Determinedly Demolish Some Things. Deliverance
from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are
things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only
destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to
be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength
imparted by His Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to
fight, but only to “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord . .
.” (see Exodus 14:13).
But every theory or thought that raises itself up as a fortified
barrier “against the knowledge of God” is to be determinedly demolished
by drawing on God’s power, not through human effort or by compromise
(see 2 Corinthians 10:4).
It is only when God has transformed our nature and we have entered
into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare
is not against sin; we can never fight against sin— Jesus Christ
conquered that in His redemption of us. The conflict is waged over
turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done
easily, nor does God intend that it be so. It is accomplished only
through a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the
sense that He makes our character holy. He makes us holy in the sense
that He has made us innocent before Him. And then we have to turn that
innocence into holy character through the moral choices we make. These
choices are continually opposed and hostile to the things of our natural
life which have become so deeply entrenched— the very things that raise
themselves up as fortified barriers “against the knowledge of God.” We
can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of
God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to
bring another son to glory (see Hebrews 2:10).
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