Into the blinding light

This will make me smile for a long long long time.

Ant Adams spoke at RUCU tonight on Romans 6:1-14, the first part of what Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones calls the 'most liberating bit of the Bible', and it's pretty obvious to see why. Of course, as a Christian, i believe that the power of death, and sin, and the devil himself was disarmed totally by the resurection, that his reign is over, and that when Jesus returns He will dismiss him with a word. But, nonetheless, sin, and the devil, the god of this world, has some power left in this world. The devil influenced our mind, he poisons our sense of right and wrong, hurts our relationships with God and others, he lies to us, promising us joy and release, if only we listen to him. Isn't that he did with Jesus in the desert; 'worship me and all this will be yours'? He lies to us, and all too often i listen to him. But guess what, we are in Christ, IN Him. We died with Him, and we rose with Him. And this is the truth. A lot of life is dependant on that which is not absolute. Well, that Christ died on the cross and we are now dead to sin is an absolute. Thats all there is to it, it's objective truth. The gospel is not subject to our feelings, it doesn't change in the wind like we do...it is true. We are dead to sin. So when sin comes calling, as it will, ignore it. It has no right, no right at all to boss us around, to lie to us and to expect us to obey it's passions. We are in Christ. United to Him by His death and resurection. And thats the end of the matter. In Ants words, when sin calls, don't pick up. Desire God more, dwell on the gospel and the wonders of the cross, spend time with Him, read your Bible, tell your spirit that there is something better than sin. Because there is, and His name is Jesus, and He is life.

Two other things really struck me from tonight as well...

Freedom.
When i was in Bulgaria over the summer, one guy, Todov, said he didn't want to become a Christian because he wanted to be free. There's a difference between freedom to, and freedom from though i believe. Todov, and so many others want freedom to, they want to follow their hearts desires, and they think that Christ, our wonderful risen Lord, will stop them doing that. Their hearts desires. Freedom to obey their mind. Our minds are fallen, are hearts broken and sinful. The devil pulls around our sinful nature for his own ends, he's not interested in our good, he's out for what he can get, he rors like a mortally wounded beast, ready to pounce and destroy any who he can.
Christ offers freedom from this. He offers freedom from the things that will not ever fulfill us, that will only ever make us feel emptier, more painful, more alone. I remember trying to fill the chasm in my being with any number of things i thought i wanted, that i thought i was free to do. None of them worked. I only felt more disassociated, more alone, more unfulfilled. Christ offers us freedom from those things, and freedom to persue our all in Him, to worship Him, the task for which we were created, which is therefore the only one which will fulfill us.

Presuming grace.
Paul tells us that grace abounding where sin increases is no excuse to keep sinning. And, obviously any Christian would agree, no one is ever going to come out and say that. But presuming grace is just as bad. How often i come to a point of no return with sin, where i'm about to say or do something and i know i shouldn't, but then tell myself that God is gracious and forgiving, and do it anyway. How awful is that when you think about it. What an abuse of the cross that is, what a perversion of grace that is. How often i do it. Lets not presume grace, lets live in it, stand in it and preach it, but not presume it. We are in Christ, so let us present ourselves to Him, as we should.