FREED TO LIVE IN VICTORY!

Are you resurrecting that which is dead, that which Jesus nailed to the cross? Do you experience guilt and condemnation? Are you focused and frustrated by your failures, judging yourself by these actions? Do you evaluate yourself according to past mistakes, unable to move forward? Do you see God’s love for you as conditional according to your performance? Do you think God only answers your prayers because you are worth it, because you have performed perfectly, or at least performed well? Do you think you must earn God’s love and His answer to your prayers, seeing yourself as unworthy to receive from Him? Do you evaluate who you are as a Christian according to your works, how much time you pray, or how much time you spend reading the Bible? Do you see yourself as being defeated by problems? Living this way is bondage. Jesus freed you from the bondage of sin, guilt, condemnation, failure, and self-striving. He freed you from the hopelessness and frustration of trying to do things in your own strength. And how do you know this is true? Because He gave you His Holy Spirit that you may have life (2 Corinthians 3:6)!

You are not condemned; condemnation suggests that you are not fit for use, but instead worthless. This does not describe a believer of Jesus Christ who is now filled with His Holy Spirit. Christ died for everyone who would believe in Him (2 Corinthians 5:14). The result of believing this truth is that you are a new creation; you have become a new person; the old sinful nature is gone, and your new life in Christ has begun (2 Corinthians 5:17). To condemn yourself is to condemn the work that Jesus has done in you.

Recognizing the work of the Holy Spirit present in your spirit, one with you, should cause you to assess yourself not by your failures, but according to the Spirit. The Word tells us to stop evaluating ourselves and other believers from a human point of view (2 Corinthians 5:16). Instead, look into the mirror that reflects the truth of who you are in Christ; look at His Word! When you see Jesus and the fruit of the Spirit in His life, see yourself because that is who you are!

Your sufficiency comes from God (2 Corinthians 3:5). Your spirit reflects His sufficiency in you and through you. Your responsibility isn’t to strive more or work harder to make God move. Your responsibility is to believe in Jesus and His finished work, which has resulted in this amazing change in your nature. The victory that you experience on earth is because God equips you to stand firm in Christ, and He blessed you with the seal of His ownership, and He put His Spirit in your heart (2 Corinthians 1:20-22). This is your true nature. It has nothing to do with working harder to please Him. He is pleased because you believe in His Son.

God has already established through Jesus that when you pray according to His will, which is His Word, He hears and grants your request (1 John 5:14,15). There is nothing you can do to move God to hear you when you speak to Him; He has already moved through Jesus, by the finished work of the cross. This is a gift of His love, which is not earned. It is a gift to be received.

Every person who came to Jesus before His suffering, death, and resurrection was unworthy to be in His presence. He had not died and risen, dealing with sin and allowing the cleansing and transformation of the sinful nature. But Jesus refused no one who came believing. By confidence in Jesus, trusting and believing in Him, people were healed and raised from the dead. They came in sin. They didn’t strive to obtain anything, but they received. This is the love of the Father through Jesus on full display. The is the same love that He has for you.

It is the work of God Who brought you back to Him through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18). God was actually in Jesus, restoring you to relationship with Him, no longer counting your sins against you (2 Corinthians 5:19). This is His work, not your work. This is work that is done! It is by Jesus’ offering for sin that you are made right with God and benefit from His work by believing (2 Corinthians 5:21).

See yourself living in the benefits of this new life in Christ Jesus. See your victory! See yourself according to your new nature. Let God’s Word enter in and renew your mind, seeing the reality of His workmanship.