- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE CROSS IN CONFLICT.
By Gordon B. Watt.
Conflict for the believer cannot be shirked. It is essential to Christian experience. Only through conflict does the believer become aware of his need and God’s power. Conflict weaves into the web of life the strong threads which make character.
It is imperative for Christian service. Only by facing the foe can other lives be won for Christ and His interests advanced. Each victory won by the believer prepares the way of the Lord.
It is the guarantee for Christian safety. Only by wrestling with the forces of evil can the believer find himself made strong to stand. The enemy will assail him to turn him back and his one path of safety is to go on. The fight must be fought.
Conflict is mentioned in Romans 7 v14-25. It is between the old and new nature in the believer. The Apostle could delight in the law of God, but he could not carry out that law because of sin in his members which held him captive. Effort and conflict only brought him into defeat and anguish.
The new nature wills to do the right but the old nature prevents its accomplishment and we often find ourselves doing what our spiritual nature condemns. So the struggle goes on, the new nature longing and really resolving to get the upper hand, while the old nature is equally determined to conquer. As a result Christian life is often unhappy. We cry with Paul, “What a wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" But the apostle found the way of deliverance. Not through the law (Rom. 7 v22-23) nor through an awakened and sensitive conscience (Rom. 7 v12, 16 & 19) nor through a resolution of the will (Rom. 7 v18), but through Christ (Rom. 7 v25).
Victory comes through Him. Let us go back to the Cross to see its message. Paul gives an answer in Romans 6 v6, where he explains that when Christ died He dealt, not only with our sins so as to make it possible for God to blot them out, but also with the source of sin, our old nature, the nature inherited through past generations from Adam.
When Jesus went to Calvary, in the plan and purpose of God, He took that old nature with Him, and when He died for our sin that old nature was crucified with Him. That is the fact of God on which we are to stand by faith. But I do not feel anything, you say. No, it is not with our feeling but with the fact of God that we have to do. My old nature is continually asserting its power. I give way to temper, to evil thoughts and fail in so many ways. That is exactly what Paul did until he learned the secret of victory. “For I have a desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out . . . no, the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing” (Rom. 7 v18-20). We too desire to win, to be triumphant, but we so often fail and are defeated.
Make no mistake, it is not the old nature or self, sin or temptation that dies. We cannot crush down an evil temper by the determination of our will. We cannot subdue the uprising of the self-life by merely clenching our teeth and saying, ‘I will not yield’. We have to take God's way of victory, “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer” (Rom. 6 v2). We must reckon this to be true, that what God says is a fact. That fact is that our old nature was taken to the place of death when Christ went to the Cross, and whenever temptation assails we are to stand on the fact, “I was crucified”, and then hand over the temptation to Christ for Him to deal with by His Holy Spirit.
Each time the old nature, the Adam nature, seeks to assert its supremacy in our lives, we are to take up our position in Christ, ‘I count myself dead to that sin’, and trust the Holy Spirit to give us the victory. He will not disappoint nor fail us.
Conflict is found in Galatians 5 v17. The struggle lies between the “flesh” and the indwelling Spirit. When we reckon ourselves dead to the powers of the old nature we put it out of action but it constantly seeks to assert its claim. The conflict has to be carried a step farther, “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature".
Contrary has the meaning of desires antagonistic to the Holy Spirit. Conybeare translates the verse, “for the desire of the flesh fights against the Spirit, and the desire of the Spirit fights against the flesh and this variance tends to hinder us from doing what we wish to do". The flesh or nature wishes to go on without the Spirit, and the Spirit wishes to go on dominating and guiding the nature. If some word is spoken, stirring up within us the feeling of resentment, the temptation arises to answer with a sharp retort. Which then gets on top, the un-crucified self or the victorious spirit? The old nature, ever ready to defend itself and retaliate, or the new nature which meets the attack quietly and humbly in dependence on the Holy Spirit, and gains the victory? That is where we so often fail. The theory of spiritual conflict we know, but in the practice of it we so often fail.
How is the Holy Spirit to become Master so that His supremacy over-rides the asserted supremacy of the flesh? The first step to victory is for the flesh to be handed to the Cross (Gal. 5 v24) and the life placed under the government of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5 v18). A definite acceptance of Him by faith must be made if God’s plans for our lives are to be fulfilled. That act of receiving the Holy Spirit makes Him dominant. At each point of the conflict the deciding factor is our choice. What is our decision? Is it the ways of the flesh? Then by the flesh we shall be mastered. Is it the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Assuredly He will possess, influence and inspire us. For it is the attitude of the will which leads to victory or defeat.
Victory is assured when, with our consent, the Holy Spirit makes the death of Christ and the Blood of the Lamb effective in our characters, and we are filled with the Spirit. Under His control, regulated in thought and conduct by the standard of the Spirit, guided and moved by Him, He then becomes supreme. Such a life is not for a favoured few but for all who tread the ordinary path and it entails a watchful, intelligent dependence on, and obedience to the Holy Spirit.
Conflict is recorded in Ephesians 6 v10-18. Whenever the believer, filled with the Holy Spirit, has begun to regulate his life in accordance with the Divine standard, Satan chooses a new battleground.
Temptation is now often not in the sphere of the old nature but of the spiritual life. Not that the old nature will not make its presence felt, or that the flesh will not continue to assert itself. They will do so and we must never get away from the Cross, the only place where victory over the old nature is gained, and we must constantly yield to and receive the Holy Spirit through whom we triumph over the flesh. But the conflict goes farther. Our enemies are more than the old nature, more than the flesh, they are the principalities and powers of darkness, spirits of ignorance and sin. The battlefield is in the heavenly realms, a spirit-warfare, and in this great struggle, the issues which have to do with the carrying out of God’s purposes for the world, we must take our part.
The source of all our power in the battle is the death of the Lord Jesus, through which the victory over Satan has been won. A complete suit of armour has been provided for the Christian soldier. Two chief features in the equipment are clearly seen, its sufficiency to protect the whole being and its efficiency for every demand made on it. In that armour we are able to stand firm, to withstand the foe (Eph. 6 v13), and to quench every fiery dart (Eph. 6 v16). The armour meets every circumstance, condition and feature of the enemy attack from every quarter. Satan can only be defeated through the finished work on Calvary, which gives to each part of the armour its strength. We are commanded to put it on, and to take it up. To use all the provided equipment, not bit by bit, but each bit, each day and all the day long, then to stand.
It is necessary that our faith in God and in His power be tested as well as our knowledge of what He has done for us. To stand firm against the temptations of sin, against every uprising of self and assault of Satan, to resist steadfastly every attack of evil, through the Cross and on the ground of the victory won there.
Two offensive weapons have been given us for the conflict, the Sword of the Spirit, the revelation of the mind of God, and Prayer, habitual, intelligent and persistent. Against such weapons, wielded in the power of the Holy Spirit, Satan can never stand. Let us never lose sight of the source and pledge of victory expressed in verse ten. “Be strong in the Lord.” This is the position of strength for us to occupy. Victory lies in not leaving it, but in meeting every assault of evil in Christ, by the Cross of Christ. "Let your hearts be strengthened in the Lord” (Conybeare). To keep in touch with the Lord is to be strong, “In the power of His might” (Eph. 1 v19, Eph. 3 v16 and Col.1 v11). Power comes through obedience, dependence on and co-operation with Him.
Conflict is unavoidable so long as we are here, but victory is possible if we take God’s way. Thus we shall carry the purpose of the Lord a step farther, day by day, until the moment arrives when He will appear. Then we shall sing the new song, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.” Amen and Amen. “Even so come, Lord Jesus.”
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