“Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:8–9, ESV).

“But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5, NIV).

In the film Master and Commander, the captain of England’s HMS Surprise engages the most dreaded frigate in Napoleon’s navy in battle on the open sea. After disabling the ship’s sails, the captain leads an assault team onto the bridge of the enemy vessel. They hack their way to the hold of the ship, where several sailors from other English ships are held in cages. In a pivotal scene, the captain breaks the chains and opens the prison door, and a soldier stands ready to hand each exiting man a sword. The men are free . . . to step into a raging battle. Before, they were simply captives; now they have the chance to be conquerors. This is our story.

Jesus has not only liberated us but also invited us to join the fight. C. S. Lewis explained, “Enemy-occupied territory—that is what the world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in his great campaign of sabotage.”* We can feel like we are in a war because we are in one. Yet it is a war in which our King has won the decisive victory. Because he has been victorious, we can be too.

As I say this, I know many people who are so discouraged by their continuous fumbles and failures that they’ve begun to doubt that God has changed their lives. Maybe you feel like that. But what if I told you that your struggles, rather than being a sign of something wrong with you, are actually a sign of something right?

Picture a battlefield in the midst of the heat of a firefight. My mind goes to the gruesome scene on the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day landing of World War II. Amid the chaos of bombs detonating and bullets flying, there are two kinds of people on the field: The first type of person looks calm and still, unaffected by the destruction surrounding them. The second type appears agitated. They’re fighting a war within—battling fear, doubt, anxiety, terror—as the war wages without. What makes these two soldiers so different? The first person appears peaceful because he is dead. The deceased do not flinch when bullets strike the dirt. They don’t duck as bombs erupt. The second person is aware of the battle because they are alive. It is the same spiritually.

The spiritually dead do not struggle with sin. Your struggles, far from being a sign of your spiritual death, are in fact just the opposite. Your struggle may be one of your greatest assurances that you are alive. You are like those sailors in Master and Commander stepping off the enemy’s boat, holding a sword. Jesus rescued us from sin’s eternal penalty, and he has broken it’s power in our lives. Yet a struggle still remains. You have not been freed from your struggle against sin; you have been freed to struggle. Now you must learn how to struggle well.

One day not only sin’s power but its very presence will be banished. We are not there yet, and until we get there we have a purifying work to do (see 1 John 3:2-3). We have a fight on our hands. And we are not left alone or unequipped! Jesus, our King, not only rescues us but also trains our hands for war.

*C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; repr., New York: HarperCollins, 1980), 45.

Respond

What qualifies Jesus to guide us to a life of peace and victory in a world where the Enemy is waging war against us?

What does it mean to you to be made free for the fight?

How do you respond to the fact that Jesus fights for you and with you to destroy the work of sin in your life?