From Jesus Always Devotional...
"My Love has conquered you and set you free!" Break it down and bust a move! Let's have fun with this. This is quite interesting and powerful. It truly reminds me of my own testimony, where it was discovering the depths and qualities of His love that finally changed my life forever. I had the religious background and education. I had the saving knowledge and experience. But I didn't really know and understand grace. When I realized He was right there with me, all the time, not offended by my stench, that changed everything. It set me on a path of learning about the power of His love.
So, this sentence implies I needed conquering. Conquer is quite the choice of verb! That's usually reserved for military operations or competitions with high stakes involved. It means invading, penetrating, engaging, fighting, displacing, imposing, taking up residence, deploying, harvesting of resources, etc. It insinuates I was a being possessed by another presider. In this case, it was myself. I was in charge. This ushers in the paradigm and irony. In the christian setting, to surrender and give up leads to freedom. This is nonsense to the world and your flesh. They can't imagine giving up control and independence. They don't want authority dictating what they can or can't do.
The Lord comes along and says I need conquering in order to set me free. This leads me to believe I cannot achieve or find freedom on my own. It has to be provided by a Greater, as I am a lesser. He knows, left to my own devices, I am in bondage to self, sin, and worldliness. Jesus said He came to set us free. He purchased us with His own blood- the blood sacrifice required to pay the price sin demanded and deserved. We are not our own. We are His now. Jesus said in John 17, the Father has given us to Him. In Revelation, we see the Lamb of God being the only one worthy of taking the scroll ( the title deed to mankind) from the Father's hand.
We are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. We are either for Christ or against Him. He is either our God or He isn't. We can only have one Master. He cannot be second place in our lives. He must be our First Love. That's when life works as He designed.
Friends, here's the bottom line. We were created to bring Him glory. Period. Humans were the finality of His creation. In fact, if you want to get technical, woman is the pinnacle of His creation and should be treated as such. It is a shame what we men have done in regards to women, but that is another sermon for another day. The entire rest of creation sings praises to God and brings Him glory. Will we, as the culmination of His creation, join them with our life song? Or will we demand our independence, deny His Holy Spirit's indwelling, and reject His invitation to true freedom?
Back to my testimony. You see, I didn't understand what it was all about. I thought I would get saved and everything would be happy ever after. I misunderstood Romans 8:28, which is still too often misquoted, out of context, even today. I didn't realize the war I'd stepped into. I guess I thought it was all about me somehow? Rom 8:28 talks of Him working things out for the good of those who love Him, but this should be seen through the lenses of Him shaping us into the likeness of His Son, as mentioned in verse 29. That's the process we are in. And it can be rough. It can be painful. Ripping and tearing out roots of pride and selfishness can be a tough process. Being conquered is humbling, for sure. I was told the hardest thing for a man to do is humble himself, deny himself. Jesus said to count the cost of following Him. This is not to be taken lightly. This involves a transaction of ownership. It means we give up and say, "Uncle!". But on the other side is freedom from ourselves and the destruction we self-induce, so we can actually be thankful for His amazing love that never gives up pursuing us, no matter what we do. There's nothing we can do to make Him love us less. Let Him invade your land and take up residence. Rejoice in the freedom that only He can provide- the freedom we so desperately long for. We should invent a new Christian holiday called "Dependence Day". Let freedom ring!
