Our New Residence
Acts 26:17-18: "I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I an sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me."
Christianity isn't about making good people better. Neither is it a way of teaching us to think new thoughts or act in new ways. Jesus Christ came to uproot us from the kingdom of darkness and transplant us into residence in His own glorious kingdom.
Colossians 1:13-14: "For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
No middle ground exists. We are either with Christ or living in the camp of his enemy. Those of us who have repented and believe in Jesus Christ's sacrificial death for us can be completely confident that we are now abiding in God's kingdom. If we don't stand in this truth, our effectiveness in spiritual warfare is hindered. For that reason, it is good to regularly remind ourselves of our old neighborhood and to give thanks to the One who delivered us.*
Food for thought: Are you trying to live with a foot in two camps? Make a decision now that you will not live in the domain of darkness any longer.
More Study:
Romans 6:22: "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life."
1 John 3:8-9: "He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God."
*Sherman, Dean. Spiritual Warfare for Every Christian: How to Live in Victory and Retake the Land: YWAM Publishing, 1990.
