How Dead People Do Battle with Sin/id

From Gospel Translations

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Bagaimana Orang Mati Berjuang Melawan Dosa

Terukir pada batang setiap pohon dalam taman Allah ialah kata-kata ini, "Jika ia mati, ia akan menghasilkan banyak buah" (Yohanes 12:24). Tiga kata terukir dalam daging setiap orang Kristen: "KAMU ... TELAH ... MATI" (Kol. 3:3). Dan pengakuan sepenuh hati dari setiap orang percaya adalah, "Aku telah disalibkan dengan Kristus" (Gal. 2:19).

Tapi apa artinya ini? Siapa yang mati ketika aku menjadi seorang Kristen? Jawaban: "daging"ku mati. "Barangsiapa menjadi milik Kristus Yesus, ia telah menyalibkan DAGING" (Gal. 5:24).

Tapi apa artinya "daging"? Bukan kulitku. Bukan tubuhku. Ini dapat menjadi alat kebenaran (Roma 6:13). "Perbuatan daging" adalah hal-hal seperti penyembahan berhala, perselisihan, amarah, dan kedengkian (Gal. 5:20-21) —sikap, bukan cuma perbuatan imoral yang dilakukan tubuh kita.

Yang paling mendekati definisi Alkitab tentang daging adalah Roma 8:7-8, "Keinginan daging adalah perseteruan terhadap Allah, karena ia tidak takluk kepada hukum Allah; hal ini memang tidak mungkin baginya. Mereka yang hidup dalam daging, tidak mungkin berkenan kepada Allah."

Jadi daging adalah "aku" yang pernah memberontak terhadap Allah. Dalam daging aku berseteru dan tidak taat. Aku benci pikiran bahwa aku sakit karena dosa. Aku menentang ide bahwa kebutuhan terbesarku adalah seorang Tabib Baik untuk menyembuhkanku. Dalam daging aku percaya bijaksanaku, bukan Tuhan. Jadi tidak ada yang aku lakukan dalam daging dapat menyenangkan Allah, karena "tanpa iman tidak mungkin orang berkenan kepada Allah" (Ibr. 11:6). Dan daging melakukan sesuatu bukan dari iman.

Jadi "daging" adalah aku yang mengandalkan diriku sendiri, dan yang tidak beriman. Inilah yang mati ketika Allah menyelamatkanku. Allah menjepit arteri pada hatiku yang membatu. Dan ketika hati ini mati Ia mengambilnya dan memberiku hari yang baru (Yehezkiel 36:26).

'Apa bedanya hati yang baru ini, yang hidup, dengan -yang lama dan mati?- Jawabannya diberikan di Galatia 2:19-20. Dikatakan, "Aku telah disalibkan dengan Kristus. . . Dan hidupku yang kuhidupi sekarang di dalam daging, adalah HIDUP OLEH IMAN dalam Anak Allah yang telah mengasihi aku dan menyerahkan diri-Nya untuk aku." Hati lama yang mati percaya kepada dirinya sendiri; hati yang baru bersandar kepada Kristus setiap hari.

Ini adalah jawaban atas pertanyaan pertama kita: Bagaimana orang mati berjuang melawan dosa? Mereka berjuang melawan dosa dengan percaya kepada Anak Allah. Mereka mati terhadap tipuan Setan, yang berbunyi seperti ini: "Engkau akan lebih bahagia jika engkau percaya pikiranmu sendiri tentang bagaimana menjadi bahagia, daripada percaya kepada nasehat dan janji-janji Kristus." Orang Kristen sudah mati terhadap kebohongan itu. Jadi cara kita melawan Setan adalah dengan percaya bahwa jalan dan janji Kristus lebih baik daripada milik Setan.-

Cara berjuang melawan dosa ini disebut "pertandingan iman" (1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7). Kemenangan-kemenangan perjuangan ini disebut "pekerjaan iman" (1 Tes. 1:3; 2 Tes. 1:11). Dan dalam peperangan ini orang Kristen "dikuduskan oleh iman" (Kis. 26:18; 2 Tes. 2:13).

Mari kita memikirkan tentang perjuangan iman ini. Bukan seperti perang-perangan dengan peluru karet. Kekekalan menjadi taruhannya. Roma 8:13 merupakan ayat kunci: "Jika kamu hidup menurut daging, kamu akan mati; tetapi jika oleh Roh kamu mematikan perbuatan-perbuatan tubuhmu, kamu akan hidup." Ini ditulis bagi orang-orang Kristen, dan poinnya adalah bahwa hidup kekal kita tergantung pada perjuangan kita melawan dosa.

Bukan berarti kita mendapatkan hidup kekal dengan mematikan dosa. Bukan, "oleh Roh" kita berjuang. Ia akan mendapatkan kemuliaan, bukan kita.

It does not mean that we earn eternal life by killing sin. No, it is "by the Spirit" that we fight. He will get the glory, not us. Nor does Romans 8:13 mean that we fight with an anxious sense of uncertainty about winning. On the contrary, even as we fight we have confidence that "He who began a good work in us will complete it at the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). Nor does Romans 8:13 mean that we must be perfect now in our victory over sin. Paul renounces the claim to perfection (Phil. 3:12).

The demand in Romans 8:13 is not sinlessness but mortal combat with sin. This is utterly essential in the Christian life. Otherwise we give no evidence that the flesh has been crucified. And if the flesh has not been crucified we do not belong to Christ (Gal. 5:24). The stakes in this battle are very high. We are not playing war games. The outcome is heaven or hell.

How then do dead people "put to death the (sinful) deeds of the body"? We have answered, "By faith!" But just what does this mean? How do you fight sin with faith?

Suppose I am tempted to lust. Some sexual image pops into my brain and beckons me to pursue it. The way this temptation gets its power is by persuading me to believe that I will be happier if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier. No one sins out of a sense of duty when what they really want is to do right.

So what should I do? Some people would say, "Remember God's command to be holy (1 Peter 1:16) and exercise your will to obey because he is God!" But something crucial is missing from this advice, namely, FAITH. A lot of people strive for moral improvement who cannot say, "The life I live I live BY FAITH" (Gal. 2:20). A lot of people try to love who don't realize that, "What counts is FAITH working through love" (Gal. 5:6).

The fight against lust (or greed or fear or any other temptation) is a fight of faith. Otherwise the result is legalism. I'll try to explain how we fight sin with faith.

When the temptation to lust comes, Romans 8:13 says, "If you kill it by the Spirit you win live." By the Spirit! What does that mean? Out of all the armor God gives us to fight Satan, only one piece . used for killing—the sword. It is called the sword OF THE SPIRIT (Eph. 6:17). So when Paul says, "Kill sin by the Spirit," I take that to mean, Depend on the Spirit, especially his sword.

What is the sword of the Spirit? It's the Word of God (Eph. 6:17). Here's where faith comes in. "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17). The Word of God cuts through the fog of Satan's lies and shows me where true and lasting happiness is to be found. And so the Word helps me stop trusting in the potential of sin to make me happy, and in stead entices me to trust in God's promise of joy (Psalm 16:11).

I wonder how many believers today realize that faith is not merely believing that Christ died for our sins. Faith is also being confident that His way is better than sin. His will is more wise. His help is more sure. His promises more precious. And his reward more satisfying. Faith begins with a backward look at the cross, but it lives with a forward look at the promises. Abraham grew strong in his FAITH ... fully convinced that God was able to do what He had PROMISED" (Rom. 4:20f.). "Faith is the assurance of things HOPED for" (Heb. 11:1).

When faith has the upper hand in my heart I am satisfied with Christ and his promises. This is what Jesus meant when he said, "He who BELIEVES in me shall NEVER THIRST" (John 6:35). If my thirst for joy and-meaning and passion are satisfied by the presence and promises of Christ, the power of sin is broken. We do not yield to the offer of sandwich meat when we can see the steak sizzling on the grill.

The fight of faith is the fight to stay satisfied with God. "By faith Moses. . . forsook the fleeting pleasures of sin ... He looked to the reward" (Heb. 11:24-26). Faith is not content with "fleeting pleasures." It is ravenous for joy. And the Word of God says, "In God's presence is fullness of joy, and in his right hand are pleasures for evermore" (Psalm 16:11). So faith will not be sidetracked into sin. It will not give up so easily in its quest for maximum joy.

The role of God's Word is to feed faith's appetite for God. And in doing this it weans my heart away from the deceptive taste of lust. At first lust begins to trick me into feeling that I would really miss out on some great satisfaction if I followed the path of purity. But then I take up the sword of the Spirit and begin to fight. I read that it is better to gouge out my eye than to lust (Matt. 5:29). I read that if I think about things that are pure and lovely and excellent the peace of God will be with me (Phil. 4:8f.). I read that setting the mind on the flesh brings death, but setting the mind on the Spirit brings life and peace (Rom. 8:6).

And as I pray for my faith to be satisfied with God's life and peace, the sword of the Spirit carves the sugar coating off the poison of lust. I see it-for what it is. And by the grace of God, its alluring power is broken.

This is the way dead people do battle with sin. This is what it means to be a Christian. We are dead in the sense that the old unbelieving self (the flesh) has died. In its place there is a new creation. What makes it new is FAITH. Not just a backward-looking belief in the death of Jesus, but a forward-looking belief in the promises of Jesus. Not just being sure of what he did do, but also being satisfied with what he will do.

With all eternity hanging in the balance, we fight the fight of faith. Our chief enemy is the Lie that says sin will make our future happier. Our chief weapon is the Truth that says God will make our future happier. And faith is the victory that overcomes the lie, because faith is satisfied with God.

The challenge before us then is not merely to do what God says because He is God, but to desire what God says because he is good. The challenge is not merely to pursue righteousness, but to prefer righteousness. The challenge is to get up in the morning and prayerfully meditate on the Scriptures until we experience joy and peace in believing "the precious and very great promises" of God (Rom. 15:13; 2 Peter 1:4). With this joy set before us the commandments of God will not be burdensome (1 John 5:3) and the compensation of sin will appear too brief and too shallow to lure us.