Hey You! Come Forth!

If Christ has forgiven us and cleansed us why do we continue to struggle to do the thing that is good for us and it still seems easy to fall into the self destructive sinful behavior of the "old man?"  That is the promise Scripture makes: 1Jn 1:9  "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So why the struggle?

The answer is the process.  If you are in Christ you will spend eternity with God in an absence of sin.  If you are in Christ you are in the progressive work of being made righteous.  In fact scripture talks about our salvation in those terms.  Heb 10:14  "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."  Christ's sacrifice has perfected- past tense those who are being sanctified- present tense.  It is a process.

The process can feel brutal at times.  The apostle Paul says Rom 7:15  "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." He flows over into an exasperating question: Rom 7:24-25  "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  (25)  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."  Who will deliver me...Thanks be to God through Jesus..."

The Christian life is pictured in the story of Lazarus in John chapter 11.  Jesus calls into the tomb of a man four days dead and says "Lazarus, come forth."  The life he demands of a corpse he freely grants to the corpse.  The command is not resented, Lazarus doesn't complain that Jesus is so bossy, he obeys.  He gets up and comes forth.  This is life.  Jesus then instructs them to take off the grave clothes.  If Jesus has given you life, you know the joy of walking out of the tomb, and you know the stench of death garb that still hang on to your limbs.  Take them off.  But be warned they hold on tight.

Heb 12:1-2  Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  (2)  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.