Make War

"I hear so many christians murmur about their imperfections and their addictions and their failures and their shortcomings and I hear so little war. Murmur murmur murmur. "Why am I this way?" Make war!" - John Piper

Looking back on my life as a christian, I have seen some dramatic twists and turns of events. I have seen leaps and falls, and defeats and victories. But in the end, my God stands and I am on his team. Whether I am standing or sitting or kneeling or flat on my face (or back), God has overcome and because of this, so have I.

Sometimes I wonder what life I'm living. To which category do I belong? I'm not a 'heathen', an unrighteous soul, because my fruit says otherwise, yet I question my christianity because of how hard it gets sometimes. Sometimes it feels like I'm slugging it out against the devil. All of that Romans 8:37 talk somehow flies out of my head with a lucky blow. When my arms get weary and my chest burns from the constant wrestle, my mind is far from thinking about streets of gold and rest. Because my flesh won't quit and somehow it rises with renewed vigour, I go, "what form of christianity is this?"

I really thought I was free from sin. What does freedom mean? Paul made it clear when he said "death no longer has mastery of us" in Romans 6:9; we are "no longer slaves to sin" (6:6); so we don't have to sin. Our first option is not to sin, neither is it our only one. We can now please God (Romans 8:7,8). But God is already pleased because of Christ's death - hence why he resurrected. So what am I fighting for? God's approval?

No. We fight because we were born again to. We were made to make war, not love - Love has already been given. Yet, because love has already been given, we are not exempt from trying. The doctrine of grace (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints...lka "once saved, always saved") does not allow us to say a prayer and do as we please. It is not the ticket to total depravity but it is followed by perseverance of the saints. Tenth Avenue North put it well:

"We are, we are, we're caught in the in between 

 But we're fighting for what we already have received.

 Looking for love, we're finding we're still in need.

 It's only what we have lost will we be allowed to keep."

Our ability to please God comes with the responsibility to do so. Romans 6:13 says "Do not offer the parts of your body to sin...but rather to God." The result is eternal life. So in essence, once saved always saved is the assurance that my humanity will never usurp God's rule on my life. It is permission to do God's will forever and to be confident in the fact that "neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:39).