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The Fight of Faith

I’m a goal-setter. When I was 16 years old I had a goal wall in my room. I cut out words, made lists, and taped pictures to my wall of what I hoped to achieve. This "goal wall" served as a daily reminder to keep me focused on the goals. It kept me fighting for what I was looking forward to and motivated me to show up everyday to do the work.

We all have goals. Why? Because goals motivate us. Goals keep us fighting.

The world gives us lots of goals to fight for. Because of our flesh, there’s a part of us all that desires to be beautiful and successful in the eyes of the world. We think that the love of people will somehow satisfy our longings. But the problem is that we end up directing our fighting desires toward the wrong things. We work hard at being noticed and we long desperately for affirmation and validation. We want to get a job that gets applause, to have people like us and tell us we are worthy. We want to know our life counts for something.

However, there’s only one goal and one fight that is worth everything: the fight of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. The fight to believe that we are who HE says we are.

The fight to stand firm against the evil one, to resist sin, and to rest in the peace of Christ. The place where we are at home and fully secure and wholly loved.

We have to realize our tendency to build our identity on things that won't satisfy us so that we can begin to sink our identity into what is truly reliable and enduring - the image of Christ.

Why does image matter so much as disciples of Jesus?

True image is foundational to Christianity. We were created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26-28) and then in the fall our image was disfigured by the presence of sin (Rom. 5:12-21).

Our image was in desperate need of renewal.

And thankfully, God had a plan to restore our image in Christ. The reality is, that apart from the redeeming work of God through Jesus, we rule and relate to the world around us in messy and selfish ways.

But the good news is, God brought us near to him in Jesus. And as disciples of Jesus, we have been given a new image.

As we read yesterday, we are a new creation! Our image in Christ now defines us.

Not our sin, not our past, not our failed attempts to get things right. Because of Jesus' work on the cross, this image is ours through faith!

We understand our image through knowing Jesus. 2 Corinthians 4:6 says "For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ." (NIV)

As we look to Jesus, we begin to see ourselves in light of who He is.

Beholding the face of Jesus Christ and looking at him is our goal to fight for every single day of our lives. He corrects our vision and helps us see ourselves, others and the world around us in light of His Kingdom realities.

Through faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are restored. But sadly our flesh is still at work, waging war against the Spirit.

In Galatians 5:16-17 it says, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do." (ESV)

Our sinful nature is quick to drift back into our own distorted image. We fall into old fighting habits and are tempted to drift into the world’s fight for image. The good news of Jesus calls us back to look at Jesus over and over again. A disciple of Jesus is to look at Jesus, to meditate on Him, to then reflect His beauty in our lives as we are transformed into His image. God gives us both the eyes to see Jesus as well as the power to look like him and to be changed into the image of His glory.

This happens through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit transforming our vision. He gives us a new set of goals for our life focused on the beauty of Jesus. Becoming like Christ in this life is what we fight for until we reach the end goal - the hope of eternity with Jesus and complete restoration.

One day our dusty image of Adam will be transformed into the heavenly image of Christ: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” -1 Corinthians 15:49 (ESV)

But the transformation won't come without a struggle in this life. We must fight the fight of faith so that we can enjoy the breathtaking image of Jesus Christ our Lord.

What then does it look like to fight for the image of Christ?

Biblical fighting is a spiritual contending to believe the truth of the gospel of Christ.

“Fight the good fight of the Faith. Take hold of the eternal life of which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12 ESV)

Like Timothy, we have been called to “take hold” of eternal life. There is urgency to our faith. With God's help we pry our hands off the old life and keep them on our eternal life.

Believing the gospel is not a passive one-time decision. It is an active, continual fight for faith in who God says we are! We are fully satisfied in Him. Let’s labor to look at Jesus so that we may look like him and be forever changed.

Prayer:

Take a moment to be still with God and to meditate on one of the passages of scripture that stood out to you in today's reading. Thank the Lord for the image of Jesus. Meditate on what a glorious gift it is to get to be made into His image and thank Him for empowering you for the fight of faith.