LAST week we took a detour from our study in Principles of Spiritual Growth to look at a related piece from Mark Hamby on The Emptied Self. I might ask you at this point to go back and reread Mark’s comments. But if you recall, at the center of his comments was his view that most of our broken relationships today are the result of us being too full of ourselves and too empty of an intimate relationship with Christ, described as the problem of self that we’ve been looking at the past several weeks. There are musings that come to mind thinking upon this and Mark’s comments. Someone who is full of them themselves has no room for anyone else. I don’t know where I heard that (I think it was from my beloved step-father), but I’ve also heard it said, that a person wrapped up in them self is the smallest of all things.
ALSO, when it comes to growth, and that is what our topic has been all along with these Lessons from the Garden, a person bound up in themself is like a plant being root bound, stunted and fruitless. This is a classic Romans 7 situation, and the problem of “no good thing” resident within, with the necessity of The Cross that we have been examining.
WHICH brings me to “that” question again, why does the study of these things seem so difficult and necessitate hard work? I think the answer is this, the greater worth and valuable something is, the more there is required in its acquisition to ownership. Again, with easy come and easy go, there is little appreciated with things that take little effort. But things of intrinsic worth take diligent effort to comprehend and apprehend, and are treasured more. I’m going to address this a little bit more later on, because I think this is one of the reasons many do not truly “enjoy” a fully glad and rejoicing Christian life. But let me leave you with a thought along that line for today.
THINK of a modern football game. I’ve heard it described as a sport of twenty-two men in an exercise desperately in need of a rest, surrounded by twenty thousand cheering individuals, desperately in need of exercise! In the final analogy, who benefited, gained most, and came away most satisfied from what occurred in that arena? Think about it.
WE will return now from where we left off several weeks ago in the 12th chapter of Principles of Spiritual Growth – The Cross.
With highest regards in Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa 30:15; Jas 1:2
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Chapter 12—The Cross – Part 3
The Reformation brought into focus once again the emphasis upon spiritual birth, without which there can be no beginning. What is lacking amongst believers to this day is the proper emphasis on growth—not just to be saved, and heaven by and by. What sort of salvation would we have if our Father simply saved us from the penalty of our sins and then left us on our own to deal with the power of sin in our Christian life and walk? But most believers feel this is about as far as He went and are struggling to get on the best they can, with His help. And this is the Galatian error, so prominent even now throughout born-again circles. We must be brought back to the two basics: freed from the penalty of sin by His finished work; freed from the power of sin by His finished work. “Justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24); “We walk by faith” (II Cor. 5:7); “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” (Col. 2:6).
We are not left to deal with the old life ourselves; it has been dealt with by Christ on the cross. This is the fact which must be known, since on that fact is built the New Testament principle and doctrine of holiness. In other words, Calvary is as much the foundation of sanctification as of justification. Both gifts spring from the same work and are two aspects of the same salvation.
Now, as long as the believer does not know this dual aspect of his salvation, the best he can do is seek to handle his sins via confession (I John 1:9)—that is, after the damage has been done! This takes care of the penalty of the product but not the source. Is it not time we allowed the Holy Spirit to get at the source and cut off this stream of sins before they are committed? Is this not infinitely better than the wreckage caused by sin, even though confessed? When believers get sick and tired of spinning year after year in a spiritual squirrel cage—sinning, confessing, but then sinning again—they will be ready for God’s answer to the source of sin, which is death to self, brought forth from the completed work of the cross.
“When God’s light first shines into our heart our one cry is for forgiveness, for we realize that we have committed sins before Him; but once we have known forgiveness of sins, we make a new discovery—the discovery of Sin, and we realize that we have the nature of a sinner. There is an inward inclination to sin. There is a power within that draws us to sin, and when that power breaks out we commit sins. We may seek and receive forgiveness, but then we sin again; and life goes on in a vicious circle—sinning and being forgiven, but then sinning again. We appreciate God’s forgiveness, but we want something more than that, we want deliverance. We need forgiveness for what we have done, but we need deliverance from what we are.” …to be continued
