The Gospel Coalition

The day after tommorrow, my wife and I are leaving for Switzerland. We will be away for 9 days. Please pray that we will return safely and soundly as we are leaving all three of our children behind. There is so much still to do to get ready to go. Needless to say, blogging over the next 10 days will be scarce. But here is something I wrote the other day for Unfashionable in a chapter entitled Kingdom Come:

If you’re a Christian, you’ve been objectively transferred by God from the realm of spiritual death to the realm of spiritual life — from a kingdom where sin and death rule to a kingdom where God rules:

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).

Your citizenship has changed. You’re a subject of a new ruler, allegiant to a new King. This external relocation to a new kingdom governed by King Jesus inevitably leads to, and is inseparable from, an internal revolution. Paul explains this relationship between the external and the internal:

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (Romans 6:4-6)

For the Christian, the one who has come under the reign and rule of King Jesus, sin no longer has mastery over you or dominion in you — you’re no longer a slave to sin.

To be sure, Christians still struggle with sin, because even though sin has already been dethroned, it hasn’t yet been destroyed. But as John Murray says, “It is one thing for the enemy to occupy the capital, it is another for his defeated hosts to harass the garrisons of the Kingdom.”  Sin still remains in us, but it doesn’t reign over us. Remaining sin isn’t the same as reigning sin. Sin used to occupy the throne in our souls before we were saved, but has now been overthrown, though it continues to harass us. King Jesus now occupies the throne in our souls, with dominion in us and mastery over us. Meanwhile, remaining sin continues its ruthless assaults, employing a guerilla-warfare type strategy as it continually resists God’s new governing authority in and over us.

But even though sin’s harassment is real and deeply felt, the Bible wants Christians to know they’re fundamentally different than they used to be. This external relocation with its accompanying internal revolution means that we’re new creatures with new natures — “the old has gone and the new has come.” The core of who you are has been radically changed. Your disposition, your desires, and your direction have been changed — you’ve been “raised to newness of life.” This newness expresses itself in new thoughts, new desires, and new behavior. You’ll think differently, feel differently, live differently.

This is why we’re to operate according to a different standard, with different goals and motivations, and an altogether different perspective on money, lifestyle, and relationships. Our priorities and pursuits and passions — everything is to be different. It makes no sense to live according to the old ways when you’ve become new. The New Testament contains exhortation after exhortation for Christians to “become what they are” — to live out practically what they already are positionally: citizens in the kingdom of God.