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True Faith Will Make You a Fighter

God Saves and Sustains

Our ability to survive is not dependent on our disposition or willpower—God saves and sustains. Christ is the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). R.C. Sproul says it best:

The process by which we are kept in a state of grace is something that is accomplished by God. My confidence in my preservation is not in my ability to persevere. My confidence rests in the power of Christ to sustain me with His grace and by the power of His intercession. He is going to bring us safely home.

Isaac Newton, the famous physicist and mathematician, taught that every object will remain at rest unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force. This law of motion is helpful when we think about the doctrine of perseverance.

Habitual sin, inactivity and passivity in the life of a Christian point to the absence of essential activity by an external force: God. In other words, God’s preserving work compels us to become active participants with wartime mentalities against indwelling sin.

God Made a Fighter Out of Me

Like my childhood opponents, my sin isn’t interested in making peace with me. My sin will launch blow after blow until it destroys me. All of my endeavors to make peace with it will be futile. My efforts to become my flesh’s friend will be costly. Attempts to ignore this body of death will end in my death. I can’t afford to treat my sin the way I treated my human opponents.

The reality of God’s persevering work in my life made me a fighter. My opponent is no longer flesh and blood, but sin and Satan (Ephesians 6:12). A sign of God’s sustaining work in my life is evident by my new disposition to fight and kill sin.

If God doesn’t preserve Christians, we will never fight and we will die. Our disposition to fight is proof that God is perfecting our faith. We will stumble and struggle, but we will never make lasting peace with our sin. True faith makes us fighters, and in Christ we are more than conquerors; we’re heirs with him (Romans 8:16–17, Romans 8.37″>37).