from Him. To the legalists of his day (who suggested that we could live in sin because grace covered it, Romans 6:1ff) Paul wrote similar words:

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” (Galatians 5:16–18)

As I read this, I’m thinking that if a Christian gets caught up in rules and rituals and forgets grace alone saves us, how then could an unsaved person make any sense of it? How can sin be conquered by having it totally forgiven? How can I live a godly life by trusting Jesus rather than doing all I can to keep God’s commands? All I can say is that the ways of God are beyond our ways!

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My precious Lord Jesus Christ, I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and here on earth as well because this is Your choice for me. Because of You, I am holy and blameless, loved, Your child. My life is on the course You have planned for me, not to glorify me, but to bring praise to You and to Your glorious grace. In You, I’m free to choose, and because of You I deeply desire to walk according to Your will.

Rejoicing in my salvation

Deuteronomy 7:1–8:20; 2 Corinthians 2:12–17; Psalm 34:1–22

When I entered the kingdom of God, He wanted me to deal with all the ungodly things in my life. This is pictured in the life of the Israelites: “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.” (Deuteronomy 7:1–2)

It would not happen all at once. Imagine a new Christian being totally holy in an instant. His family and friends might do something drastic. God knows that. He said to the Israelites . . .

The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. (Deuteronomy 7:22–24)

The other reason that it takes time is that pride is deeply entrenched, at least mine is. To that, He says . . .

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord . . . Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him . . . Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery . . .  Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 8: 2–3, 5–6, 11–14, 17–18)

My grandmother used to say, “Too old too soon, too late smart.” After years of God dealing with my pride, I understand the depth of what “little by little” means. I also understand that some people cannot deal with great changes in another person. For them as well as for me, “little by little” is much easier.

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2:14–16)

God is so good. We celebrate the resurrection today (and every day) and with the psalmist must joyfully say: “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!  . . . The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.” (Psalm 34:1-8, 22)