Complete in Thee …….

Sin affects all of us in all areas of our life and total depravity affects us mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Ever since fall, inherent sin affects manhood and we are constantly battling in the lust of the yes, the lust of flesh and with the pride of life. Genesis 3: 1-8, speaks about the Fall of man, and it is so dramatic, that our parents hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden, because they knew they were naked.

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

The effects of the Fall are narrated in the remaining chapter of Genesis 3.

Biblical references: Gen 3:1-8 (How sin entered in); Matt: 4 (Jesus was tempted: lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life), Rom:6(Dead to sin and alive to God).

What is the moral decision about sin?
What do we understand about the moral decision we make about sin? It does take some time and some thinking to come to that position that the sin in us as fallen people must be killed and we must come to the humble acknowledgement that we are sinful. No one can bring anyone else to this humble position, except the Lord Jesus Christ who took the sin of the whole humanity on the cross when He was crucified. If I may call it, co- crucifixion, that is our sinful nature is being crucified with Christ and though we are religiously motivated and earnestly convinced to do this, the work is of the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit. This work, the amazing work of God, for any person, who want to come to this moral decision about sin, is freely available by the redemptive power of Christ, and no flesh can do it on their own, because the glory belongs to God alone, and He does not want any flesh to glory, in His redemptive work which was done on Calvary through His Son.

How do we do this?
Take a simple analysis of our heart, and let us identify ourselves with the death of Christ on the cross, and acknowledge that our sin is dead on the cross with Jesus; lust of the flesh, the lust of eyes, and the pride of life....the sin which affects humanity in all areas of our life. Ask the help of the Holy Spirit to invade us, our hearts, the possible areas where sin can lurk, and have the Divine anticipation that God is able to help us when we earnestly seek Him while making the moral decision about sin. In a nut shell I would like to say, anything rising within us which could exalt itself against the knowledge of God. Then we can agree with God's verdict through His Word that disposition of sin, and make a moral decision about sin, "dead indeed unto sin" “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin”; Rom:6:6-7.
This indeed is a glorious privilege for all of us, to be crucified with Christ, and we begin to understand in our life on this part of eternity “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”; Gal 2:20.

What do we understand regarding 'Moral Divinity'?
“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection”: Rom 6:5.
The proof that we have been crucified with Christ will be revealed in our life, that we live on this earth. We will have a decided likeness to Him, and our personal life, will reflect the beauty of Christ in all areas and this can be called as Co-resurrection. This means the life I live, will be one like that of the likeness of the Son of God, on this earth, because the resurrection of the Son of God has imparted that authority in my mortal flesh. This new life in Christ will show itself in holiness, and the resurrection life of Jesus invades us in every part of our personal, professional, community and spiritual lives. The work of the Holy Spirit invades us in all areas of our lives, because He is not a guest, in our life, and He changes our old man and the heredity of sin. We begin to operate in a new order, because the gift of God is parted within us, and this will lead us in the path of holiness and purity of God's Son.

What do we understand by the Moral Dominion?
“Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord;” Rom:6: 9-11.
In this section I would like to talk about the Co-eternal life, the eternal life with Jesus which is the gift of God. In other words once we make the moral decision on sin, the enabling power of the Holy Spirit will help us in our weaknesses, and live a godly life, pleasing God. The full life of God begin to operate within us, and that we may be filled with the fullness of God. Eternal life means living life with God, and this has nothing to do with time, and this is the life Jesus lived while He was living with us. Even the weakest of all saints can experience this power of the Deity of the Son of God once he /she is willing to let go of any strand of their own energy and will that will blur the life of Jesus. Slowly but surely when our will is replaced by His Divine will, and when our energy is replaced by the power of the Holy Spirit, God can invade every part of us. The beautiful thing which could happen when this replacement slowly happens would be that men will know that Jesus is with us and our hearts will reflect the heart of Jesus and this will draw many men towards that Divine love!

Who can fathom fully?

When I walked the steps of Jesus recently in Jerusalem and Galilee and Bethlehem, and especially when I walked the path of Jesus during his passion week my mind constantly thought about the trials and persecutions of Jesus. When I walked through the different stations of the Cross via Dolorosa Jerusalem I thought about the three Falls of Jesus: at station three, station seven and station nine. The Fall was beyond what Jesus could carry at that time and his body was weak, and He was mentally and physically exhausted and He needed help. The greatest mental agony of Jesus could be the initial separation from His Father, carrying the whole burden of the sins of world, and being persecuted, beaten, heavily interrogated by the leaders both in the religious and secular circles for trying to fulfill what His Father in Heaven had for Him. I could sit on this topic for days, because this whole scene is beyond me to comprehend and I cannot fathom why Jesus had to do this for me and for the whole humanity! Isn’t there any other way of redeeming the humanity? I can try to understand the immense love of God the Father for humanity, and still this love of God is beyond me and unexplainable. Yes, the Word of God says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”; Jn 3:16. Yes, God’s Word is the ultimate truth, but my comprehension of trying to fathom God’s love in giving His Only Son Jesus Christ seem to be partial and a mystery. In my comprehension, this seem to be an ‘unscalable mystery’.

Here I am trying to understand God and His natural attributes. God is not a fearful celestial policeman nor a sentimental grandfather in the sky, nor He is a ball of consuming fire. The natural attributes of God revealed by His self-disclosure of Scripture says, God is all powerful, transcendent who excels above all and He is exalted and eternal and the world’s Creator, who is Sovereign and the Perfect Judge. God is immanent and near as well as transcendent and He is Omnipotent, who is all powerful, Omnipresent who is in all places at all time, and Omniscient who knows all things. God never had a beginning and has no end, and He is God Eternal, timeless. God is infinite and unlimited and he is unchangeable against injustice, cruelty or deceit and yet He is love. I cannot even fully wrap my mind adequately to conceive of the infinite quantity of space, creation, the vastness of the Universe, the billions of stars in the galaxies, and the times and the change of seasons. Time and again, I come to the humble adoration of God and His characteristic attributes and acknowledge that God’s power, Omni potency is at work and in control of everything, anywhere at work. His Holiness has no limitations and no defects and yet He is a very personal God and created me in His own image after His own likeness;  ^“ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth”; Gen: 1:26. This is an awesome ‘unscalable mystery’ to me.

Time and again when I faced the ‘unscalables’ in my life, the only ‘Fount of Love’ who understands me completely was God, through His Son and His Spirit because He suffered the most, the mental, emotional and physical agony while he was on this earth so He can empathize and sympathize with my whole situation. There are no impossibilities for our Triune God, who is Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent. I acknowledge that God can take me ‘my unscalables’ to the end of the tunnel because His Word says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not”; Jer:33:3. I can also say that God can take anyone by giving His answers to prayer which is beyond the realm of reason, Science, and knowledge. No one can fully fathom the depth, the beauty and dimension of the answer from God because it is so special for that person who calls upon Him. Indeed, God is near to the broken hearted when one faces the ‘unscalable’ and there is absolutely nothing which is ‘unscalable’ to Him.