I RECALL times having pulled up behind a car on the road with a little bumper sticker saying, “Let go, let God.” I know some might quibble over that, but it makes me smile because I do think it gets to the heart of what it means to simply trust God in all things. Our author ended last week’s consideration by quoting another saying,
I do not mean ask God to give you victory, but claim His victory, to overshadow you.
As we are dealing with this chapter titled Help in Principles of Spiritual Growth, this idea is that we don’t seek more of what we already possess, but rather claim what is already ours in Christ.
QUITE often of late I’ve noticed individuals closing their emails and sometimes their letters with scripture verses, –a good practice. One recurring verse is I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13). Seeing this my heart often cheers realizing that there is a growing sense deep down of “not I but Christ!” We rely so much on self, and so often that this the problem. As our author closes out this chapter, I am reminded how much emphasis Paul gives in showing the utter weakness of the self life in the letters to the Corinthians, starting with 1 Cor. 1:27, But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; coming to 2 Cor 12:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Cor. 12:9-10
THIS principle of strength out of weakness is an oxymoron that has always dumbfounded the world when rightly manifested. For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you. (2 Cor. 13:4) We ought not to settle for anything less, yet we so often do, relying instead on our own pathetic strength rather than the infinite power of our God. This was Paul’s third prayer request for God’s people in Ephesians 1:16-20, that we might truly know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.
AND this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (1John 5:4)
SO, we come to the end of this chapter regarding Help and true reliance on all we possess in Christ. Meditate on these things and own them by faith (Col. 2:6).
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas. 1:2
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Chapter 16—Help …concluded
God’s way of deliverance is altogether different from man’s way. Man’s way is to try to suppress sin by seeking to overcome it; God’s way is to remove the sinner. Many Christians mourn over their weakness, thinking that if only they were stronger all would be well. The idea that, because failure to lead a holy life is due to our impotence, something more is therefore demanded of us, leads naturally to this false conception of the way of deliverance. If we are preoccupied with the power of sin and with our inability to meet it, then we naturally conclude that to gain the victory over sin we must have more power. ‘If only I were stronger,’ we say, ‘I could overcome my violent outbursts of temper,’ and so we plead with the Lord to strengthen us that we may exercise more self-control.
But this is altogether wrong; this is not [following Christ]. God’s means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger, but by making us weaker and weaker. This is surely a peculiar way of victory, you say; but it is the Divine way. God sets us free from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening our old man but by crucifying him; not by helping him to do anything but by removing him from the scene of action.
The believer does not have to beg for help. He does have to thankfully appropriate that which is already his in Christ, for, “the just shall live by faith” (Heb. 10:38). And dear old Andrew Murray encourages us with “Even though it is slow, and with many a stumble, the faith that always thanks Him not for experiences, but for the promises on which it can rely—goes on from strength to strength, still increasing in the blessed assurance that God himself will perfect His work in us (Phil. 1:6).”
