APPROPRIATION is our topic at hand, the gathering in or making use of what is already ours in Christ Jesus – Eph. 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
THE infinite resources of Christ are fully ours the moment we turn (repent) and believe (trust) upon the risen Lord. The problem is we are mostly ignorant of this fact at the outset. We rejoice in our initial realization of sins forgiven, new life in being born again, salvation and our new relationship in Christ. But we still have much to learn and apply to this new life of challenges and opportunities that have opened before us. Early on in my Christian walk there were two scriptures that were hammered into me:
2Tim. 3:16-17 – All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work; and 2Tim. 2:15 – Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly understanding the word of truth.
A THIRD was likewise drilled into me,
Heb. 4:12 – For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
THESE three verses set in stone the foundational necessity for growing in both grace and knowledge (2Pet 3:18) in order to get and keep ones life focused and rightly centered and directed in the riches enjoyed in Christ (Col 3:1-3).
WELL, we need to get to what our author has to say on this count as we continue our look into this 7th chapter to Principles of Spiritual Growth (Part One of the Complete Green Letters) – Appropriation. Pay particular attention to today’s comments. There are important things here to understand and get right. This section is one of the reasons I value this little book so much. Think carefully and prayerfully about what is being said here.
“In this matter of Christian development there is no shortcut, no quick and easy way.”
With highest regards in Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa. 30:15; Jas. 1:2
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Chapter 7—Appropriation …continued
From time to time the Holy Spirit will bring to our attention a certain aspect of the Word in a striking manner, and we will rejoice to see and believe that it is ours in Christ. It may be, for instance, the truths of Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Besides the usual personal situations, the uncertainty, strife and tensions of world conditions provide just what is needed for the believer to abide, to rest, in the Lord Jesus. The need exists, and when he sees the rest in Him, all there remains to do is to appropriate!
So far so good. The believer sees what he possesses in Christ, and the need enables him to reach out and confidently appropriate and accept the required rest. This appropriation must be a case of clear, scriptural, specific trust. We are not to “ask amiss.” And now comes the critical phase, the key to it all. In most instances of appropriation there is a waiting period between the acceptance and the receiving—often of years. Our responsibility is to patiently wait on Him during the time necessary for Him to work into our character, our life, that which we have appropriated in Christ—in this instance, His rest, steadiness, assurance and security. Isaiah 64:4 refers to what God “has prepared for [does in behalf of] him that waiteth for him.”
T. Austin-Sparks gives us two valuable thoughts regarding this all-important gap—usually a matter of years—between the actual appropriation and the practical experience. “Every bit of truth we receive, if we receive it livingly, will take us into conflict and will be established through conflict. It will be worthless until there has been a battle over it. Take any position the Lord calls you to take, and, if you are taking it with Him, you are going through things in it, and there will be an element added by reason of the battle. You have taken a position—yes, but you have not really got it yet, the real value of it has not been proved. You have not come into the real significance of it until there has been some sore conflict in relation to it.”
“As the result of the work of His cross, and as the grand issue of His resurrection, eternal life is received already by those who believe. But while that life is itself victorious, incorruptible, indestructible, the believer has to come by faith to prove it, to live by it, to learn its laws, to be conformed to it. There is a deposit in the believer, which in itself needs no addition, so far as its quality is concerned. So far as its victory, its power, its glory, its potentialities are concerned nothing can be added to it. But the course of spiritual experience, of spiritual life, is to discover, to appropriate, and to live by all that the life represents and means.”
Now we have seen a third element involved in our appropriation. After we have seen our possessions in Christ and become aware of our need, then we must give Him the necessary time to work the appropriation into our everyday walk. If we are looking for our needs to be met in the next interview, the next devotional book, the next series of special meetings, the next hoped for “revival,” then reality will never come.
In this matter of Christian development there is no shortcut, no quick and easy way. ….to be continued
