I Fought God and I Won!

Genesis 32:24  "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
25 And when he (the man) saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."

I've heard Calvinists preach that when a person first gets the idea to seek salvation, the person becomes "saved" at that very moment! It would appear that the sorrow, repentance, and forgiveness is done in one swoop! God in essence forgives without the repentance!  This is at odds with  what Jesus said

 "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Matthew 9:13b).

Repentance is a process! Processes are things that are to be DONE by the person called: 1) Feeling sorrow for failing to do God's will and 2) seeking to make it right with God.

As in any process there are confounds. If one even examines the act of tying one's shoes, look at the things which can confound a bad tie:

• lack of nimbleness
• distraction
• arthritis
• cheap laces
• hard to find shoe eyes
• grease or grime on the fingers or laces
• missing end pieces
• ridicule
• poor knowledge
• ad nauseum

 People know and can feel a well-tied shoe, but there are many obstacles that can impede the process of well-tied shoes! The process of "tying shoes" obviously secure enough that they are comfortable, snug and won't fall off. Even the simple process of shoe-tying has many possible confounds. Then, then, all the confounds of repentance!

When a person endeavors to tie one's shoes, most often no one cares at all whether your shoes get tied or not! People are apathetic whether your shoes are comfortable, snug and won't fall off. However, repentance is a different story. Someone cares about your salvation! Two people as a matter of fact: Satan and Jesus. Jesus, through God's Holy Spirit calls a person to get saved:

John 6:44 "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."

[Before I discuss the "drawing" of Jesus, let me first point out that the sinner is drawn to God and as such belongs to the kingdom of God.  The born-again person becomes a "green card" holder in that kingdom until the time of death. All the while, as a subject of God, the born-again person is "safe" in that God puts a hedge around the person. As with Job, Satan has certain leeway to convince the born-again person to deny God, but Satan can't force him to do that. Free will is still man's gift (or curse), where citizenship can be kept in God's Kingdom or relinquished to Satan, ruler of the flesh. Actual salvation occurs as Jesus said "I will raise him up at the last day!" That's when a "safe"  citizenship gives way to full-citizenship and the regenerated person is "saved" from the wrath called hell.]

That is incidental to my point, however. It is Jesus who administer's the calling from God by obedience to the Holy Spirit, since Jesus' presence is no longer here. Therefore, point 1 is made. Jesus is one of the two persons involved in your call to repentance. It's him that does the calling and him from whom you seek forgiveness!

The other party is Satan. He's there too!

2 Corinthians 11:3 "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

I short, Satan is there to make simple grace complicated!  The person who repents is deceived by Satan and the mind corrupted! Satan is the author of all the confounds in the process of repentance.

Look at all the confounds in the process of repentance:

• The devil prowls on you to devour (1 Peter 5:8)
• You have been acclimated to sin. You don't want to quit because that's what you have always done! (1 John 3:8) 
• Satan disguises himself as an angel to trick you. (2 Corinthians 11:14)
• Your foster parent is the devil and you listen to him. (John 8:44)
• Your thoughts will be led from purity and truth (2 Corinthians 11:13)
• The devil comes to kill and destroy. (John 10:10)
• The devil will be hard to resist because he offers the world. (James 4:7)
• The devil has blinded unbelievers to truth. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
• The devil schemes against you for what you're about to do. (Ephesians 6:11)
• Satan hinders you by any way he can! (Matthew 16:23)
• He has power over the unbeliever. (1 John 5:19)
• Satan demands that you stay his! (Luke 22:31)
• The devil will pretend he is God. (Isaiah 14:15)
• again, ad nauseum!

Satan has a whole arsenal of weapons and you have yet to put on the full armor of God! Think on this: Jesus is calling! You feel remorse and want relief from guilt. As you begin to respond, Satan pulls out all his tricks! Repenting is not merely a thought of turning to God, it's a battle and you are in a wrestling match. It's Satan's side you're on,so you wrestle, in effect with Jesus; just as Jacob did!

There is one difference: Jacob playfully wrestled with God. He already had a good relationship with God and sought a blessing. The sinner, however, has only a relationship with the devil, but seeks a blessing from Jesus. The sinner wants to be saved from the punishment he deserves, but rather than humbly accepting God's gift, his nature, inclined to sin and following Satan, causes him to wrestle with Jesus. When Jesus knocks at his soul's door, the devil jumps in front of it to keep it from being answered. As the sinner stands there undecided, there is a wrestling match going on in his mind. Shall I submit to Jesus or stay in the comfort and joys of the flesh? Your master has been the devil Your desire is to stay with him! That must be overcome, but you're not alone.

My own wrestling match with Jesus, and it was Jesus, with whom Jacob was wrestling, took weeks! "I fought God and I won!" No it wasn't me the sinner who was the winner, but me who became blessed who won. I wrestled for Satan against Jesus for two weeks or so, but Jesus touched my thigh and I submitted. I felt his power and believed his promise! Because God is strong he empowered me, still a sinner, to wrestle long until I asked for the blessing. All I had to do is tire of it all and submit, but it wasn't simple!

Yes, I wrestled long against Jesus, but I won! "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." I would have been a loser if I had stayed with Satan, but I went with Jesus. He's my man! I had wrestled with the man who was on my side!