Fight

Conflicts

This post is going to end up being somewhat dated in that I am dealing with the state of current affairs in our world. The world news that I am referring to is the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. However, in this post I am not so much concerned about the eschatological importance or lack thereof of these events, but rather the practical parable that this real war gives us with our ongoing struggle against sin.

Problems and conflicts have plagued the Middle East not simply since the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948 but since the days of Abraham in Genesis. This land has almost always been embroiled in battles, occupations, and conquests. These problems only got worse when the dangerous ideology of militant Islam entered the equation. To this day, faithful Muslims must strive to see the world, but especially the “Holy Land,” brought into submission to the law of Islam.

Truce 

Many people are calling on Israel and the terrorists of Hamas to agree to a temporary combat pause. Sometimes these efforts are called a “cease fire” or groups can even enter into formal peace treaties. The problem with this from a practical perspective is that Hamas will never stop desiring to destroy the Israeli state. Remember, they must bring everyone into submission to Islam. This submission need not be willing or devout. This means that force and coercion is fine in the Islamic worldview. To state it bluntly, Hamas wants to destroy Israel and kill every single Israeli person. 

This is such a good analogy of the war that we are involved in with our pesky and prevalent sin. Sin is our enemy and our enemy will not cease or stop until we are destroyed and defeated. Much like Hamas, our sin wants to completely defeat us. If Israel stops fighting against Hamas at that moment Hamas will begin to destroy Israel because they will not permanently stop trying to eradicate Israel from the land. 

Israel has no choice but to win this war by destroying Hamas for their own survival. In the same way we must put our sin to death everyday for our own survival. Too many Christians are trying to negotiate a ceasefire with our sin. But the peace that we need cannot be found in diplomacy or negotiation but on at the cross. The peace that we are seeking as believers is not peace with our sin or with the pleasures of this world or with Satan who hates God and all those who bear His image. Rather the peace that we need is with God Himself (Romans 5:1) and that peace is only available when our sin receives that death penalty (Colossians 2:13-14) and we are then free citizens of Christ’s Kingdom and members of God’s household.

Daily Battle

Jesus instructed His disciples that following Him would mean a daily discipline of denying themselves the carnal and worldly pleasures of sin to instead bear their own cross (Luke 9:22-23). But what is the purpose of daily bearing this cross? The point is that the cross is where we put our sin to death daily. In our battle with sin we must be continually putting it to death. Our indwelling sin is a doomed opponent, but the settled state of its final fate does not stop its continued attack. So sin and Satan continue to oppose us. We must resolve, based upon the victory of Christ and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, to turn from sin and trust in Jesus.

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