THE BULLSEYE, THE BULL, AND THE BATTLE - PART 3

A BATTLE RAGES ON – THE BATTLE

So what’s the deal? Well first, according to Scripture, our redemption is not yet complete. While on the planet, “the law of sin” is still at work “in my members” -- the outer-self (Rom. 7:23).

“A battle rages, but we must realize that the warfare is between the real people we have become in Christ and the mortal remnants of the old people we were in Adam.” (Kenneth Boa)

Until the redemption of our bodies (Rom. 8:23), we are being transformed but not yet completely. Alright, most of us get that. The battle is still underway. But some of us have given up submitting to the transformation process, capitulating instead to the flesh covered over with some religious veneer because it’s sooooo freakin’ hard and we always fail anyway! And so we give up. And the world suffers, and we suffer, and the Savior is hidden behind our lukewarmness. Again, me too. I’m one of you and it sucks. I’m tired of it.

Here’s the deal fellow Westerners. We have to stop looking for quicker uploads and download speeds and better, newer Bible software -- and sign up again for the daily task of allowing God to gradually conform our outer selves to the image of Christ, which was created in our inner selves at the moment of our salvation. Here’s what I’m learning again -- back to the bull’s-eye:

The essence of the faith-life is learning to exchange our way with His way by personal experience, not just by knowledge and church attendance. It is learning to exchange the collection of truths, for living true – to our new nature purchased for us by Christ Jesus. Until we set ourselves on this gradual incline, by the mediating power of the Holy Spirit, we will not know what it means to be spiritual, and the world will continue to scoff at our version of Christianity.