Holy War - Redemption - Maturity

Holy War – Redemption – Maturity. These are the three themes we see in the Bible, and they all go together. I want to speak about each of these.

I carefully ordered these three. Really, Holy War is the first and third of these. It is through Holy War that we are redeemed, and through Holy War that we, as God’s redeemed People, mature. God wages Holy War to save those Whom He has elected, and we His People, wage Holy War in our hearts so that Christ may work in us and bring us to maturity.

In the beginning, there was no real official Holy War. Actually, perhaps it should not be said so much that God wages Holy War, as it is Satan who wages it. Satan rebelled against God. This was the first act of war. God gave him a home called Hell, and God began to create a home for His People. But yet again, Satan waged Holy War, targeting the chief of God’s creation, man.

After Satan won this battle, God exercised just war against the enemy. This just war was not aimed at destruction, but redemption. While Satan had his own strategy, God had the better strategy: redeeming His People.

Throughout the entire Old Testament we see pictures of this. Satan would wage an attack, and God would come back and put Satan down in His place. As God put Satan down and brought His People up, He redeemed them. He did this on the ark and at the Red Sea. Finally, God redeemed His People through the cross of Christ and has promised to come again to complete that work.

War is going on. Now God calls on His People to fight in the war. This does not mean that Christians should wage national war on a country because they do not officially confess Christ as King. This means that the Christian, on an individual level, and the church on a corporate level, fights against sin. It means we are called to hate sin and pray for our sin to be damned. It means that we cut off our eye if it causes us to sin (Matt. 5:29). It means you cut off your internet chord if that causes you to sin. It means you pray against sin. It means you join with the Assembly of the Saints in worship. It means you forgive those who sinned against you, because that is the only way for your sin to be forgiven (Matt. 6:14-15).

As we wage this Holy War, Christ brings us to maturity. Although creation was created good, man was still called to maturity. Adam had the task of watching over and protecting Eve. This protection was a protection for any kind of evil that could come. Although the earth was good, it was still vulnerable, as we see in Genesis 3. Perhaps on a smaller and different level, Adam and Eve were called to win the Holy War that Satan waged in Heaven. If Adam and Eve had not fallen, they would have continued to mature into a state of invulnerability of evil, and thus, won the war. That invulnerability of sin is what God wants to bring us to through Christ, the new Adam.

How long will we mature? Perhaps for eternity. Even in Final Resurrected glory, when God’s Kingdom is no longer vulnerable, we will perhaps have places to mature. Granted, if sin is not vulnerable, we will have won the war, and we will mature in other ways. But until sin is fully defeated, we are called to fight in this Holy War so that it may bring us to maturity and final Redemption with the return of Christ. Christ is the new Adam, and so the Church must be the new Eve. Christ was a better Adam. So we must be a better Eve.

What do you think?

God bless America

God bless the Church

May 1, 2009

Ryan Hampton