Three Days - Pt 3

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1-6 ESV).

Finally, the third implication of the double truth that Christ came to destroy our sinning and to forgive our sins is this: Christ will really help us in our fight. He really will help you. He is on your side. He didn’t come to destroy sin because sin is fun. He came to destroy sin because sin is fatal. It is a deceptive work of the devil, and it will destroy us if we don’t fight it. He came to help us, not hurt us. Somehow Christianity drifted into a mindset that God is so holy that he is separated from us. While it is true that God is perfect, holy. It is also true that he has not separated himself from us. In fact the great truth of Christmas is that he became one of us to redeem us forever. The Apostle Paul saw it like this: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8 ESV). That’s the great miracle in Christmas. Our God is not a mere creator who has finished his work of creation and removed himself for it to spin out of control. He is intimately, personally involved in every aspect of our lives so that we may be completed. He is making us perfect so that we may inhabit the prefect realm he has already prepared for us. So here’s your third Christmas present: Christ will help overcome sin in you. That’s the meaning of today’s reading: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Jesus is alive, Jesus is almighty, Jesus lives in us by faith. And Jesus is for us, not against us. Trust him.