Reflections From the Psalms
Victory in Christ
Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly. (Ps. 6:8-10)
The workers of iniquity in the life of the believer are anything that contradicts the Truth of Christ, and contradicts the faith in Him by which we are to live. Here we see a plea that God’s Truth would prevail, and that when it prevails, all that contradicted it and tried to bring unbelief would be exposed for the lies that they were.
In the experience of the believer there are going to be seasons wherein the Truth and faithfulness of God is contradicted and challenged by circumstances and other people – but the greatest challenge to our faith will be our very own nature. The flesh – natural man – is a contradiction to Christ within, and will always be at war against our life in Him. The solution is not so much to turn inward and try to fix the flesh, beat the flesh down, or to try to control the flesh with law. Rather, the solution for the flesh is the Cross of Jesus Christ – we must pick up our Cross daily and, “bear about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus.” (II Cor. 4:10) Only then will the life of the Lord Jesus be manifested. (II Cor. 4:11) To the degree that this happens, the Truth will be revealed, and all the lies will be exposed for what they are.
As those in Christ, believers can boldly proclaim that no matter the trial, and no matter how lacking we are in our present understanding, it is sufficient that the Lord understands. In Christ, God has received us. We can put ourselves into the hands of God for whatever it takes for Him to accomplish His purposes. We can be sure that He will keep His promise to guide us into all Truth.
The path to life in Christ is always through the death of the old man in Christ. This happened once for all at the Cross, but now must be practically worked out in us as we pick up our Cross and follow Christ. The enemy wants to hide the fact that through death and resurrection Jesus Christ has put all of his work to shame, and has won every victory that there is to win, including victory over death itself.