© 2022 Don Pinson | [Download]
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So many people, who say they are believers in Jesus Christ as their Master and Savior, seem to be so hesitant about participating in government. Nearly half of them are not even registered to vote! I believe this reveals a much deeper problem than just avoiding government involvement. It shows a lack of understanding (or you might say ignorance!) of what the Bible says of the position believers have in Christ.
While in my twenties, I was struggling with my walk with Christ. Some days I’d be mostly obedient. Some days I’d be mostly disobedient! I was told by many that this was the normal Christian life; that there would always be a struggle with the flesh and only when we arrived in Heaven would we ever have victory in this warfare. But I kept coming across passages in the Bible like,
“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1st Corinthians 15:57)
and in John 10:10, Jesus said,
“I am come that you might have life…and have it more abundantly.”
and the Apostle Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 2:14,
“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ,”
And, as I was earnestly praying to learn to walk in the victory over sin which the Bible taught was the earthly right of God’s people, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the truth in Ephesians 2:6 that states,
“[But God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”
I saw that, just as God had raised Christ up to sit at His right hand (Ephesians 1:20-21), “in Christ”, He had raised up every believer to sit there also. We, who have been brought to repentance and faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit’s work, were seated right beside the Father on His throne; we were seated in Christ who is seated at the Father’s right hand! That meant I looked down on every happening on this earth. While, in my body, I’m still walking in the midst of earth’s circumstances, the greater reality is that I’m now seated (in Christ) right beside the Father in Heaven. That means I’ve been raised far above all temptation, discouragement, and defeat on this earth. If I recognize and believe, in the moment satan comes against me with these lies, that I’m over him—because he’s under the feet of Jesus, and I’m in Jesus—then I know I have the authority to rebuke satan and command him to leave with his lies! It is then I rule over my circumstances on earth by the grace of my position in Christ in Heaven.
Some years later I realized that, if God had raised us to sit in Christ as He sat beside the Father in the place of authority in Heaven, who could be better qualified to rule in earthly government than those of us seated with Him in that place of authority in Heaven?! This agreed with Noah Webster’s definition of the word vote: It means, “Our solemn vow to God.” This is why Samuel Adams, the Father of our American Revolution said,
“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote…that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”
(Samuel Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907), Vol. IV, p. 256, in the Boston Gazette on April 16, 1781.)
Believer, have you been living like you’re seated in Christ in Heaven? Shouldn’t Christ get to reign, through you, in earthly government; since He’s placed you, in Him, in the place of authority in Heaven?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson, this has been Think About It.