I turned my final report into my overall commander (Australian Brigadier General) today. I counseled five people this week (four family-related, one combat stress), for a total of 130 sessions during this deployment, and about 150 including the mobilization in Texas. I prayed with 12 convoys this week, for a total of 109 during this deployment. I made 22 site visits throughout the country, including one to the west and two in the north.
A while after turning in that report, one of my soldiers who wrestles with a lot of spiritual questions dropped in. From what I can tell, he is a believer who has not had been fed consistently with the Gospel from the pulpit during his upbringing. He knows a lot of Sunday School answers, but there seems to be a disconnect between head and heart.
Now reading the Bible through for the second time on this deployment, he has become more impressed than ever by his sin. Especially never having spent much time in the Old Testament, he has a new appreciation for the holiness of God and the severity of his sin.
Unfortunately, he puts too much stock in the efforts of man with regard to salvation, despite what he knows of his depravity. He believe that he keeps certain commandments, but not others. He doesn't fully grasp that the Old Testament saints were righteous, not because they were good people (he knows otherwise from his reading), but because the had saving faith in the coming Messiah. It's hard for him to believe that people who love God as they understand him and also love other people can have no hope with regard to salvation. He also looks to himself as an indication as to whether he is saved and also believes he can lose his faith.
Arrogance can sustain such worldview, but a right view of human nature quickly demolishes all the pretensions behind these assertions. That is where he is at right now. I keep impressing upon him the reality that sin doesn't make us sinners, but we sin because we are sinners. And nobody is righteous or seeks after God. All such pursuits apart from Christ reveal is that we know something of the holiness and glory of God and still don't worship Him in Spirit and truth, leaving us without excuse. The law never saves--it only kills. Finally, our salvation is rooted in the character, will, and power of God alone. We cannot add to the work of Christ, nor take away from it.
We are left, then, not to search in vain for our "great work in this life" (his words), but to find ourselves in Christ and His great work on our behalf through His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and coming return. There is perhaps no greater struggle for the Christian than in finding his identity in Christ in accordance with the Scriptures.
This is what Paul was getting at in Colossians 3, I told this soldier (thankfully, he often knows about the passages I refer to now!). Knowing our continual struggle with sin and Satan, Paul tells us to set our minds on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. In other words, get your mind off of yourself and onto Christ. Why? Because our lives are hidden with Christ in God. We died with Him and are raised with Him, finding ourselves cloaked in His perfect righteousness. I know that's incredibly tough for us to grasp, since our sin is always before us (whereas we follow God by faith, not by sight). That's why Paul tells that when Christ, who is our life, appears, we will also appear with Him in glory. In other words, though you can't see your identity today, it will be revealed in Christ in the days to come. So:
1) Set your mind on Christ daily.
2) As you do, meditate on who you are in Christ.
3) As sin attacks and Satan accuses, look to the Day when you are revealed in Christ.
By the grace of God, this soldier's heart has softened toward the Truth. Let us pray that continues.
(1)
