Part 17 - Moment of Truth

There is a moment of truth for every human soul to whom the Holy Spirit, through the human spirit, has revealed the wickedness of sin. It is so easy to become familiar with Bible language without receiving any real revelation of truth. God wants to bring you, no matter how bitter the experience may be, to the place of self-discovery, to the moment of truth.

In startling reality, the truth as expressed by Paul may dawn upon your soul: "I am a creature of the flesh - carnal, unspiritual, having been sold into slavery under the control of sin." This passage in Romans (7: 14) reveals how the human soul is exploited by the subtle principle of sin within, and clearly defines the conflict within you. One part of you says,"I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (or morally excellent) and that I take sides with it." In your human spirit, the Holy Spirit is bearing witness to all that is good and right and noble; to your enlightened moral conscience, every act and attitude of sin is an offense.

Then there is the other part of you, "the sin principle which lives within me, fixed and operating in my soul" (Romans 7: 21). You realize that when you want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with you and you are subject to it's insistent demands.

The moment of truth comes when you quit exchanging courtesies with the flesh and reject it to it's face, naming it for the treacherous, wicked, worthless thing it is. At this climactic stage of your Christian life you realize that there can be no compromise with the flesh, and that peaceful coexistence with a principle satanically hostile to the law of God and to the reestablishment of His sovereignty within your soul is now beyond the bounds of possibility. You realize that it was never God's purpose to improve the flesh, to educate it or to tame it, let alone Christianise it. It has always been God's purpose that the flesh - condemned, sentenced, and crucified with Jesus Christ - might be left buried in the tomb and replaced by the resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus Himself.

The risen Christ must exercise control in your mind, in your emotions, and in your will, expressing Himself through your personality. Paul described this clearly in his concern for the Ephesian Christians, when he prayed for them: "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives it's name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." (Eph. 3: 14-17)

You have stripped off the old self with it's evil practices, and you have clothed yourselves with the new spiritual self, which is ever in the process of being renewed and remolded into fuller and more perfect knowledge....after the image of Him Who created it. Colossians 3: 9-10 (Amplified)