by Jacob Ninan
The word 'believers' is used rather loosely many times and people think of different things when they use it. Earlier, it used to refer to born-again Christians in contrast with those who were Christians only in name. But now there are many people who say they are believers who only accept certain facts in their mind and have not even been born again. The current trend is for people to say they are followers of Christ. This again, can be a little ambiguous, because even though Jesus asked people to follow Him, there were also multitudes who followed Him just because they had seen some miracles and wanted to benefit from Him (Jn.6:26). The right word to use would be 'disciples' which means to have found Jesus as the pearl of greatest value, left everything else and followed Him. Disciples are those who have made it their life's goal to learn from the Master and become like Him.
But, having started off as disciples is not enough because it is still possible for us to fall away from Jesus due to different kinds of pressures. The apostle Paul warns us about this with the example of Israel. They had been delivered from slavery in Egypt, which, figuratively speaking, represents our being saved from sin in our life, gone through the Red Sea and led by the cloud, representing baptisms in water and the Holy Spirit, and yet most of them never entered the Promised Land (1Cor.10:1-6). We can learn from what happened to them.
When they came near the Promised Land, they sent in twelve men to spy and bring back a report about the land. When they returned, they admitted that the land really 'flowed with milk and honey' as God had said, but ten out of the twelve said that because there were giants in the land and they had strong fortresses, Israel could not capture the land (Num.13:27,28). Two of the spies tried to convince the people that God would give them the land just as He had promised. However, even though these people had actually witnessed how God had delivered them from Egypt in a miraculous way, made a way for them through the Red Sea, fed them with manna and birds from the sky and water from rocks, at this point they chose to ignore God from their view and look only at their natural circumstances. God became so angry with them that He decided that none of those people who disbelieved would be able to enter the Promised Land (Num.14:11,22,23).
How does this relate to us? What is our Promised Land that we might miss? Many Christians only think of the place in heaven that is promised to us. But what God has promised us which is even greater than heaven is that we can partake of the divine nature (1Co.10:20). This means that after we have repented from our sins, received forgiveness of sins, gone through water baptism and been baptised in the Holy Spirit, our character can be changed little by little so that we can become like Jesus (Rom.8:28,29).
Here is where unbelief can pulll us back. We can give ourselves various excuses, such as, "We are not perfect – no one can be perfect," "This is my personality," "My parents were like this," "We have to live on this earth – be realistic," "I have never seen anyone perfect," "I have tried a lot, but couldn't succeed," etc. If we do that, we would be behaving just like Israel before the Promised Land, looking at our natural abilities rather than the promises of God.
Here we look at the example of the faith of Abraham. When God promised him a son, he refused to look at the fact that both he and Sarah were too old to have children, but looked forward to receiving this son by believing what God had promised him (Rom.4:18-21). This was naturally speaking impossible to happen, but by faith he received the ability to have a son.
When it comes to getting victory over our sins, one key verse to understand is, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness" (2Cor.12:9). It is when we truly recognise our own impotence when it comes to getting victory, just as Abraham recognised his physical inability, that God's power (grace) can work in us and give us the victory. It may not be easy to come to that position of natural helplessness, but when we get there, God will give us what He has promised. Of course, we are not to sit there passively waiting for God to fulfil His promise, but we are to deny ourselves daily and follow the life of Jesus (Lk.9:23).
In practical terms, we can say that we need both faith and obedience. It will not work if we sit there thinking that we have faith in God without obeying what He tells us. Neither will it work if we try to obey without first learning to trust in God alone to make things happen. When we battle with strong temptations such as anger, anxiety or sexual lust, we can see how we need both faith and obedience.
If we don't get victory, we must not assume that it is somehow God's fault. It is never His fault. The Bible says that most of Israel could not enter the Promised Land either because of unbelief or disobedience (Heb.3:18,19). So it will be in our case too, even if we may not easily admit that in our life.
Victory is not about God taking away the temptations. But even Jesus was tempted. But victory means that when we face the temptations, God is able to give us the power to say no to them. It is also not that once we taste victory in any area, temptations will no longer trouble us there. But if we become self-confident or careless, we can find ourselves falling again. This is where we need to learn to watch and pray.