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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman The
Battles We Fight I believe the Bible is a
God-inspired narrative that reveals to us the progressive revelation of
His ongoing interaction with His time space creation, especially with us
humans. Along this narrative
path, from creation to recreation, the Bible provides some glimpses into
an invisible spiritual created universe in which we have many more
questions than answers. While walking this narrative path
God reveals that "all authority in heaven and
on earth has been given to" Jesus (Matthew 28:18).
Note the mention of heaven and earth, the spiritual and the
material universe. Jesus rules
supreme over both God-created universes, the totality being His kingdom.
Another
revelation is when Jesus "hands
over the kingdom [spiritual and material universe] to God the Father after
he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For
he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet, the last
enemy being death" (1 Corinthians 15:24 - 25).
Jesus is presently battling God's enemies in the spiritual universe
that impacts us here on earth in many ways.
The last enemy to be defeated is
death which reminds me of Genesis 2:17.
"You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die".
Humanity's disobedience introduced a deathliness into creation that
includes humanity's relationship with God, with each other and with all of
creation. It's why creation
"has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the
present time"(Romans 8:22). So
here we are in our time space material universe fighting a variety of
battles as Jesus fights His battles that spill over into our material
world in so many horrible, tragic and frustrating ways.
Death will be defeated, but
presently Satan is an enemy, an adversarial opponent of God, as our word
"Satan" means. This
satanic battle is ongoing. It
escalates to the point when Satan enters a man often called
"anti-Christ" who deceives humanity into trusting his claim to
be Jesus returning to earth. It's
why "God sends them [truth haters] a powerful delusion so that they
will believe the lie", that the anti-Christ is Jesus (2 Thessalonians
2:11). Another battle we fight is with
Satan-inspired people. An
example is when Christians in Another battle is that our "flesh
desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to
the flesh. They are in conflict with each
other" (Galatians 5:17). Let's
admit it. We often oppose God,
and herein is our basic battle. "Each
person is tempted when they are dragged away
by their own evil desire and enticed" (James 1:14).
Satan's temptations only succeed as we give into our natural
desires. Clearly, "we can
be our own worst enemy". We fight various battles on all
fronts, but it's the battle with ourselves that is most concerning.
To the degree we win that battle is the degree we win all battles. If
we lose the battle with ourselves, we can't expect to win the battle with
God's enemies. All I can say
is "thanks be to God. He
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians
15:57).
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