Battling Unbelief

"Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us" (Romans 8:33-34).

"This means that because of Christ, God has justified us. Past Tense. We are now already counted righteous in Christ. No one can bring a successful charge against us. Christ died for us and lives for us. Thus, we battle unbelief and sin as those who in Christ already have the decisive victory. We already have our standing in heaven by faith in Christ. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our perfection. We pursue holiness, not because we are not yet accepted by God, but because we are. This is the way Paul put it: 'I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own' (Philippians 3:12)."

- John Piper, Battling Unbelief

This weekend I became really discouraged that I could not perfectly fight my sin. Eat perfectly. Think perfectly. Desire God perfectly. But Christ is my perfection. I was listening to this song when I was running today and it reminded me to think of Christ more than my sin. I just love the part in bold. God is so much more powerful than my sin is over me and I have to remind myself of that every single moment. Here are the lyrics:

"I think we emphasize sin so much that it makes us paralyzed
And glorify struggle so much that it makes us terrified
And deemphasize the fact that we have been sterilized from our own lives and thus
God this aint never wise
We gotta snap out of it
We aint in no straight jacket
We free
When Jesus died in our lives something strange happened
He gave us power
Yeah I know that we sinners but since he rose he's renewing the image of God in us
Now, we gotta start making war
Now we can start saying no
To them fleshly impulses that Jesus Christ is paying for
Now we can start taking allegiance
Just like the dalai lama and start going all out just like a suicide bomber
Whatever the sin is we gotta go harder
By God's grace no time to waste and just like there's no tomorrow
- from "Make War" - Tedashii