Whenever God's people forget that salvation is by grace from an all-powerful God who is willing and able to meet all our needs, to protect us from all our foes, the inevitable result is an alliance with the world that proves costly through betrayal of the Lord. What choice do we have, people will say, their eyes fixed not on God in His power but on the powers arrayed against us in the world? We face the same choice given to the king [King Ahaz cf Is. 7] at the crossroads: whether or not to receive and keep the pattern of worship and service laid down by God in the Bible, looking to Him and relying on His power and ever-faithful love.
God gives us a choice; indeed, it is always this choice that more than any other defines a given age. In our choice of the invisible God or the visible powers of the world, we reveal not merely our professed theology but also our practiced theology. If we believe truly in the God of the Bible, the one who is mighty to save, then that choice will bear out in what we do and in the weapons we yield. The apostle Paul, speaking to another generation in difficult straits, set forth in practical terms what it means to trust God: "For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knoledge of God, and take every though captive to obey Christ" (2 Cor. 10:3-5)
- Richard D. Phillips, Turning Back the Darkness: The Biblical Pattern of Reformation, (Crossway Books, Wheaton, Il, USA, 2002), p. 88-89
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