This episode emphasizes the necessity of God's grace for sanctification and the keeping of God's law. The law is an excellent mirror, revealing the disconnect between ourselves and a holy God. It is nevertheless powerless to transform us and sanctify us, since we are fundamentally sinful apart from God's grace. Paul highlights this fact in Romans 8:3, "what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did.." The law reveals our weakness and our desperate need for Christ. It is the "tutor that leads us to Christ." (Gal. 3:24) Christians commonly acknowledge dependence on the grace of God in conversion and infancy in Christ, but trip up later when they revert to relying on their flesh, apart from grace. This was my experience, and I testify how God overthrew my smug self-reliance and gave me a sense of my utter dependence on His power. This gracious power transforms us, helping us keep the law. "I will run the way of your commandments, for you will enlarge my heart." (Psalm 119:32)
The Galatian Error: When Grace is Made Powerless
This episode spells out the spiritual loss incurred by believers when they adopt a legalistic approach to sanctification. The problem, according to Galatians 5:4, is that persistent appeal to the law for justification cuts the Christian off from the grace power source for sanctification. The Christian is no longer relying on the Holy Spirit and His power to walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16), he's now relying on works of the law for maturing in Christ. This is the fundamental error of the Galatians cited in Gal. 3:3, of whom Paul asked, "having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" This approach to sanctification repudiates grace, resulting in being "severed from Christ" and "fallen from grace." This strong language doesn't refer to one's position in Christ, but rather to the believer's rejection of the grace of God present in sanctification. "Severed" is the translation from "katergeo" and means estrangement or made ineffective. It's the same verb in Romans 6:6, where Paul contends that the "old self might be done away with." There the old self continues to exists but is rendered ineffective. So "severed from Christ" doesn't mean the believer has lost his salvation, but he has in fact made the sanctifying grace of God ineffective by his appeal to works of the law. The result is that the believer has "fallen from grace." The grace of sanctification is available, but the believer prefers perfecting himself without it.
Resurrection Power for Everyday Life
This episode contrasts mediocre Christian life with the abundant life that Christ promised us. The difference is the power-source that we most often rely upon. If we adopt the bogus assumption that dependence on resurrection power is mostly for crisis moments, not for routine everyday life, then we consign ourselves to living a substandard mediocre Christian life mostly governed by our fleshly power. Christ exploded this distinction, maintaining that the routine, even boring aspects of biotic life should be filled with zoe life, the spiritual life that He alluded to in John 10:10: "I would that you have life and that more abundantly." Christians should consequently bear their crosses, depending on resurrection power and not their own. Paul prayed that Ephesian believers would live out of this power, which was the same power that rose Christ from the dead. (Eph. 1:19-20) And Paul Himself linked this resurrection power to the crosses that all of us must inevitably bear: "I want to know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings." (Phil. 3:10) Everyday reliance on resurrection power is then the only way to experience "abundant life" and rise above mediocrity.
Wait on the Power!
This episode ties identification with Christ's resurrection to the power of that resurrection. The Scriptures abound with descriptions of the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in believers, and this power is actually the same power that rose Christ from the dead. (Eph. 1:19-20) Peter observes that "God's divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness." (2 Pet. 1:3) The great hope of the Christian faith is that we ultimately don't depend on ourselves to mature ourselves into the likeness of Christ, we abide in Christ and wait till His power transforms us. As we identify with Christ's death, we reckon ourselves dead to sin. We wait for God to transform us, and we experience burial, sometimes an extended period of time in which we see little change, but in faith we persistently shove the rotting corpse of the flesh back into the ground. Then, in God's time, "light rises in the darkness for the upright." (Psalm 112:4) Resurrection power, the same power that rose Christ from the dead, invigorates and animates our souls, expanding our capacity for the divine life, even to the point where Paul says "we are filled up with all the fulness of God." (Eph. 3:19) Giving all glory to God, Paul concludes that "we have this treasure in earthen containers, so that the extraordinary greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves." (2 Cor. 4:7)
“Make this Year Revolutionary!”
This final episode challenges all Christians to implement Biblical imperatives that will substantially reflect God's will for their lives, resulting in revolutionary results by the end of the year. Beginning with apprehending the tailor-made vision of God through prayer, Christians should adopt a purposeful intentional approach to life instead of reacting to circumstances and challenges according to the flesh. Opposition is the expectation of Spirit-filled believers who know they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them. (Phil. 4:13) The episode culminates with the higher promise of the Christian life: in addition to witnessing how God empowers them to do mighty exploits in the name of the Lord, Christians discover the transformative Person and power of Christ. This is indeed the greatest reward.
“Build, with God’s Power”
This episode builds on the first episode, emphasizing that all sanctification is fundamentally drawing on the power of Christ provided in the resurrection. We were born again through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3), and in sanctification, we progressively live out of the power that Christ has made available. "God's divine power has given to us everything pertaining to life and godliness..." (2 Pet. 1:3) The episode exhorts believers not to make the tempting mistake of the Galatians who sought "to be perfected by the flesh" instead of drawing on the divine power. (Gal. 3:2-3) New Years' resolutions often fail because they're based on fleshly resolve and power. The episode closes with the a summary of the numerous qualities that Christians are to walk in, based on abiding in Christ and His power. Even the Christian response is based on God's divine power. So, with respect to the constitutional metaphor, "separation of powers" doesn't refer to a Christian's response independent of God's power, but merely highlights human responsibility to ACT, in response to God's power.
Dump your God-complex and respond to His Power
With a view to beginning the year right, this opening episode calls believers back to the fundamentals, the constitution. Typically constitutions enumerate the powers of government, and our U.S. constitution provides a separation of powers. A successful life in God's eyes is founded on a separation of powers, where believers don't presume on divine prerogatives but only fulfill their responsibilities prescribed in the Biblical separation of powers. Well constitutionally speaking, the Christian life rests completely on the power of God. 1 Pet. 2:3 states that "God's divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life in godliness." The successful Christian life abides in Christ, and out of the power of Christ, bears much fruit. (John 15:5) The fruit enumerated in 2 Pet. 1: 5-8 are all based on the Christian's responsibility to access the power. Well when believers learn to operate in their proper domain, fulfilling their responsibilities through the power of Christ, many of the unnecessary headaches and heartaches that plague believers diminish. Things work better in the kingdom when we let God be God and appropriately respond to His power.