For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Philippians 3:17-21 (NIV)
We are all born broken, Every.Last.One.Of.Us. Like the little boy playing in the mud, we are covered in our own sinfulness and shame and the only Way to be washed clean is through the blood of Jesus. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV): “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
As believers in Jesus, when God looks down upon us, He now sees the perfect righteousness of Christ – amazing. Yet, as long as we remain alive, we still have the sinful nature clinging tenaciously to us as gum to the bottom of a shoe. We all struggle with the unfinished works of our beings, Amen? God has empowered us with the indwelling Holy Spirit to equip us to walk as Jesus walked yet oftentimes we fall back into the flesh and end up wallowing in the pigpen of our own poor choices – yet again. Even though we are believers, our fleshly temperaments and our unusual character traits often result in our poor choices unless the flesh is reigned in.
None of us are perfect or we would be home with the Lord. This is the battle every believer in Christ Jesus fights – to be more like the Master and less like us. One fine day, believers in Jesus will be transformed in a blinking of an eye to be glorious and sinless. Yet, at present, well, we are not, Amen? The promise of Scripture is that God will save us from the fowler’s snare in two ways – either from it completely or out of it if we are caught within – “no bird of paradise shall die in the fowler’s net” Spurgeon states. Remember, all backsliding into sin ends in destruction. God desires for us to take hold of the life that is truly life and that is walking as He walked through His power and for His glory. Fearless of all consequences, we must learn to do what is right – fighting the good fight of faith out of love for the Master and for our own good. We are called to be courageous.
One day all believers in Christ will be able to walk as Jesus walked. Every child of God will be made like the Son of God. Until then, we are to fight the good fight of faith with great diligence.
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:2-3 (NIV)