A classic line from the chapter, referring to someone who came to McVey for counseling reads, "He confessed greater confidence in Satan's ability to cause him to fall than in the ability of the Holy Spirit to keep him from falling" Ha! Isn't that pretty typical of many Christian's experiences? We are so focused on the pitfalls of the tree-of-good-and-evil that we completely miss the Tree of Life. Its almost as if we have surrendered to the power of enemy and are hoping God can/will pull us back, rather than living in the truth that our lives are in Christ and "the evil one cannot harm us." 1 John 5:18 For all the "power" we give to Satan, remember, as Graham Cooke so eloquently puts it, speaking as God, "Satan is my sheepdog; he leads you to Me."
I think God is yearning for us to accept the gift of Life (Jesus in us) and get on with it! It is not a question of how -- it is a question of Who. Worried about victory? Read Galatians 5:16: "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Or Romans 5:10: "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." These Scriptures are not "hopes" they are certainties. They are promises. We are invited to live in them. Did Jesus die on the cross for our sins so we could continue to wrestle with sin every day of our lives?
And again I return to, "You foolish Galatians..." Why do we take God at His Word that the death of Jesus freed us from the penalties of sin, but ignore His Word telling us that His resurrection freed us from the power of sin? Wrong tree! Wrong tree! Wrong tree! Why are we so willing to accept the free gift of God's grace in regards to salvation, but so reluctant to accept His free gift of victorious new life through Jesus-in-us? Why do we think salvation is "free" and the "Christian life" must be earned? If we could life a Christian life we wouldn't need Jesus in the first place. It is not Jesus + something else -- the whole story is Jesus alone. "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Colossians 1:17. If all things hold together in Him, why would we even remotely imagine anything done outside of Him would have any value? Why would any aspect of life outside of Jesus make any sense? Have any relevance? Might it be a good idea to accept how He says things work and expectantly wait to see how He plays out the story in us?
Remember, if we don't ask the right questions, we won't get the right answers.
The question is not about "doing." It is about being. It is about accepting God's gift of salvation and sanctification and accepting His Word as truth. Jesus tells us in John 8:32, "Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. He then follow in John 14:6 with "I am the way and the truth and the life..." The truth will set you free. Jesus is the truth. Truth is a Person. Freedom through a Person. We are now free from the law; from rules and regulations; from working for a victorious life; from striving to live the life we think we are supposed to live. (Isn't that what the Jewish law was trying to define the the first place?) Free from the power of sin; the mastery of sin. All accomplished not through our doing, but through Jesus' doing. All God asks of us is that we believe in the Truth.
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