Get the right story

I’m not a great watcher of films. I’ve slept through more than I’ve actually watched. So, when I mention the film “The Truman Show” you need to understand that I haven’t actually watched it. I have seen the last few minutes of it and I remember the feeling of outrage inside me as my daughters explained what was happening. If you haven’t seen the film, this is a rough outline…

Film company adopts an unwanted baby, Truman Burbank, constructs a massive film set on an island off the coast, and constructs a reality tv show watching this baby grow up in the “town” of Seahaven (which is actually a film set). All the people who “live” in the town are actors and extras. The TV show runs for about 25 years and the baby grows up to be a young man. Only the TV company filming the show know the truth – that this child has been brought up in a false world where his friends, relations and everyone else are not who he thinks they are. They’re only actors. The American viewing public are unaware of the con too. Eventually Truman starts noticing things, the penny drops and he decides to try to escape.

I saw the end of the film where he successfully escaped, and discovered the real truth. I had a sense of outrage on his behalf, that he had been lied to, manipulated and deceived for so long. I’m getting that same sense over the last few weeks as I talk to lots of people about their identity as believers – who they are, now that they are Christians, and how God sees them.

We have been doing some different Courses with people, but each Course has the same aim – to bring people into freedom from the lies that the enemy tells us, and to show them the truth. It so annoys me that the enemy repeats and repeats the same lies to people and they end up believing them and living in a false world which is the film set that he has constructed for them. They often have no real idea of how free or powerful they could be, if only they knew the real truth which has been kept hidden from them. They need to escape the artificial boundaries of lies set by the Arch-Manipulator and find freedom.

So what are the lies? Again and again we come up against the same things.

• I’m not good enough because of my mistakes and sins, therefore God is distant from me
• I will always be like this, I will never measure up
• Compared to other Christians, I really am unworthy/ not as good
• God says He loves me BUT …..I know what I’m really like

These are the thoughts of many Christians; perhaps you know someone who is trapped by these lies? Father God’s expectation for all of us at any time is that we can approach Him with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3 v 12) and that because He has made us righteous (completely and eternally right with Him) we can “reign in life” (Romans 5 v 17) rather than life reigning over us.

Too often, some of our teaching has left us with the idea that salvation is forgiveness for sins and a ticket for heaven when we die. In the meantime we are to live in Christian limbo-land where we constantly struggle to behave better in order to ‘keep right with God’. At the same time, we are supposed to be fulfilling His commands whilst suspecting that basically we are flawed and not really up to it. That’s pathetic!

Everything that God has made has been designed perfectly and thoroughly. It doesn’t matter what you look at, He has never made anything that is not perfectly designed for the purpose it has. Salvation is no different. Hebrews calls it “so great a salvation” (Chapter 3)

Salvation has been designed by Father God, Jesus and Holy Spirit to be complete in its effect, perfect in every aspect. It has been designed to meet every requirement. There are no gaps, no flaws, no loose ends, nothing missing. There are no eventualities that They have not thought of or provided for. Here’s a little of what our great salvation has already done for us:

• It provided forgiveness for all our sins, past, present and future. They are already all forgiven. Father God is holding none of them against you, because Jesus paid for all of them. Love keeps no record of wrongs.
• Father God has changed us at our very core. We are new people. He has given us the most marvellous and effective heart transplant. Our heart desire now is to relate to God, to please Him and follow Him. When we fail we are churned up precisely because our action just contradicted our hearts desire.
• Father God has made us new and cleaned us up so effectively that it is Holy Spirit’s desire and pleasure to live in us, forever.
• The result of all this is that we are righteous – right with Him forever. So right in fact, that we can approach Him at any time in complete freedom and confidence. So right in fact that we can reign in life rather than life reigning over us. We are now brothers and sisters of Jesus. That’s a good place to be starting from!

Haha. No wonder the enemy hates all this. It keeps him awake at nights. Actually, the thought of what you might do with all this is what keeps him awake at nights. That’s why he invests so much energy in trying to keep Christians locked up in his story-line, and keep them from escaping into the truth outside.

More on this next week….