WE are back now to where we left off in Principles of Spiritual Growth at Chapter 9, Consecration. Rather than make my usual opening musing, I want to go right to our author’s next paragraph following the last posting, along with the next paragraph that follows, then close with my comment.
First of all, it is utterly futile to expect a believer, by means of consecration, surrender or commitment, to step from his ground of substitution as spoken of in Romans 3–5 on to that of the deeper truths in Romans 8 and 12:1.
There is the all-important area of identification truth in Romans 6, 7 that cannot be skipped over. Every hungry-hearted Christian yearns to be fully consecrated and conditioned for an effective life and service. And from the very outset, until hard experience teaches him otherwise, the well-meaning believer thinks that since he has the will to obey God and to be what He intends for him, he should attempt to carry it out through personal consecrated effort with His help. He seeks to struggle forward via the love motive; i.e., He did for me, so I must do for Him.
…….. to be continued
OUR author Miles Stanford is going to further expand on this, but I want to reinforce what is being said, that when it comes to Christian growth and being fully consecrated and conditioned for an effective life, there are no silver bullets, no one shot or 12-step program for success. It is a matter of consistent application to the means of grace, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little; a continued pressing towards the mark (Isa. 23:13, Phil. 3:14). Somewhere on my bookshelf I’ve a notebook crammed full of 97 basic Bible doctrine studies, with notes and outlines dating back to many years ago when I started getting serious about this thing called the Christian Walk. There are 107 Shorter Catechism questions; the Larger contains 195, all fundamental to understanding the Christian faith. When I think of fundamental understanding, my thoughts turn to Berkhof’s Manual of Christian Doctrine, or his Summary work, or his excellent Systematic Theology. My list of such basic but invaluable works does not end there. It is list not exhaustive of what’s available for study. But it is representative of what is important to know and thoroughly grasped in the basic and foundational beliefs of the faith found in nearly endless teaching manuals. And then, it doesn’t stop there. There is much nuance to the faith to be sure, as Solomon wrote, of making many books there is no end; and the bottom line is quite simple, the conclusion of the whole matter [is]: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man (Ecc. 12:12-13).
HAVING said that though, there are endless facets to those commandments, and how our Lord would have us live them out. When Paul cried out, Lord, what would you have me to do? (Acts 9:6) -the answer was ultimately to bring every thought captive to the joyful obedience of Christ (2Cor 10:5). Quick fixes and silver bullets are for fiction stories and fantasies, not for the real world of putting off the old and putting on the new man in Christ (Eph. 4:20-24). So, with that in mind, we will stop here and proceed with the next post with what our author has to say further regarding Consecration.
With highest regards in Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa. 30:15; Jas. 1:2
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