101. HOW TO OVERCOME THE POWER OF SIN IN MY LIFE AND IN MY CHURCH ? – An Introduction.

We started this blog in Meditation 1 with the words: How exciting to know that God wants to change us in such a way that we become ever more like his one and only Son Jesus Christ! That is what we read in the biblical text of 2 Corinthians 3:18* “As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him (Jesus Christ) and reflect his glory even more.”

For becoming ever more like Jesus Christ, we need to know who Jesus Christ is? The apostle Paul declares to the church in Colosse that “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15*).

Paul’s declaration takes us straight back to the first book of the Bible which recounts the  remarkable story of the creation of man. It says that man’s origin started with God’s proclamation: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness...” (Genesis 1:26**). The One God expresses himself here in the plural! That means that man originally was created in the image of God the Father, God the Son [who is Jesus the Messiah or Jesus Christ], and God the Holy Spirit. (See Meditation 18)

Today we start with a new series of meditations. As the Spirit of God wants to transform us more and more into the likeness of Jesus (who is the image of God), we need to ask ourselves a serious question: if we are created in the image and likeness of God the Son, Jesus Christ, why don’t we live such a perfect ‘life of love’ as Jesus did? (See Meditation 18)

A second urgent question is: if God’s Spirit wants to restore the image and likeness of Jesus Christ in us and in our churches, why is His task seemingly unattainable? Have you ever met an impeccable person? Have you ever visited a perfect church?

God explains in His Word (the Bible) that the answer to these two questions has everything to do with the human problem of ‘sin’. In Meditations 19 to 27, we reflected on the origin of sin and our desperate need for reconciliation with God.

In these meditations we realized that ‘sin’ finds it origin in human pride, rebellion against God and disobedience to His Word (See Genesis 3).

Its consequence is the destruction of God’s image and likeness in us. Therefore, salvation has to do with restoring that image. Sin destroys our relationship with God and our fellowman. Salvation heals those relationships.

We finished Meditation 100 by saying that God’s Word, as well as our personal and our church’s experiences, tells us that our major enemy in the process towards Christlike maturity is the power of sin.

In the forthcoming meditations we will not go back into questions on how to be how to be reconciled with God and saved from God’s righteous anger; we did that in the meditations 24 to 27.

As I said before, the theme of the upcoming meditations will focus on questions like: now that I am saved and reconciled with God by the blood of Jesus Christ, how will I overcome the power of sin in my life? How will my church overcome the power of sin in our midst? It is clear that only then God’s Spirit will progress in the transformation process towards Christlike maturity.

I think that we need to start with identifying the words used for ‘sin’ in the Old and New Testament. Once we know ‘our enemy’, we can develop a battle plan!      

  

  

Translations: * New Living Translation; ** New International Version.