How often do we look for strength in
the wrong places? I know that I am often guilty as charged! I have often looked
for sustenance in what I do instead of who I should look too. When I seem
somewhat victorious when looking to conquer a besetting sin, I feel some sort
of worth when I, for a time, seem to overcome, however this type of thinking is
nothing but foolishness.
Let me explain…
I do realize that I am not alone in my
rational, from the early days of Christianity, Christians walked into the same
trap! The Apostle Paul is very clear on this topic; do we think that once we were
saved by the Spirit it will now somehow be up to us? How could this ever be
true? It neither will nor ever can be true! Jesus Christ our Saviour is the
author and the finisher of our faith. We were all at one stage in our lives
dead in our trespasses and our sins; it took a miracle to save us! We were dead
but now we are alive and all because of our “born again” experience. How can a
dead man ever bring life to himself? It is impossible! This is why the Lord Jesus
had this to say to Nicodemus; “Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom
of God."” (John 3:3) – A miraculous event must take place in our lives
before we will ever be able to see anything related to heaven. The religious
people of the world may think they see things pertaining to heaven, but they
will be mistaken. God must do the work, He must give us life! Thank God for
Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, the One who paid the price for repenting
sinners; without His perfect work we would still be dead in our trespasses! But
now we are alive to Him! Our eyes have been opened to spiritual things!
With
that now established where do we go wrong? Now because we are alive to Him (we
are no longer dead), we think that we now need to somehow establish our worth
by what we do, making the work of the cross ineffective. The writer of Hebrews
refers to this type of justification as a “dead work”; “Therefore let us leave
the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of
repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,” (Hebrews 6:1) – In other words looking for self-justification
proving to God that we deserve to make it to heaven! If this is the way you are
endeavouring to make it to heaven, repent, turn to Jesus and understand; but take solace in the
fact that others before us thought the same way; “O
foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ
was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by
works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by
the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1-3) -Therefore there is no change in our application to the victory we
need to achieve in our Christian walks, having begun in the Spirit we need to
end in the Spirit! We need to find grace to overcome, not habitual self-taught
applications to put off our besetting sins, and we all have them, in one form
or another! If I have a temper and my anger needs to be mortified how do I do
it? Did I not come to Jesus just as I was at salvation and did I not trust Him
to save me? I must use exactly the same application to kill my anger, I must
trust in Him!
“Ordinances are nothing without Christ as a means
of mortification. Your prayers, and your repentances, and your tears-the whole
of them put together-are worth nothing apart from him. “None but Jesus can do
helpless sinners good;” or helpless saints either. You must be conquerors
through him who hath loved you, if conquerors at all. Our laurels must grow
among his olives in Gethsemane.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Signing off
Tyrone
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