You're free! Now live like it!

"All Christians believe that we are saved by grace...But we have seen...that salvation includes both deliverance from the penalty of sin and freedom from the dominion of sin. We have seen that our legal union with Christ in His death and resurrection secures our vital union with Him by which we participate in His divine nature. It is through this vital union that we receive the enabling power to live the Christian life."

Jerry Bridges

I see everyday in my workplace the struggle to live the Christian life. I also see it every day in my own life. Why is their a struggle? Not neccesarily because of any great battle with Satan, not that those aren't present and a struggle. But no, this struggle is because we tend to miss part of the equation. We forget that we receive the 'enabling power' to live the Christian life!

It is in the amazing relationship we (the branches) have with Christ (the vine), that we receive the lifeblood of our Christian life. Without His power, of course it is impossible! Yet still we try to pull up our bootstraps and do it ourselves everyday. Why? Because our underlying sinful condition...

"At root our sinful condition is the commitment to be our own god. I will be the final authority in my life. I will decide what is right and wrong for me; and what is good and bad for me; and what is true and false for me. My desires express my sovereignty, my autonomy, and--though we don't usually say it--my presumed deity."

~John Piper

This sinful condition may not neccesarily display itself in the desire to do forbidden things. Instead, it can also lead us to try and "keep the law by our own strength with a view to exalt our own moral prowess." I think it may not be obvious, even to ourselves, that this is what we are doing. But in our struggle to live the Christian life, we are fighting a battle that was already won on the cross.

If we choose to battle and struggle on our own, instead of relying on the lifeblood of Christ that we have received, we are indeed still sinning.

We must daily rely on HIS strength to overcome our struggles, no matter how overwhelming OR how tiny they seem.