Christ awaits our arrival, having conquered spiritual death, through His blood.
The nation of Israel, standing firmly upon the land of promise, seeing the sovereignty of God in their conquered oppressors, living in the blessings and love of the Creator, and having been set apart from the world as God’s special people, looked to the rest of the world with envious eyes. In 1 Samuel 8:5, they came to Samuel and said, “Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” He was displeased and went to the Lord. While Samuel may have been saddened that he was rejected as their “judge,” God saw straight through the nation’s request for what it really was. In verse 7, He tells Samuel, “they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” God was saddened that His people would rather “fulfill the lusts of the flesh,” than have spiritual, eternal motives (Gal. 5:16).
God fought for His people to be sanctified. He threw off the tyranny of Egypt in such a powerful way that the world took note. He supplied their every need in the wilderness. He raised up judges and fought off enemy nations. He assured them that the land they would go in to possess was conquered before they even arrived, because there was no chance of them doing it alone.
God still fights for His people to be sanctified. His Son faced death. He conquered it, becoming the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18). He knew we couldn’t conquer it without Him. We face an inevitable physical death, which is our crossing of the Jordan into the land of promise. Christ awaits our arrival, having conquered spiritual death, through His blood.
Do you ever find yourself looking over into the world and thinking, “I want what they have”? God did not fight so that His church could be indistinguishable from the world, but so that it could be set apart. Paul reminds us that we “are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore, ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty’” (2 Cor. 6:16b-18).
As we stand firmly in the Kingdom of God and look out to the world, it should not appear enticing, but only remind us of how much “the Captain of our salvation” has done to put our feet where they are (Heb. 2:10).
-Cary Gillis D.Min. November 27, 2020Be Separate
