Faith for the fight

How do we view the Christian life? What does it really mean to follow Christ? We would all admit that we live in a very pleasure-oriented, self-seeking society. This attitude can overflow into our understanding of Christianity. Do we teach people becoming Christians that following Jesus means to be rescued from all worldly troubles? Or that Christianity is a gateway to material prosperity? Or that it is a guarantee of protection? If so, we will not have a framework for understanding spiritual warfare when it occurs. But what if we take the Bible seriously in its portrayal of the Christian life as a battle in which we besiege the powers of darkness, fight against them and defeat them? In this case, we will have some expectations in place: -a battle presumes an opposing power; -this opposition will do some damage to us; -the moment this damage occurs is the critical point where we must trust God and hold fast our position; -no matter what the ups and downs of the battle, God guarantees ultimate victory.

If, on the other hand, we present the Christian life in terms of benefits and protection, the result — paradoxically — will be fear. Why? Because when trouble comes, we will have no frame of reference to understand or cope with it. Why is this happening when we thought God would protect us? This is the downfall of much teaching on faith. If faith is understood as trusting God that He will keep us from financial, physical and emotional hardships, we will have no means of dealing with those situations when they inevitably arise — and we will find ourselves in confusion and even disillusionment in our relationship with the Lord. But if we present the Christian life in terms of a battle which we fight offensively, the result will be peace — albeit peace in the midst of a storm. Why? Because:

-we have anticipated the attack of the enemy; -we are trusting God to keep us in it; -we see God as sovereign over it; He has warned us in advance that attack will come, but He promises to keep us in it and bring us through it.

Revelation repeatedly presents the Christian life as one of overcoming — which presumes we have things to overcome, but that, by God’s grace and empowering, we will do so. And when we have fought the battle, we will never regret doing what He called us to do.

Delivered from the power of darkness

“For He delivered us from the authority of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14) The word “delivered” speaks of the action of a mighty conqueror who rescues someone by his great strength. “Authority” refers to a tyrannical form of government, enslaving those under its power. A greater power must intervene. No man can rescue himself from the authority of darkness. Jesus used exactly the same phrase at Gethsemane when the crowd came to seize Him: “While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on me, but this hour and the authority of darkness are yours” (Luke 22:53). Jesus notes that the people opposing Him are exercising  the power of darkness. But those who try to use the power of darkness will also fall under its authority.

When man fell into sin, he tried to make use of the serpent’s wisdom to gain his own goals, but soon found that he had fallen under both the serpent’s authority and its judgment. The authority of darkness is the place of Satan’s rule and the counterfeit or opposite of God’s kingdom. It is the place where every single one of us lived before we came to Christ. We entered it through sin, and every one of us has sinned. We can exit it only through total absence of sin and obedience to God, the state in which we were created. But no man can free himself from the hold of sin and so no man can free himself from the kingdom of darkness. We are in an impossible dilemma!

Yet there is a way out, for Christ has delivered us; the verse continues: “He has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” The word “transferred” or “removed” was the word used when conquering kings took with them whole populations of towns and cities and moved them to a new place. They did it for an evil cause, but God does it for our benefit. What we could not do He has done. Notice that we do not have to wait for the future to be part of His kingdom. We are in His kingdom now. To be in His kingdom means to be living under His rule and authority, to be experiencing the reality of His power in our lives. To be transferred into the kingdom means change, and change for the better. What was impossible before is possible now.