Welcome to Day 3 of The Challenge!

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For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

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We have been set free from the power of sinAnd now Paul gives us the reason why our loves and our pursuits are to be after the things above, rather than on the earth. (Isn’t it wonderful to be able to understand why sometimes?)  In Christ, our old self has been slain.  That disguised monster whose sole existence was for the things of this earth, bent upon the pursuit of their glittering promises, and thriving in the murky depths of their enslaving trappings…is no longer!

Yes, there is still a battle on our part against sin, but sin’s power, and the absolute dominion our old nature had over us is dead.  It cannot control us anymore.  As someone once made helpfully obvious to me: never mind whether it doesn’t want to respond, or how hard it tries not to, a corpse has no ability to respond!  We are to count on that fact and “reckon ourselves to be dead” by faith.

Then, just think.  Not only have we shed our filthy rags, but we take on a new identity, hidden in Him.  We bear His name now.  Why would we even want to again toy with the things below, which once so heartily fed our flesh?  We are one with Christ now; that’s why we don’t parley with the enemy.  Another way we’re hidden is from the world’s understanding, which explains why a life set apart to God makes no sense to it.  When sin is blinding you, being “dead” doesn’t look desirable or worth it, because the value of the exchange is hidden as “foolishness”.

We’re also hidden securely behind a cloak of spiritual protection, against an Brittanyenemy who holds the same hatred for us as he did for the One whose name we have taken.  May the honor a warrior bears for his country and the confidence he has in its power, pale in comparison to ours.  May it cause us to live as heirs worthy of the holy God we represent.

~ Brittany Smith

    This entry was posted on Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Memorization Challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.