The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Free Indeed"
Of John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ declared, "Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Matthew 11:11).
Blessed and vital as he was, John had great difficulty discerning and understanding the advent of the Lord Jesus. One aspect of his challenge involved his perspective regarding how God would work through His Son's first coming to the world. John clearly believed the Lord Jesus would serve not only as a savior, but as the executor of wrath that will characterize His second coming:
"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Matthew 3:7).
John clearly expected the Lord Jesus to don the warrior's apparel and weaponry, rather than the servant's garb of humility. His inadequate understanding, characteristic of all Jews of his time, ultimately led him to question even the veracity of Jesus as the Christ. After being cast into prison, he sent messengers with the inquiry: "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" (Matthew 11:3).
This is written as no criticism of John, but rather to suggest how much we are all like him in our fleshly perceptions. Indeed, we all live with an atheist, that is, with the flesh inherited from Adam that "lusteth against the spirit" (Galatians 5:17). No less than the Apostle Paul confessed, "in my flesh dwelleth no good thing," Paul's natural inclinations existed as an ongoing internal challenge to that - Who - he so well knew in his Christ-indwelt heart (Romans 7:18). In His wisdom and according to His purpose, God allows our flesh inhabited by a "law of sin" to remain after enlivening our spirits by His presence in the new birth. "So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin" (Romans 7:23). It matters not how well we know the Lord, or how long and faithfully we have walked with Him. In our present lifetime, challenges await us with temptations to think, speak, act, and relate as if Jesus were not the Christ. From our own "prisons," our flesh may no less send messengers to God with the tacit inquiry of unbelief, "Do I look for another?"
Thankfully, and unlike John, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus dwells within our spirits to enable our overcoming such temptation. Those born of the kingdom of Heaven are "greater than John" because of the indwelling Christ not available until after the Lord's atoning work on the cross, the resurrection, and the gift of the Holy Spirit provided to all who believe. We thus bear far more responsibility to overcome fleshly temptations than John, or any Old Testament saint. None of them, godly as many of them were, know God in the way even the most seemingly modest believer in Christ enjoys. The Lord Jesus birthed a new race of beings in His saving grace, those permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit as the greatest gift God can possibly bestow - the gift of Himself. Thus, the law of sin that remains in our flesh can always be overcome by a far greater law…
"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).
Note carefully that Paul does not suggest we are delivered from the presence of the law of sin, but that we are free from its dominion. A greater law liberated our spirit through Christ's indwelling presence when we believed. Thereby, we always can continue in faith and faithfulness as "debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh" (Romans 8:12). We owe the law of sin no allegiance or obligation. We may not always live accordingly, but nothing changes the reality of our heart that "if the Son shall therefore make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (Romans 8:36).
We will all be tempted like John when cast into prisons, rather than escorted to the palaces the Baptist likely expected in Christ's first advent. As those who possess the indwelling Holy Spirit and the completed Word of God, however, we are not like John in our capacity to overcome temptation. "The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" because of the great and glorious One who literally indwells our innermost being as the Life of our lives. Thus, we lift our hearts and heads in the prisons of life not to seek another, but to affirm with assurance, "Lord Jesus, You are the One who should come - the One who came! - and we refuse to look to any other as the Christ of God and the Christ of our hearts." Indeed, we send messengers not with questions, but with praise and thanksgiving that even in the deepest and darkest prison, we are "free indeed" to live our lives…
"Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."
(Hebrews 12:2)
Weekly Memory Verse
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
(Romans 8:2)
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