Finished works

Deuteronomy 7:22
And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.

“I can do it!”  How many times have you heard those words?  As a parent, I can honestly say that I’ve heard those very words hundreds of times.  This is our nature: to try and to try and to try.  

We love the feeling that we get when we’re able to accomplish a given task.  Whether it’s climbing that big tree in the front yard, riding the bike around the block, or landing that job you’ve desired for years, when it happens you’re filled with pride.  Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that feeling.  When you work hard for something and you invest time and energy into succeeding, you earn the right to feel happy and successful when all goes according to your plan.  

This go-getter, conqueror attitude holds true for everything in your life, except when it comes to your ability to maintain God’s holy standard.  When you’re trying out of your own power and strength to defeat sin in your life and live according to what God’s statutes dictate, your efforts are futile.  This is why we have Jesus; this is why we need a Savior!

If you parallel the Old Testament story of Israel, God’s chosen people, to our spiritual New Testament lives, you’ll see some amazing things.  There is a direct relationship between the enemies of Israel (Pharaoh, the Egyptians, the nations who possessed the Promised Land, etc.) and our enemy: the Devil, his angels, and sin.  Once you can make the connection and place yourself in the story, spiritually, you’ll begin to see God’s plan unfold for you.

Here in Deuteronomy Moses is reminding the nation of Israel of God’s laws, His requirements, His judgements, His statutes, and His promises.  Moses is telling the people what is going to happen and what their role is going to be when they enter the Promised Land.  He is providing them with the hope they’ll need to succeed when they enter.

Israel’s work was crossing the Jordan river and possessing the land.  God’s work was driving out the nations before them.  How does this apply to our lives today?  When we put this in perspective, we can see that there is a time for us to work and a time for us to allow God to work.  All too often we get these times mixed up.  Sometimes it’s unintentional; sometimes it’s because we’re too proud.  But, like Israel, our work is simply to possess what God has promised us: health, prosperity, joy, peace, happiness through Jesus Christ.  God’s work is to drive out our enemies from before us!

We get caught up in the idea that once you enter the “promised land” by becoming a Christian, the real work of acting like one begins.  We seem to think that it’s completely our responsibility to drive off sin in our lives; we think it’s our job to chase off the enemy.  But the Bible makes it very clear that our job is to possess the land; God’s job is to drive out the enemy.  

Looking to and remaining fixed on Christ’s perfect work at the cross is all we need to “do” in order to possess the promises of God.  God’s work is to “little by little” drive out our enemies.  What is it that is possessing the land of happiness that God has given to you?  Name it and know that God is driving it out!  Alcoholism, pornography, anger, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and fear are all enemies.  They are defeated; they were defeated for you at the cross.  If these things are possessing your land, trust that it’s not up to you to remove them; it’s up to God to drive them out, defeated.

Our nature wants to fight.  But when we choose to fight our enemies we are choosing to push God aside.  We are saying to God, “I can do this.  You can help, but I can do it!”  God doesn’t want to help you; God wants to save you.  This is where allowing grace to take over gives you perfect rest.  When you let go of your “7 principles of healing x, y, and/or z” and allow Christ’s finished work at the cross to take effect, you’ll see your enemies be driven away.  Little by little, through the grace of God, your problems, those sins that haunt you, will vanish away.  

You’ll possess the promise while God continually causes His grace to flow in your life.  Without end, He will drive your enemies from you.  That sin that controlled you, that held dominion over you, is defeated.  It’s not because you fought the good fight, but because Christ won the whole war.