Leading With A Limp

In Genesis 3:15, we see the first mention of the atonement where God proclaims of the seed of the woman, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is a contrast of the Cross of Christ and the suffering of Satan, ordained by God. In other words, Jesus crushed the head of Satan, as Satan bruised Christ’s heel. The bruised heel of Jesus happened at the Cross in contrast to the utter defeat of Satan at the Cross (1 John 3:8).

It says in Hebrews 2:14 that through the Holy Spirit we share in the flesh and blood.  That is, we now share in this same atoning victory, with Christ, of the defeat of the Devil (2 Corinthians 1:7, Romans 8:17). Additionally, we see in Luke 19, “God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit has given us the authority of treading on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt us.” My point is, we cannot receive more destruction than what happened to Jesus on the Cross, and the bible clearly states that it was a bruised heel. In other words, we are not going to suffer more than what Christ suffered. Although people can hurt our bodies, they cannot touch our souls. A 16th century puritan William Gurnall puts it like this: “ ‘Upon thy belly shalt thou go’ (Genesis 3:14). This prostrate condition of Satan assures believers that the devil can never lift his head – his wily schemes – higher than the saints’ heels. He may make you limp, but cannot take your life. And the bruise which he gives will be rewarded with the breaking of his own head – the utter ruin of him and his cause.”

What an awesome truth! The reward of a bruised heel is a crushed head, and I believe our reward is the comfort of God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 shows us that because we share in the sufferings in Christ, we also share in the comfort of God in the midst of our affliction, trials, and pain. It gives us an imagery of resting in the victory of God. In addition, 2 Corinthians 4:7, shows us that we are “afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed,” again, showing that us that these are bruised heels. I will never tell someone who is suffering “it will get better” because that means I am saying that God is NOT enough right now in their pain.

I want to be very clear here. I am in no way minimizing someone’s pain. Some of the sins that are committed against the saints are horrific. But we want to maximize the glory of God in the midst of their pain, revealing the bigness of God that outweighs the bigness of their pain.  I believe that God calls us to suffer well, and suffering well is allowing God’s comfort in the midst of our pain and sorrow. In other words, pain and suffering is revealing our need for God in a greater way. We spend a lot of time running away from our sufferings or bruised heels when we need to run to them because that is where we will find God and our dependence on Him is most realized. So that, when we are at our worst, God is at His best.

Who Do You Think You Are?

God deals with Four kinds of people in Romans 2

The Pagan: - Ignoring God. (Romans 2:12-16)

The Pagan person says, “I should be acquitted of my sins on the grounds of ignorance. I don’t know what sin is”.

God says, “I have revealed Myself to you; therefore, there is no excuse available to man”. (Romans 2:12)

The Moralist: - I am not as bad as others (Romans 2:1-11)

The Moral Person says, “I should be acquitted of my sins because I’m not as bad as the rapist, murderers, addicts, or prostitutes”.  

God says, “You’re not the judge”. (Romans 2:1)

The Religious: - My works make me good. (Romans 2:17-29)

The Religious Person says, “I should be acquitted of my sins because I know the law of God and do what is right. I go to church, I tithe, I lead a community group, and I have a great marriage. I don’t need a lot of help.”

God says, “You don’t practice what you preach!” (Romans 2:23)

The Therapeutic: I want to feel good. (Romans 2:12-16)

The Therapeutic Person says ―I should be acquitted of my sins on the grounds that I have had so many sins committed against me and I have suffered greatly for them. So, God is ok with my un-forgiveness for people who sinned against me. “They have become a law to themselves” (v.14) meaning they have defined what is good and evil.

God says, “God will judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus". (Romans 2:16)

When you look at this list, what is your first reaction? “I’m none of them”? Or “I’m one of them”? I know I do.  The truth is we are all of them.  I believe Paul’s point in Romans 2 is to show us we need a redeemer.  Even as Christians we have some blinds spots, so I hope you can use this list to help reveal some of those blind spots.  Remember it’s NOT about how bad you are; it’s about how good God is.

My Take On Spiritual Warfare Part Two

Last week I blogged about spiritual warfare and today’s blog is an extension of last week’s.  I stated that Satan uses three main devices against us: temptation, deception, and accusation.  These schemes of Satan lean more to how he seduces us.  When we think of Satan’s attack what do we mean?  I hear a lot of people use the word attack (including me) when describing what Satan does to us.  Satan definitely wants destroy us but I would like to explore what attack really means, or explore what Satan can accomplish in his attacks. We see a lot of scripture that says Satan was destroyed through the cross like 1 John 3:8 “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” So if we see Satan lost how can he continue to attack?

The best example I can give on how Satan attacks work on this side of the cross is, if I am sitting in my living room and there is a massive storm outside, a really bad storm where you can hear the rain hitting the roof and the wind is blowing so hard the rain hits the windows.  All the while I am sitting in a comfy recliner next to a toasty warm fire.  Am I experiencing the rain? Or am I cold and wet? No. Even though it’s nasty outside I am cozy inside.  In matter of fact the warmth and protection of my house from the storm outside makes me feel cozier.  You see, Jesus is the house!  We are protected and covered by Jesus!  Although we can hear the temptations, deceptions, and accusations of Satan, it is just like rain hitting the roof, because of the absolute truth that we are in Christ.  I believe sometimes when we believe Satan is bigger than he really is, it is like we put on our rain coat and open our umbrella inside the house to protect ourselves from the rain, when it’s a dry cozy 70 degrees inside our house.

How does this happen? How are we protected from the “attacks” of the enemy? By the Cross! Ephesians gives us this imagery of putting on the whole Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20), “so you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”

Belt of Truth: We know that God has given us his Holy Spirit to know his Truth (1 Corinthians 2:6-16), and Truth and Gospel are synonymous, making the belt of Truth the understanding of the work of Christ on the Cross. This is absolute Truth and central to our faith: the Atonement.

Breastplate of Righteousness: We have been made right by God; we have been justified before God. This is, as Luther calls it, “the great exchange.” We give Him our filth; He gives us His righteousness. This happened at the Atonement.

Shoes of Readiness, given by the gospel of peace: We are prepared by the Gospel, given the Truth, through the atoning work of Christ by which we now have peace with God. This gives us a readiness to withstand the schemes of the devil and share the Gospel of peace with others (1 Peter 3:15). The Gospel of piece comes from the Atonement.

Shield of Faith: which extinguishes all of the flaming darts: We know the darts are predominantly the accusation, deception, and temptation of the evil one. Scriptures tell us, “in all circumstances,” take the shield of faith. And where is our faith? That we absolutely stand with Christ, in right relationship to God by the Holy Spirit—again because of the atoning work of Christ. I John 5:1-12 says that our faith is that we have victory. (Please note vv. 4-5)

Helmet of Salvation: Again, this was done by the atoning work of Christ; he has reconciled us back to God. Salvation encompasses everything: that he paid the penalty (penal substitution); he not only paid for our sins but removed them (propitiation/expiation); he has justified us therefore making us right before God and giving us His righteousness (justification); so that we can have peace with God (reconciliation). Christ paid the price (ransom) and redeemed us (redemption).

Sword of the Spirit: This is given to us from Genesis to Revelation, the full story of God. What is the story of God? Christ’s death and resurrection on the cross to bring His people back to himself. The central theme in the bible is the humiliation of our God on the cross to pay man’s debt. 

 

So we see through this, that the armor of God is the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross by the Gospel of Peace, Belt of Truth, Helmet of Salvation, Breastplate of Righteousness, Shield of Faith, and the Word of God. Again, I’m not saying there isn’t anything for us to do. I’m saying that the very thing that saved us, which is the Cross, is the very thing that destroyed the Enemy. And understanding this truth is what sets us free from the “attacks” of Satan.

My Take On Spiritual Warfare

I have been getting slammed by the enemy lately, so I wanted to share what I think spiritual warfare is.  Have you ever been bombarded with lies? Or bombarded with accusation? Or bombarded with temptation?  I believe deception, accusation, and temptation are the three main tools of Satan. Often when we are being attacked we tend to believe we are in the room with Satan alone. Have you ever wondered where God is when you are under the attack? I believe God is right there!  I wonder at times, if we are more enamored by the power of the enemy than the power of the cross.

In Colossians 2:12-15, of which verse 15 says, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” Also, Jesus says He has “given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.” (Luke 10:17-20)

Humans have always been attracted to the absolute self-sufficiency of God, desiring to be autonomous themselves. Satan uses that very desire to entice man away from God. As we see in Genesis 3:1-7, the first words to man from Satan are “Did God actually say to you, you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?” This says two things: it accuses God of withholding the truth and it tempts the man and woman by appealing to their desires to be entirely self-sufficient. They desired to be their own gods. Satan then uses deceit to promise gain to Eve in her desires of autonomy.

In Genesis 3:6 it says, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Satan did nothing to Eve as he spoke with her. He merely used Eve’s own desires, “good for food,” “delight to the eyes,” and “to make one wise” to seduce her through his temptation, deceit, and accusation. In the same way, Satan uses these three devices against us. We are not victims under the attack of Satan, but rather participants, as our own evil desires entice us to sin (James 1:14).

Throughout the New Testament, we are repeatedly told that we are in Christ; we are of Christ; we have union with Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30, John 17:20-26). Therefore, we can see that Satan’s attack is on Christ and not on us. In other words, Satan’s lies, accusation and temptations will always be what God didn’t complete in you, or what God hasn’t accomplished through the cross in your life.  That is why the attack is on the character of God and not you and we know Jesus won the battle defeating Satan, sin and death.  We have baptized into His victory, so we are no longer victims of attack. I believe Satan tempts us by appealing to our desire to be god-like and fight a battle that only Jesus could have won.

You can clearly see that, though Satan attacks, you are not subject to the intent of the attack; Satan cannot undo what God has done through the Cross. Therefore, when you as a believer experience the attack of the enemy, it is no longer what the enemy does to you that determines the outcome in your life, but how you respond to the attack. The enemy has no “real” power over you. It is vital to see that there really is a difference between what Satan does to you verses your response to his three main devices of temptation, deception, and accusation.

So for me personally, when I am attacked and I believe Christ is the real victor, now when the  the lies, accusations and temptations come, I am reminded how good God is not how bad I am.   

There is so much more to say about this so I will talk more about it in my next blog and unpack the armor of God in Ephesians 6.  I would love to hear your thoughts of this as well.