Reading Reflection: Tempted and Tried

As I've been reading through Tempted and Tried by Russell Moore, I have been operated on. It was as if Russell Moore was a surgeon and I the patient. Along the way, I read some great things but some stood out more than others. I want to share a few paragraphs. It is, I believe, of utmost importance that we know this and are reminded of it regularly.

Anyhow, speaking about resisting temptation (Which, by the way, is not bad. Sin is. Temptation is not) he says,

"Gospel freedom is the most important aspect of resisting temptation. Remember, that Satan's power over you is first and foremost the power of accusation and threatened death. In Christ, though, you have already been indicted, judged, executed, and resurrected. You are "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6:11). Regardless of whether you support or oppose the death penalty, you'd probably wince to hear about a state that executed a murderer and then had a public flogging of his corpse. Your discomfort there wouldn't be because you're soft on murder but because that act would be insanely beside the point. After all, an executed corpse can't be punished anymore. It's over.

Likewise, you've been to hell, in the cross of Christ. You've been buried beneath the judgment of God, turned over to the Devil, and you are gone. Now you stand in Christ, hidden in his identity, and thus free from any accusation. Knowing that truth doesn't lead to yield to temptation but instead to fly from it. You're not hiding from God anymore."

You know that feeling of feeling accused before God? That feeling you maybe get when you sin and you just can't face God? That feeling is Satan accusing you. But you should not fall down under that weight because as Russell Moore says, we stand in Christ now. We are hidden in His identity. We are free from any accusation because He was perfect and blameless. Amazing? Yes.