As I've written before, it seems as though I'm living out these chapters (6, 7, and 8) in the book of Romans while I write them. Ephesians 6:12 says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
No one is exempt from wrestling in this life, beloved. No one. We all wrestle. You wrestle. I wrestle. With anti-Eden thoughts. With ambitions and passions that aren't in obedience to Christ. With the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). I can be raw and open about this because I know you’re struggling, too.
1 Corinthians 10:13 gives us both the truth and the path to victory: "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."
Maybe you are in a season of wrestling right now. You feel an intense pressure—as if all the grotesque sin is oozing out of you like an infectious disease. I am with you. Maybe you are wrestling with loneliness, abandonment, and fear. I am with you. And, in this season of fire and trial, we can trust that we will come out of the blaze formed and molded even more into the image of Christ Jesus. We can put our hope in that outcome. We can also take hope in this wrestling story from Genesis 32:22-32:
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 27 The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. 28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome." 29 Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." 31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.
This story is close to me right now. I keep coming back to it and hearing it as a sacred echo in my walk. Charles Spurgeon put it so well:
"It does not say that he wrestled with the man, but 'there wrestled a man with him.' We call him 'wrestling Jacob,' and so he was; but we must not forget the wrestling man, — or, rather, the wrestling Christ, — the wrestling Angel of the covenant, who had come to wrestle out of him much of his own strength and wisdom."
This wrestling scene was a moment of God in human form before His incarnation at Bethlehem. It was a moment when God allowed a wrestling man to wrestle with Him in such a holy and profound way, Jacob was forever changed. He is ready to wrestle with you, too. He is prepared to wrestle the sin and the fear and the hurt. He welcomes it.
So, if you are wrestling right now, know that you serve the wrestling Christ, and He welcomes that intimacy.
As we continue to study Romans 8 and the Spirit-filled life, I felt led to pause to encourage you. His indwelling Spirit will root out all the indwelling sin, fear, shame, loneliness, and more. It is guaranteed. Keep wrestling with the wrestling Christ. You will forever be changed.