At The End Of The Tunnel There Is A Light

The author of the letter to the Hebrews reminds us of at least three precious truths about the Christian life, and those truths, when you forget about us, are extremely damaging during our career towards holiness. But before we talk about them, we need to remember how much the world lies in the evil one (1 John 5:19) and how the days are evil (Eph 5:16).

The fact is that our society is being destroyed morally and spiritually, each new step is worse than the previous one, a chasm calling to another abyss (Ps 42: 7). Anyone who thinks that is not so, just look at the numbers: the number of homicides, the pornography industry profits of 100 billion per year. This is the result of a nation that forgot the Lord and gave itself completely to sin and the corruptions of the heart, that is the result of the famous "follow your heart". Do you still think about repeating that you have faith in man?

Before this picture, what can save us? Or better, who can save us? Who will make the difference?

Outdoors of God

We are almost never alone, humanly speaking. Whether in public or at home it means that you always have "witnesses around you." The way we act, speak and dress is the information we communicate, whether we want it or not, to the people close to us. That is, our way of life reveals the way we see life, which in turn reveal what is in our hearts, whether it is wrong or good.

The writer to the Hebrews makes clear the importance of witnessing to God to the world when he recalled in chapter 11 the incredible stories of our fathers in the faith. Their lives are examples for us and for the world, and faith "conquered kingdoms, they did justice, they reached promises, they covered the mouths of lions" (Hebrews 11:33) and much more. They, by the grace of God, have become "the men of whom the world was not worthy" (Hebrews 11:38).

With that in mind, all people are "outdoors" of someone or something. We know that we have the ability to influence and influence, even without uttering a single word. So if you are a believer, it has to be different, it has to be a contrast with this fallen world, it has to be so "a letter of Christ ... written by the Spirit of the living God ... in the hearts" (2). Corinthians 3: 3, salt on earth and light in the world (Mt 5: 13,14) When we live in holiness, honoring God in all our daily activities, practicing piety and living for his glory, we give a message , in high and good sound to the world, of how our God is Holy, worthy of honor and full of grace, goodness and glory.

But dear brother, if your life does not differ from the wicked there are great problems for you "because if you live according to the flesh, you will die" (Rm 8:12). He who is born of God does not live in the practice of sin (1 Jn 3: 9), what you communicate to the world is not God, but a heart still attached to this world, a heart that has not renounced sin. To paraphrase Richard Baxter: "When you say you are a Christian, but your life does not differ from the world, it means for you that God, Christ, the Spirit and the Word are little different from the Devil, demons, sin and hell."

Besieged by Sin

As we have seen above, our society is extremely depraved and atheist, at least in the practical sense, and it is increasingly difficult to go out into the streets and not be bombarded by gamma rays of sin and mundanism, by the way, nor do we need to leave home , our televisions and mobile phones are completely contaminated. "Sin easily haunts us," but you have to unravel and run with perseverance, and one way to achieve it is to understand that we are not victims and we belong to Christ.

We are not victims, definitely not; We can not give in to this modern vision of always putting the blame on another person, of running away from the reality that we are bankrupt and we need help. What is more advantageous when you are sick, assume that everything is fine and forget that you die, or assume that you are sick and urgently need help? God tells us that it is from our own heart that evil thoughts proceed and not from outside (Matthew 15:19). Certainly we are tempted daily, sometimes it seems that everything collaborates so that people sin, or it seems that sin is stronger than everything, we even use the Bible to justify our faults, saying that the flesh is weak. But that's not true.

The Bible teaches us that "everyone is tempted by his own lust, after that and seduced" (James 1:14). The truth is that we do not treat sin as God tries, as a Puritan said: "If you give sin a centimeter, he will walk a mile." Sin is highly destructive and inherent to natural man, mortifying it is a war in which every Christian is enlisted.

Looking firmly to Christ

The third and main teaching is that we can not lose Christ from sight. When I read this verse it is inevitable not to remember a figure that I heard in a preaching: running the race is as if it were an athletics test - to be contemporary to the text, in the Roman Colosseum - and to imagine a runner exhausted before all public watching his effort and struggle, the eyes of the room are fixed on the finish line, his thought is one: "the prize of the supreme calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14).

It is precisely in this way that we must live: in all tribulations and difficulties we must look firmly towards the One who defeated the world. In the face of discouragement, we should look at the One who sweated blood but drank the cup of God's wrath to the last drop for you. Before the sins committed we must look to the One who said that if we want to follow him we need to die for ourselves. As Prof. Steven Lawson said: "If I look at myself, I get depressed, when I look at others, they deceive me." When I look at the circumstances, I become discouraged, but when I look at Christ, he has completed me.

Therefore, believer, no matter how much the world hates the evil one, even though we are imperfect "outdoors" looking to point to a perfect God, even though sin besets us and the fight against the flesh is hard and exhausting, we still have reason to have hope that the world can improve and that we can glorify God. Jesus died and rose again for his children, insured in Him, although we died, we live. He is the light at the end of the tunnel, he must have in his heart the certainty that David had after meditating on the brevity of life, "and I, Lord, I hope, you are my hope" (Psalm 39: 7). .

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