I RECENTLY reread a novel. As I’m waiting for this particular author to come out with the next in his series of mystery novels, I’m going back and reading what’s already on my book shelf. Although I already know the stories, there are things I’ve forgotten, links I hadn’t seen before, and refreshed encounters with the characters, good, bad, and otherwise. This morning as I reviewed today’s consideration – what and how much to share from our reading in Principles of Spiritual Growth – Acceptance, I sensed something of the same experience as rereading my favorite novel. The source material is not from the mind of a secular novelist, but a beloved author and Christian brother conveying the themes of Scripture from the living Word, the mind of Christ. In this I recall not the entertainment I enjoyed when I first read these things, but the life changing instruction, conviction, and comfort that brought me closer into the truth and grace of my Lord. I’m reminded what a faithful preacher of the Word said to me so many years ago, that the word of God was not given to entertain us or satisfy some idle curiosity, but to change our lives unto Christ. God’s word in many ways is a mystery, but it is so to draw us nearer in faith in Him who has revealed Himself in the Son, that they may know [Him], the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom [He has] sent. For it is IN Him alone that we are accepted in the Beloved. (Eph 1:6) Think about it: I didn’t seek Him, he sought me! I did not receive Him, he received me. I did not accept Him, he accepted me. It is only after such that I found eyes to see, and faith to believe and Holy Spirit induced commitment to embrace the Captain of my Salvation. O’ blessed truth: “Accepted in the Beloved.”
“The word of God was not given to entertain us or satisfy some idle curiosity, but to change our lives unto Christ”
WE’LL pick-up our thoughts today where we left off in our last reading: God’s basis must be our basis for acceptance. There is no other. We are “accepted IN the beloved.”
In the wondrous blessings of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa. 30:15 & Job 2:10
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Chapter 3—Acceptance – Part 3
God’s basis must be our basis for acceptance. There is no other. We are “accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6). Our Father is fully satisfied with His beloved Son on our behalf, and there is no reason for us not to be. Our satisfaction can only spring from and rest in His satisfaction. It is from God to us, not from us to God. When the Holy Spirit reasons with man, He does not reason from what man is for God, but from what God is to man. Souls reason from what they are in themselves as to whether God can accept them. He cannot accept you thus; you are looking for righteousness in yourself as a ground of acceptance with Him. You cannot get peace while reasoning in that way.
The Holy Spirit always reasons down from what God is, and this produces a total change in my soul. It is not that I abhor my sins; indeed, I may have been walking very well; but it is ‘I abhor myself.’ This is how the Holy Spirit reasons; He shows us what we are, and that is one reason why He often seems to be very hard and does not give peace to the soul, as we are not relieved until we experientially, from our hearts, acknowledge what we are.
Until the soul comes to that point, He does not give it peace—He could not; it would be healing the wound slightly. The soul has to go on until it finds there is nothing to rest on but the abstract goodness of God; and then, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ (Rom. 8:31).
Sadly today, most believers actually reason just the opposite—from themselves to God. When all is going well and God seems to be blessing, then it is that they feel He loves and accepts them. But when they are stumbling and everything seems dry and hard, then they feel that He does not love and accept them. How can this be? There is nothing about us to commend us to God, our acceptance being in Christ, plus the fact that most of our true spiritual development comes through the dry and hard times. Thank God, He has accepted us in His Son, and upon this fact we must rest our faith. As in justification, our acceptance is by grace alone. In his classic, Romans, Verse by Verse, Wm. R. Newell presents some penetrating thoughts regarding this grace. (pp. 245-47).
“There being no cause in the creature why Grace should be shown, the creature must be brought off from trying to give cause to God for His Grace… He has been accepted in Christ, who is his standing! He is not ‘on probation.’ As to his life past, it does not exist before God: he died at the cross, and Christ is his Life. Grace, once bestowed, is not withdrawn: for God knew all the human exigencies beforehand: His action was independent of them, not dependent upon them…
“The Proper Attitude of Man Under Grace:
To believe, and to consent to be loved while unworthy, is the great secret.”
….to be continued
