In this short study, we are intending to discuss
5 secrets of a successful Christian life.
The total depravity of man is seen throughout the Bible.
In another video, available in our video channel,
naphtalitribetv.com, I have discussed in detail, why should we live a
successful Christian life.
It is a two part video. I request you all to watch
that video also along with this.
I believe that it is very important to live a
successful Christian life.
When I say success, I mean success in the
spiritual realm as well as in the physical realm.
I do not support a dichotomy between spiritual
life and secular life.
For a true Christian believer who is born again
by faith in Jesus Christ, there is no dichotomy between spiritual life and
secular life.
Everything is spiritual for him, because he is
seated in the right hand side of our Lord.
So a successful Christian life is a successful
Kingdom living.
We cannot lead a successful Christian life
without knowing and believing certain secrets of it.
There are some secrets or mystery to the success
of earthly kingdoms.
The Kingdom of God also has certain secrets to
its success.
We may not able to list all the secrets of the
Kingdom of God, because the Kingdom itself is a mystery.
We have some important information about the
Kingdom of God and so we have important information about a successful Kingdom
living also.
Let us discuss some of them one by one.
Who we are?
Before we start our successful life, let us have
a clear understanding about who we are.
We are human beings, with a lot of abilities and
limitations.
We can run fast but cannot fly like a bird.
We can swim and dive like fishes but cannot live
an ordinary life under the water.
Our body is suited for cooked foods and everything
eaten by animals and birds are not healthy for us.
We have our abilities, talents, intellectual
capacity and many more, but at the same time we have a lot of limitations.
We cannot do all what our imagination wishes.
Spiritually we have a disappointing limitation in
our earthly life.
We are totally depraved human beings. This is the
spiritual condition of man.
“Total depravity” is a doctrine formed by John
Calvin.
Calvin’s five doctrines are known by the acronym
TULIP.
We may agree or disagree with whatever Calvin
says, but the truth stands with “total depravity” of man.
“Total depravity” is the result of the sin
committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
There they were under the command and rule of
God.
God forbidden them from eating the fruits of a
particular fruit.
But they were seduced by satan to eat the fruit.
Thus they disobeyed God and moved away from His
Lordship.
They obeyed satan and automatically moved to the
lordship of satan.
Whom we obey, he is our master, whom we worship,
and he is our god.
Here humans accepted the commands and advise from
satan and thus accepted him as their master.
As a result, sin, curse, disease, immorality,
idol worship etc. came into the life of humans.
But God loved humans so much that He intervened
into the situation and promised a deliverance from the bondage to satan by a
sacrifice arranged by Him in future.
And there in the Garden, God arranged a model
sacrifice.
Thus, as a result of the fall of man, every part
of humans, his mind, will, emotions and flesh are corrupted by sin.
Sin affects all areas of our being including who
we are and what we do.
Sin is not our works, but our condition; not what
we do, but who we are.
We are sinful in condition and hence we do sins
in our life.
Whatever we do is sin because we are sinners by nature.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:17 &
18 that "Even so, every good
tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear
bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” (NKJV)
The tree decides the fruit.
Sin has penetrated into the
very core of our being so that “we are all like an unclean thing, And all our
righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 -
NKJV)
The total depravity of man is seen throughout the Bible.
Jeremiah
17:9 says:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked”.
The Bible teaches us that man
is born dead in transgression and sin (Psalm
51:5)
The Apostle Paul summarizes
the total depravity of man in Romans 3.
He says that man is under the
control of sin or is controlled by his sin nature.
He confesses his depraved
condition in Romans 7:15 “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For
what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” (NKJV)
So sin had two important effects on humans:
humans went under the lordship of satan and became totally depraved so that
humans cannot find a solution to the problem.
Satan is an enemy to God and humans. That is why
he seduced humans into sin and rebellion.
Satan hates the Kingdom of God and hence he hates
humans living a successful Kingdom life.
So satan uses all kinds of weapons to fight
against, “the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians
10:5 - NKJV)
And the sad thing is that we cannot successfully
fight against satan in flesh and blood.
Accepting Jesus as our Lord and savior is a sure
way to change the lordship of satan to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
But still, since sin is a human condition, the tree
is bad, we cannot fight and defeat satan with our physical strength.
Our salvation is not yet complete, we are saved
by faith in Christ, the process of salvation continues and will be saved
perfectly in the eternity.
So in our depraved present condition, satan is no
match for us.
He is powerful above our flesh and blood because
he has defeated us once.
So far our flesh have not conquered him.
Conquering satan is the key to success.
If we do not conquer our enemy, they will conquer
us. There can be only one victor, the other is always a victim.
No friendship with satan is possible, no
compromise with satan is possible.
He is the enemy of God and His creations.
Satan comes not in peace, but "to steal, and
to kill, and to destroy.” (John 10:10 - NKJV)
Thus, we understand that we are totally depraved
because of our sin nature.
We have a powerful enemy fighting against our
successful Christian life.
We cannot defeat the enemy with the strength of
our flesh and blood.
A self-awareness about our human condition is the
first secret for a successful Christian life.
An awareness that our flesh and blood cannot
defeat our enemy will motivate us to seek a victorious savior for our
deliverance.
What
Christ did for us?
As I mentioned above, God is a loving, gracious
God, that he intervened into our life even after we changed the loyalty from
Him to satan.
God loved humans so much that He was ready to go an
extra mile to give us a second chance.
God wanted humans to realize their mistake,
repent and confess the mistake before God to reconcile with Him, reject and
renounce sin forever and to enter into a new blood covenant with Him.
Adam and Eve realized their mistake as soon as
they fell from the grace of God because of sin.
They realized the changes in their flesh and blood
and ran away from the presence of God.
God was so loving that He called them from their
hiding place and permitted them to stand before him letting them to confess
their sin.
They confessed that “The serpent deceived me, and
I ate." (Genesis 3:13 - NKJV)
They confessed their failure to guard the garden
and failure to defeat satan.
They confessed their act of sin and the effect of
it, total depravity. They stood helpless before God.
God could not leave them there under satan.
He decided to give man a second chance to
reconcile into the Lordship of God.
God arranged a blood sacrifice for their sins,
and with blood stained skin of the sacrificed animal He made tunics for them.
Adam and Eve covered their nakedness with the
blood of the sacrificial animal and thus they stood righteous before God.
But God reminded them that this is not a
permanent solution to the problem of sin.
Because sin is a condition and humans have to be
redeemed from the slavery of satan.
There in the Garden of Eden, God declared His
plan for the redemption of humans and the restoration of the Kingdom of God.
Genesis 3: 15 And
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her
Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." (NKJV)
What God said is that, the sacrifice of the
animal in the Garden of Eden is only a shadow of a great sacrifice that will be
arranged by God.
God shall provide the sacrificial lamb and that
will be the seed of the woman.
There will be enmity between the seed of the
woman and the serpent causing a fight between them for power and authority.
The seed of the woman will bruise the head of the
serpent through his self-sacrifice.
The seed of the woman will shed his blood to cover
all the sins of humans.
The seed is Jesus Christ. He is the animal
provided by God for a perfect sacrifice.
Jesus Christ is “The Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world”. (John 1:29 - NKJV)
The purpose of the first arrival of Jesus Christ
on this earth is to fulfil the promise of God proclaimed in the Garden of Eden.
The promise included, a sacrifice for the
remission of sin, the defeat of satan, redemption of humanity from the slavery
of satan and restoration of the Kingdom.
The sacrifice for sin is one among many other
purposes of the coming of Jesus.
The restoration of the relationship between
humans and God started with the sacrifice of Jesus, but that was not the end.
The sacrifice on the cross has deeper
implications on human life.
The promise of God in the Garden told that satan
will be defeated and during the processes the sacrificial lamb of God will be
bruised.
We see in this physical world the sacrificial
lamb bruised on the cross and shedding His blood for the atonement of human sins.
In the spiritual realm, another important event
took place.
Apostle Paul understood the mystery behind the
death on the cross and he has explained it for us.
Colossians 2:15 Having disarmed
principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over
them in it. (NKJV)
1 Corinthians 15:57 But
thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(NKJV)
Paul equates the war between Jesus and satan to
wars between Roman Empire and her enemies.
Satan and his forces are the enemy principalities
and powers. Jesus has defeated them and triumphed over them.
A Roman triumph is a victory festival conducted
after a decisive victory over enemies of another country.
Satan is the king of another country, not at all
a part of the Kingdom of God.
He is defeated, disarmed and the defeated enemy
is now a public show for all to see and understand that the enemy is defeated.
Thus Jesus is leading us through a victorious
life.
Let us note 7
important points of victory from these verses:
1.
Satan
was the king of a foreign nation outside the Kingdom of God
2.
Jesus
has defeated satan.
3.
Like
a Roman soldier who will disarm the defeated enemy, Jesus also has disarmed the
enemy.
Now satan has no weapon to fight
against us.
Jesus has taken away all powers
from satan.
So satan is a powerless being
now, he has no power over the Kingdom of God.
4.
Still
satan may roam about seeking an opportunity to devour true Christians.
We should not be deceived once
again by his pretense.
So
Jesus has hanged him on the cross for all the humans in the world to see and
understand that satan is defeated for all and forever.
5.
The
war was against a foreign enemy and the victory was so decisive.
So
a great triumphal festival is arranged by Jesus on the cross itself.
Thus
Jesus has turned the cross to a triumphal festival.
6.
Now
Jesus is leading us in this triumphal festival celebrating the victory over
satan.
7.
Participation
in this triumphal festival is effecting the victory in our life.
This is what Jesus has done for us on the cross.
This victory over satan is achieved by Jesus in
addition to the sacrifice atoning our sins and its after effects.
Jesus has reconciled us to God by His blood
sacrifice and has defeated satan forever.
The gospel is an invitation to the Kingdom of
God, which is victorious and restored for humans.
The only condition to inherit the victory and the
Kingdom is to “Repent, and believe in the gospel”. (Mark
1:15)
Now it is possible for us to lead a successful
Christian life, accepting by faith the atonement and the victory of Jesus on
the cross.
The faith in this truth is the second secret for
a successful Christian life.
How should
we live in Christ?
The answer to the question, how should we live in
Christ is that, we should live a victorious life in Christ.
We are the triumphant party no longer in fear of
the enemy.
The enemy captured by the victorious Roman
military general was not killed at once.
He will be exhibited through the main streets of
Roman, naked, disarmed and chained.
He will be kept alive till the victory festival
ends.
The triumphal festival may last for one day to
one week and rarely even beyond that.
That means, the enemy is defeated, the kingdom of
the enemy is totally destroyed and the death of the enemy is sure.
But there is a period of time for the triumphal
celebrations.
There is a time gap between the victory and the
final destruction of the enemy.
During this time, for all those who has faith on
the victory of Jesus and for those who are really celebrating the victory, the
enemy is disarmed and powerless.
But the presence of the enemy is frightening for
those who are only watching without joining it.
The enemy may roar like a lion and frighten the
weak.
Even among the festival crowd, there may some
weak in faith, afraid of the enemy.
Those who are frightened by the roar of the
defeated enemy will run away missing the joy of the victory.
So it is very important to be in the triumphal
celebration of Christ, believing in His victory.
The faith in the victory of Christ over the enemy
is a must for a successful Christian life.
There are always shouts of victory in the houses
of the righteous.
The frightening roar of a defeated enemy cannot
be heard among the shouts of victory.
But if you are not aware of the triumph of Christ
over the enemy happened on the cross, you live in ignorance about the defeat of
the enemy.
If you are not aware of the victory of Christ
over all evil principalities and powers, you still live in fear of the enemy.
You cannot join the triumphal festival of Christ;
you are always hearing the roaring sound of the enemy.
You live in fear and fear is the opposite of
faith.
Let us read an exhortation from Apostle Paul:
2 Corinthians 2:14 Now thanks be to
God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the
fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
(NKJV)
Paul is telling us that God always, every day,
every moment, wherever we are, is leading us in triumph in Christ.
And so we should spread the fragrance of the
victory wherever we are.
We should live a successful life everywhere and
always.
This is the third secret to a successful
Christian life.
How to
deal with satan?
We have already discussed three secrets to
success.
They are, who we are, what Jesus did for us and
how we should live in Christ.
We were learning that we are totally depraved by
a sinful condition and so we cannot defeat our enemy.
Jesus Christ defeated and disarmed the enemy and
He has started the triumphal celebration.
We should join this triumphal celebration by
faith in the victory of Jesus over the enemy.
Now the fourth question is: how should we deal
with satan?
As I told you already, our enemy is a real
fighter. He fights to the last moment.
He knows that he is defeated by a powerful
Kingdom, he is disarmed and doomed for eternal punishment.
He is well aware that there is no way of escape
for him.
Still he wants to destroy the fragrance of the
triumph.
So he roars as load as he can to frighten the
celebrating crowd.
He roars like a lion to make his presence known.
He roars to tell us that he is still alive.
But a good believer in Christ who knows the above
three things that we have already discussed, knows that, though the enemy
roars, he is defeated, disarmed, powerless and destined to death.
Everybody who has a faith in the victory of their
Lord Jesus Christ knows that the enemy can do no harm to them.
So even if the enemy roar like a lion, true
believers will focus their eyes on Jesus, “the author and finisher of our
faith” who “has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)
So do not be afraid of the roar of the enemy. He
is powerless.
None can celebrate victory with fear about the
defeated enemy.
Fear destroys the fragrance of success.
Apostle James gives us a good advice to deal with
satan:
James 4:7 Therefore
submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (NKJV)
This verse brings to our mind the fall of Adam
and Eve.
The devil in a serpent came to Eve and started a
conversation.
She did not resist the conversation; she continued
to talk to the devil.
The devil asked her questions about the
relationship with God.
She could resist these questions by asserting the
Lordship of God over their life.
She could affirm that they will obey only what
their Lord commands, even if it makes no sense to them.
But since Eve permitted the conversation, satan
continued to speak about the benefits of the forbidden fruit.
Eve did not resist the temptation of eating the
fruit and she fell into the deception.
Resistance is tiresome until the devil leaves
you.
But James says that resisting is a successful way
to defeat satan.
Resistance has a power to chase away satan.
But, resistance should be there in the first
attempt of satan to deceive you.
If you give a moment to listen to satan, he will
steal a treasure from you.
If you give an inch to satan he will take a mile
from your life.
So resistance should be used as a weapon against
the enemy at the first attempt from him to deceive you.
The devil cannot and never tell any truth. He is
all falsehood and the father of lies.
His powerful method is deception. He uses
deception everywhere, in education, social relations, religion, politics and
everywhere.
So standing in truth is our shield against him;
truth is a powerful weapon of Christians against satan.
Unfortunately, we see a good number of Christians
professing that they follow a balanced position.
That means, they are not with the truth and they claim
that they are no with falsehood.
But there is no way between truth and falsehood;
there is no way between the narrow way and the broad way.
If we are not with the truth, we are with the
false.
Resistance is a defense mechanism and defense is
always tiresome in war.
Resistance cannot stop the war for ever, only
offence can defeat the enemy.
Resistance is not for defeating the enemy, it is
for protecting ourselves.
So offence is a better strategy in war, it can
defeat and destroy the enemy forever.
So Apostle Paul presents a better advice. Paul
advises us to fight against the enemy.
Ephesians 6:12 For we do not
wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places. (NKJV)
Do not wait for the enemy to come into your
territory.
Attack and chase away all potential enemies even
before he even start planning to attack you.
This is offensive mechanism. It saves time,
energy, health and wealth.
Be always in an offensive mood, attacking the
enemy every moment.
Jesus was always in an offensive position.
Study carefully the temptation scene in the
desert.
Jesus never tried to compromise with the devil,
He never tried to explain the situation to the devil.
Jesus never showed any interest in a conversation
with the devil.
He attacked the devil whenever he approached him.
Jesus cast out devils to demonstrate the power
and authority of the Kingdom of God over satan.
And He has commanded us to the same thing.
So far we have learned few things about how to
deal with the enemy.
Fear destroys the fragrance of success. So do not
be afraid of the defeated enemy, even if he roars like a lion.
Resistance has a power to chase away satan.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Still it is better to be offensive. Fight against
the enemy even before he plans to attack you.
These are the fourth secret of a successful
Christian life.
Our weapon
for the fight
In the epistle to Ephesians
6, Apostle Paul speaks about “the whole armor of God” that a
believer should wear.
We should wear these armors to withstand in the
evil days.
Paul recommends, truth to gird the waist, breastplate
of righteousness, the preparation of the gospel of peace for the feet, the
shield of faith, helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the
word of God.
All the armors, except one, are to defense the
attacks of the enemy.
The only weapon to attack the enemy directly is
the “sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.”
The sword is the word of God that we declare
against the enemy at every tough situation.
Remember once again how Jesus defeated satan in
the desert.
Jesus spoke the word of God against every
temptation of satan.
The word of God is sword, and the devil cannot
overcome it.
In the Garden of Eden, the first thing satan did
was to create a doubt in the heart of Eve about the word of God.
The devil asked Eve: "Has God indeed said,
'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" (Genesis 3: 1 -
NKJV)
Then he distorted and destroyed the word of God.
“Then the serpent said to the woman, "You
will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will
be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4,5 - NKJV)
Adam and Eve did not stand firm on the word of
God, they fell from the Word and fell into the trap of the devil.
Apostle Paul in Hebrews
4:12 says: “For the word of God
is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.
The word of God that comes from our mouth is not
a series of sound, but a sharp sword.
God exercised His authority and power to create
the whole universe by His word.
Bible says, “Then God said, "Let there be
light"; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3 - NKJV)
Jesus spoke the Word of God against satan and the
devil left Him.
Jesus cast out demons, raised the dead and healed
many sick people by His word.
Apostles performed miracles by speaking with the
power and authority of God.
Apostles preached the word of God and thousands
accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.
We are born again and became inheritors of the
Kingdom of God by confessing our faith in Jesus.
It is word that works everywhere.
Proverbs 18:21 Death
and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its
fruit. (NKJV)
So speak against the devil, speak to your tough
situations, speak to your weak health and speak to your increasing debts.
Everything caused by the devil will breakdown and
disappear at your word backed God.
Conclusion
Let me conclude this short study.
We have discussed five secrets to a successful
Christian life.
A self-awareness is where we start the successful
journey.
It is an awareness about our depraved condition
due to sin.
We have an enemy who does not want us to lead a
successful life.
We cannot fight against him in our flesh and
blood. So we need another mighty warrior.
Jesus came to us as a lamb, good shepherd and a
mighty warrior.
Jesus defeated satan, disarmed him and made him
powerless.
With our spiritual eyes, we can see the devil
hanging on the cross doomed for the last death.
So do not be afraid of the devil, resist his
temptations and fight against his schemes.
Our weapon is the word of God. Every word that
comes out from us with the authority of God is a sword that chases away the
devil.
Believe in the victory of Jesus on the cross and
live a successful life.
May God bless you. Amen!
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