We are in a war of the will. It is a war that we call the Adamic nature. Adam and Eve lost that war, but Christ came and won the war in the same flesh and in the same conflict with His inner self that we have. He came from the beginning to do the will of God and not serve His own will. By His will to be obedient even to death on the cross, He bought our salvation. This salvation forgives our sin, but it also enables us to serve Him as Lord in our lives and end the idolatry of serving our own will.
 

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Show Notes:

God is looking for worshipers, but if we are like robots doing His will and cannot choose to worship Him, we will never be the worshipers He wants. Because of that, He gave Adam and Eve a free will. When God told them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the will of Adam and Eve was driven to do what it wanted to do. This began the war within us that Paul described in Romans 7. This Adamic nature worships its own desires as an idolator and wages war against our desire to do the will of God.

The solution to this problem is Christ. He set us free from this wretched thing within us, this body of death. But He delivered us by winning the battle we are fighting. As we read in Hebrews, in the days of His flesh He offered up supplications to the Father who was able to save Him. God saved Him from the war of His will that would have ended His life as it does all of mankind since Adam. By His own free will, Yeshua went to the cross.

He became to all who obey Him the source of eternal salvation. He won the war of obedience that we are today looking to win. We are not looking just to be forgiven of sin and go on sinning because our will is constantly overtaking us in this war within our own hearts. We are looking to be obedient to the Father. And we win the war in us by drawing from Christ, the One who enables us as the Father enabled Him and taught Him obedience.

Key Verses:

• Romans 7:13. “… through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”
• Romans 7:22-24. “Who will set me free from the body of this death?”
• 1 Samuel 17:40-50. “Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone.”
• Matthew 3:17. “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
• Hebrews 5:7-9. “He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”
• Hebrews 7:25. “He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him.”
• Romans 8:1. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
• Romans 8:15. “You have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”
• Mark 14:33-36. “Abba! Father! …remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will but what You will.”
• Hebrews 10:5-13. “He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time…”
• Hebrews 10:16-18. “Where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
• Hebrews 10:26. “If we go on sinning willfully … there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”

Quotes:

• “We learn to obey. He teaches us. That’s why we talk about growing in God. That’s why we talk about maturity in our relationship with Him because it is the same process He went through. And we will win it as we do what He did: cry out to Him who is able to save us from death.”
• “Thousands of people during this time died on a cross. His death was a death of will, not just a death of the cross. He died willing to do the will of God, demanding to do the will of God, subjugating the human will.”
• “God give us the strength. Let us understand the fullness of salvation, because so many times we labor not really knowing what is going on inside of us and feeling condemned about it. But Paul says in Romans 8 that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Takeaways:

1. What is idolatry? It is worshiping a god other than the one true God. And that is what our will does. It wants us to make it the god in our life so that we serve its desires and do what it wants rather than doing what God wants.
2. What does it mean to make Christ the Lord in your life? It means that you do not obey your will, you obey Him. You serve the Lord. You obey the Lord. You dethrone your will as the lord and establish Christ as the true Lord in your life.
3. Christ lived a life as a human, with a will that was driven to serve itself. In the days of his flesh, He cried out to Him who was able to save Him. Now we have Christ who has won the war of the will. And we can draw from Him the enabling to enthrone Him as Lord over our lives and serve Him.