I CLOSED my comments in the previous post warning against taking a certain teaching to a place it was never intended. One thing I learned long ago was the importance of balance, striving to ensure that all the aspects necessary for “a thing” were properly present, in place, with one part not overly emphasized or against another. When that happens, things have a tendency to get out of control or become imbalanced. I could write and give illustration to this point at length. But the fact is, this thing we call the Christian life has so many facets to it, each holding its our significance and importance to the total, that all the parts need to be considered in unity and harmony. And as there is much to be considered (bordering on the infinite, as our God is infinite), to over emphasis one point is just as detrimental and dangerous as excluding or downplaying another.
THE author is about to raise the topic of the cross, both here and in the next chapter. This to me is a good example, where on the one hand it seems we do not talk enough about the cross, yet is some corners the mystery of the cross has fostered “higher life” thinking that can lead to a “man-centered” approach as well. But, like most if not all of the truths of the Word, every aspect carries with it an element of Deut. 29:29, a part to be clearly understood wrapped in a mystery that can only be mapped by the eternal mind of God. Never-the-less, we are encouraged to pursue the treasures of the eternal mind (Col 3:1-3), and bring every thought captive (2Cor 10:5), as we possess the mind of Christ in His word, For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ (2Cor 2:16)
SO, we close this chapter on Self-Denial in our reading of Principles of Spiritual Growth, briefly looking at “the cross”. In the next chapter we’ll be taking a closer look at this important issue, The Cross.
With highest regards in Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa. 30:15; Jas. 1:2
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Chapter 11—Self-Denial – Part 4 …conclusion
Praise the Lord! It all happened at Calvary: Our sins were paid for, our sinfulness was dealt with, and both by the ultimate—death. And we receive the benefits of the work of the cross simply by reckoning on, or believing in, the finished work of the cross. First, through the Word, we find out what God did about our problem. Then, as we become thoroughly convinced of the fact and begin to understand it clearly, we are able to agree to “reckon” it true. And as we exercise faith in God’s fact, we begin to receive the benefits of that finished work in experience. Was it not true in the matter of our justification? Yes, and we will likewise find it to be true in the matter of our emancipation from the slavery of the self-life.
“The powerful effect of the cross with God, in heaven, in the blotting out of guilt, and our renewed union with God, is inseparable from the other effect—the breaking down of the authority of sin over man, by the crucifixion of self. Therefore, Scripture teaches us that the cross not only works out a disposition or desire to make such a sacrifice, but it really bestows the power to do so, and completes the work. This appears with wonderful clarity in Galatians. In one place the cross is spoken of as the reconciliation for guilt (3:13). But there are three more places where the cross is even more plainly spoken of as the victory over the power of sin; as the power to hold in the place of death the ‘I’ of the self-life; of the flesh (the outworking of self); and of the world (2:20; 5:24; 6:14). In these passages our union (identification) with Christ, the crucified One, and the conformity to Him resulting from the union, are represented as the result of the power exercised within us and upon us by the cross” (Andrew Murray).
As we learn to stand on the finished work of Calvary, the Holy Spirit will begin to faithfully and effectively apply that finished work of the cross to the self-life, thereby holding it in the place of death—inactive—resulting in the “not I, but Christ” life (Gal. 2:20).
