THE previous posting found us returning to our study in Principles of Spiritual Growth, entering into the next chapter titled “Self.” I opened with the illustration of the need for garden pruning to remove old growth to allow for new, an illustration similar to that which our Lord uses in John 15. This stems from the fact that we know that in us [the natural man] there is “no good thing” (Rom. 7:18); knowing that if the life of Christ is to come out, if I am to grow in Him who is our life, the old has to be put off so that the new might be put on (Eph. 4:20-24). There are seasons of growth, seasons of pruning, seasons of rest, and times of preparation for new growth, all in the continuing cycle in our constant quest to be brought into conformity to Christ (Rom 8:29).
PAUL speaks of this struggle and “self” reality in the context of Rom 7:19, “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice”; going on to say later inRom. 7:24, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
AS I began to say last week, I recently encountered an old friend who once had deep struggles with patterns spiritual defeat and sin, yet now has moved on to a blessed level of maturity in Christ. I recall a forlorn phone call so many years ago when he slipped again and in despair cried out wondering if there was any hope. When he told me he was “struggling” with this particular trial again, I said almost joyfully that I was glad! I could almost hear his unbelieving thoughts through his silence on the other end of the phone, but I followed up saying “I’m glad you are struggling, because if you weren’t, and were just giving in without repentance and seeking deliverance, then I’d be concerned.” I pointed him to Romans 7, back to Romans 6, then to Romans 8, the necessity of faith (Col 2:6), and to the fact that what God had started in him He would complete (Phil 1:6). Of course, there were things he could do, and must do in exercising godly wisdom to lessen the temptation, but he could be assured that for the disciple of Christ intent on growing in Christ, the exposure and dealing with sin and unbelief (raw self) is the normal Christian life (1Cor 10:13). That even in his struggle he could be confident that as he worked out [his] own salvation with fear and trembling; it is God who works in [him] both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13).
OVER the years I’ve watched this young man go through the process, growing in grace and knowledge, “studying to show himself approved” (2Tim 2:15), wearing out more than one copy of Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening, remain steadfast at the means of grace, and subsequently finding a level of maturity as an example of one who is truly following Christ (1Cor 11:1).
THERE are no short cuts; there are no silver bullets; there are no TV show promised 30-minute resolutions. If we are to get out of Romans 7, into the joy of Romans 8 and the realities of Romans 12, we must do the process.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Rom 12:1-2)
SO with that, let us see what else our author has to teach us about “Self” in this chapter in Principles of Spiritual Growth.
With highest regards in Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa. 30:15; Jas. 1:2
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Chapter 10 — Self Part 2
For some years now the scene has been dominated by a conversion known as “commitment,” which often, sad to say, amounts to little more than a spiritual miscarriage. When there is a bit of life, it usually blossoms overnight into full bloom and soon becomes heavy with the fruit of “dynamic,” “radiant” personality coupled with busy, rushing service. The tragedy of this sort of thing is that self is at home and thrives in the glow of it all and is rarely found out for what it really is. All is indiscriminate “hearts and flowers.”
The healthy new birth, based on deep conviction of sin and repentance toward God, starts out clear and strong with love and devotion to the Saviour. But before long there comes the sickening realization of an element within that pulls one back to self-centeredness, to the world, to the rule of the Law, to sin. This learning by heart-breaking experience of the utter sinfulness and reigning power of self in the everyday Christian life is the means whereby we come to know the Lord Jesus beyond the birth phase—as our Saviour; on to the growth phase—as our Lord and Life. “To me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). No believer will truly come to know the Lord Jesus as his life until he knows by experience the deadly self-life deep within for what it is.
Not everyone, by any means, has had the experience of the seventh of Romans, that agony of conflict, of desire to do what we cannot do, of longing to do the right we find we cannot do. It is a great blessing when a person gets into the seventh of Romans and begins to realize the awful conflict of its struggle and defeat; because the first step toward getting out of the struggle of the seventh chapter and into the victory of the eighth, is to get into the seventh. Of all the needy classes of people, the neediest of this earth are not those who are having a heartbreaking, agonizing struggle for victory, but those who are having no struggle at all, and no victory, and who do not know it, and who are satisfied and jogging along in a pitiable absence of almost all the possessions that belong to them in Christ.
Many a young Christian, who has not been warned of this necessary voyage of discovery upon which the Holy Spirit will certainly embark him (Rom. 7), has been plunged into almost incurable despair at the sight of the sinfulness which is his by nature …to be continued
