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Are you living in FAITH?

This lesson was originally published here at the Biblical Recorder online.

Imagine that you decided to take a fishing trip on the ocean. Suddenly a terrible storm came up and capsized your vessel leaving you stranded and clinging desperately to the ship’s driftwood. Finally, after several hours holding onto the driftwood, the Coast Guard arrives and casts you a life preserver. What you do is obvious. You take hold of the life preserver and receive the rescue you’ve been offered. You would be ludicrous to cling to your driftwood in rejection of life preserver that represents safety. Saving faith parallels this story. In your past and mine, we held on desperately to some form of self-righteousness or blatantly sinful driftwood. But when we realized that permanent rescue from our sin was only available through Jesus, we received offer of salvation. We put our faith in the cross as our rescue from death to life. Saving faith is victorious not because it is great faith, but because the object of saving faith (Jesus) is never failing. The book of Hebrews details the uniqueness of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law and the substitute/redeemer of mankind. Jesus is victorious. Our part in experiencing the victory of Jesus is faith. Like we did when we trusted in Jesus as our Savior, we need to continue in faith. Initial saving faith is permanent and eternal. Losing faith or walking in fear and doubt do not mean we lose our salvation. However, many of us fail to experience daily the victory Jesus has already won because we don’t walk in faith. Are you experiencing victory in your Christian life today? If not, examine whether or not you are holding on to some form of self-righteousness or sin (like the driftwood) that is taking the place of expressing continual faith in Jesus. Victorious living is possible if we will only trust in the victorious Christ.

Monday Meditation-Do you experience victory over sin?

Baptism is one of my favorite things in ministry. Having the privilege of baptizing believers as a testimony of their faith in Jesus is a true joy. From baptizing my son to baptizing in a frigid baptistery in South Africa, I’ve had some truly memorable baptism experiences. But what I love most about baptism is what it illustrates. In Romans 6, Paul describes our salvation experience using baptism. We were “baptized” with Christ in his death. Jesus took our sins on the cross. When he died, our sins died with him. When he was buried, we were buried with him. When he rose, we rose with him. The observance of baptism, being buried under the water and raised out of the water is an outward illustration of an inward reality. Baptism pictures outwardly the victory received inwardly through our faith in Christ’s death and resurrection. Our salvation then is an identity change. We are no longer mastered by sin’s power. Rather, we’ve received the new life, the life of the resurrected Christ. Paul’s point in this text is that we have victory over sin precisely because Christ won the victory over sin. Because we identify with him, we experience victory with him. Paul challenged his readers to consider themselves dead to sin and to present themselves to Christ for righteousness. We consider ourselves dead to sin and walk in righteousness not to earn our salvation, but rather because we have been saved. Our identity is now found in Jesus. Our sin died with Jesus on the cross. Our old life was buried with Christ in the tomb. Our new life is now the resurrected life of Jesus. Our daily challenge is to live in the victory of our present position in Christ rather than live in the defeat of the sins of our past. This post was originally published as a Sunday School lesson for the Biblical Recorder here.