TEEN TREE OF LIFE
Doctrine of Betrayal
Part 1
October 20, 2019

Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1JOHN 1:9: If we confess [name] our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

Betrayal is defined as an abandonment or a violation of trust, usually by someone close to you. It’s also an act of deliberate disloyalty. Think back over your life and try to recall the times you were betrayed. Maybe your best friend told a bunch of other people all the secrets you told her in confidence. Or maybe your boss promised to give you a day off and then insisted you work because a coworker/friend asked for the same day off and got it off, instead of you, by lying and saying it was an emergency, so He could go to the football game which He knew you wanted to go to. Ugghhhh!!!

Betrayal will affect you throughout your whole life. Betrayal will make you angry and sad and heartbroken. So, how should you deal with betrayal? How do you not let the effects of people double-crossing you affect your daily life and get in the way of your spiritual walk?

The hardest thing with betrayal is that the closer the person who betrays you is, the worse the pain will be. What motivates betrayers? It’s usually insecurity but very often it’s greed or lust or arrogance or selfishness. Betrayal can destroy trust, because most often lying is involved. If your best friend starts dating your girlfriend behind your back, that's an act of betrayal. And boom! – the trust flies out the window.

The biggest danger with being betrayed is we want to get even or make our betrayers suffer intensely for how they’ve wronged us. That’s our old sin nature reacting and that’s where the trouble really begins. Let’s look more closely at the old sin nature, for a moment. Immediately after Adam sinned in The Garden, He acquired an old sin nature and became spiritually dead. Biblical documentation of the old sin nature is found in ROM 5:12: Therefore, just as through one man [Adam], sin [the sin nature] entered into the world, and [spiritual] death through [the] sin [nature], so [spiritual] death spread to the entire human race because all sinned [when Adam sinned].

Adam’s old sin nature is passed down through his seed to all his descendants: When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, He became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. (GEN 5:3) and we are their descendants. Only Jesus Christ was born into this world without an old sin nature. This is because He didn’t have a biological father. Our old sin nature exists in the cell structure of our bodies and each one is unique. Each has an area of strength and weakness. The old sin nature will not be removed from the body until the moment of physical death.

The most important thing to know about the old sin nature is that it has been crucified positionally in every believer. Look at The Message Bible’s translation of ROM 6:6-11: Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, He took sin down with him, but alive He brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did. And He did it personally for you! This is called Positional Truth.

It’s in our position in Christ that God sees us and that’s how we’re supposed to see ourselves. This means you shouldn’t dwell on what you’re going through when times are tough because in Positional Truth, you’re a child of God! In your position in Christ, you are able to have a friendship with God that will defy your imagination!! Positional Truth is the key to understanding the Church-Age (the time in which we live) and The Royal Family of God. This verse, written by the apostle Paul, says it all about Positional Truth: Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what He is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; He’s already a friend with you. (2CO 5:14-20) The Message Bible)

Positional Truth allows us to renew ourselves by rebounding (1JOH 1:9) and in that position of Divine Power, responding to betrayal by the way Our Lord and Savior did. This is the reason why learning and applying God’s Word is so important: because it will help you to recognize the weakness in your old sin nature, along with the control that it has over you. Once you do, you will become free from the bondage and slavery to your old sin nature.

Eventually, we will all be betrayed by someone close to us – to one degree or another. And when we face betrayal, our first response should be to go to The Lord, Who not only loves us, but also intimately understands betrayal. Our Lord can calm all the storms in your life – both in the natural realm and the Spiritual realm. In fact, because He knows betrayal so well, Who better to understand the pain that it causes? Don’t be surprised that even someone in your own family may betray you because one of Jesus’ handpicked apostles did the same to Him. Of course, the real way to deal with betrayal is to take your mind off the situation and put your focus on Jesus Christ. If you keep dwelling on the betrayal, it will often create more confusion, questions, frustration and anger.

Instead of being angry or hurt when you’re betrayed, pray about it! Did you know that The Holy Spirit helps us when we’re not sure what to pray for? And you can imagine how difficult it might be, if you’re really upset over a betrayal, to be unable to pray! Look at ROM 8:26 (New International Version): In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words… In the midst of your pain and hurt, go find a quiet place for yourself and reach out to God The Father. Allow Him to help you with your pain and hurt. What did His Son say when He was betrayed by those for whom He would die on The Cross? Look at LUK 23:34 (The Message Bible): Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.” Dividing up his clothes, they threw dice for them. The people stood there staring at Jesus, and the ringleaders made faces, taunting, “He saved others. Let’s see him save himself! The Messiah of God—ha! The Chosen—ha!” Doesn’t knowing how Our Savior responded in this horrific situation show you how you should respond in the betrayals in your own life? Pray for those who betray you!

{to be continued}