“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart
of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily,
while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the
beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews
3:12-15 NKJV)
What a joy and what an ecstasy that was when God delivered
us through the blood of Christ! The first love of God dazzled and electrified
us when our hearts were open to receive Christ as Lord and Savior through the
faith in Him. What’s happened? The dead human spirit has been made alive by the
power of God. Through one man Adam who failed to keep the commandment of God
all sinned and thereafter the spirit of human was dead, not functioning nor
responding at all. That’s the fall of human race.
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and
sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of
disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (Ephesians 2:1-3 NKJV)
But when we responded to the unconditional love of God
presented on the cross of Calvary in public with the gift of faith given from
heaven above, by the power of God we were snatched from the chain of darkness
in spirit and given the Spirit according to the promise of God who indwells
within forever. In fact, we were bought at the price of the Lamb of God, Christ
Jesus and thus we are not our own any longer but possessed by God.
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you
were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit,
which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NKJV)
Nevertheless, no Christian can escape more failures in
sinning against God even after the marvelous deliverance and liberation. When
it happens repeatedly many doubt even the assurance of delivery. The most
frequent and populous choice of many Christians when failed is to try harder to
keep the commandments of God, desiring for the moment of the first love. The
harder we try, the drier and more powerless we experience even though there may
be some temporary release. That’s the deceitfulness of sin which says to rely
on ourselves, experience, status, and all other resources.
This is the hardest lesson for us to learn in the growing
progress of Christian experience after being born again. The same experience is
written in the Book of Numbers for our instructions. “Now all these things happened
to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the
ends of the ages have come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11 NKJV) Since the people of
Israel didn’t soften their hearts and entered the land of promise, they
wondered in the wilderness forty years. This is the picture of hardening hearts
and trying harder with flesh. It is continually being deceived by the wiles of
the devil.
The forty long years of experience is double-edged—longsuffering
and warning. It is the longsuffering and patience of God who is waiting for the
return of children with His arm wide open. At the same time, it is a warning
that if we continue to harden our hearts we would be perished like the
Israelites were in their rebellion being deceived. Salvation came through only
the blood of Christ as beautifully displayed in the Passover. How much more
shall we rely on the works of Christ in the cross to be saved and fulfilled in
our lives in Him!
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