WE continue the topic of Discipleship in our look at Principles of Spiritual Growth. Previously I referenced Isaiah 6 where the prophet sees the very throne room of God, beholds His holiness and worshiping angels. Already set apart in the service of God, there was a need for something deeper if Isaiah was to continue on and to be truly useful and effective in his call. The symbolism and metaphor in this passage goes to the core of what we have been observing. It is one of several OT narratives that points to the cross in the believers’ life, “not I but Christ.” If you read, or are familiar with the passage, you know a hot coal was taken from the altar and placed upon Isaiah’s mouth –
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.” (vv 6-7)
AFTER this Isaiah hears the call for one to go forth as God’s mouthpiece of judgment and warning. But the point here – for Isaiah to be such, he had to speak God’s words, not his own. Yes, sin needed to be cleansed and purged so as not to disqualify the LORD’s messenger (v5). But think for a moment of the physical effects of the searing coal upon the lips and mouth. Think of when you may have experienced a burn and the scarring, numbing effects that followed the initial pain. Isaiah would have lost the sense of hot or cold, taste for bitter or sweet; the use of his tongue, month, and lips would have been pure utility, bringing him no personal delight or displeasure. In a way, the tool of his trade had died to him, that he might serve and speak as one who died and yet lives. (Rom 12:1-2) This is a turning point for Isaiah, as it is in all who would take up [their] cross daily, and follow [Christ] (Luke 9:23ff).
DO you enjoy being discomfited? If not, I dare say you will not understand what this means or achieve what Paul was speaking to when he exhorts Christ’s disciples to follow him (Paul) as he followed Christ in pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:14)
WITH this prayerfully in mind, let us consider what our author has to say in this next installment regarding Discipleship.
With regards in Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas. 1:2
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Chapter 13—Discipleship – Part 3…
We will be ready to take up our cross when self becomes intolerable to us, when we begin to “hate our life” as spoken of in Luke 14:26. This deep burden of self and hunger to be like Him cause the function of the cross—crucifixion—to become attractive. The long devastating years of abject bondage make freedom in the Lord Jesus priceless—the cost becomes as nothing to us! We begin to share (think of it!) the attitude of our Lord Jesus and of Paul. “For the joy that was set before him,” the Lord Jesus “endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). The attitude of the Apostle Paul became: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14). “Let this mind [attitude] be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).
Yes, we begin to glory in the cross, our very own freedom from all that enslaves, from all that would keep us from fellowship with our risen Lord. So we begin to take up our cross, our liberation, our personal finished work held in trust for us so long and patiently by the Holy Spirit. Talk about your trust funds!
And here is how we take up and bear our cross: Finally prepared by our needs, aware that our bondage was broken in Christ on Calvary, we definitely begin to rely on that finished work—we appropriate. Our attitude becomes: I gladly and willingly take, by faith in the facts, my finished work of emancipation that was established at Calvary; I reckon myself to be dead indeed to sin and alive to God in Christ. This is taking up one’s cross. As we learn to do this, we begin to find these facts true in experience. The Holy Spirit brings that finished work of death and applies it to all of the old nature, which is thus held in the place of death—the death of Calvary. If and when we turn from the facts and begin to rely on anything or anyone else, including ourselves, self is released from the cross, as active and enslaving as ever. Through this process we are patiently taught to walk by faith, to maintain our attitude of reliance on the finished work of the cross. …to be continued
