THE CHRISTIAN: POSITIONALLY perfect IN Christ while PRACTICALLY growing BY Christ....
Once saved, God intends for Christians to grow and become more and more like Christ. Tozer said, "Refuse to be average." But when we resolve to do so, it is good to remember there exists a world of difference between busy activity and meaningful progress. Mere busyness cannot serve as a substitute for productivity.
Alarmingly, today's Church is like a rocking horse with lots of motion but not much genuine progress. 'How to' seminars are prolific, the same ones offered fifty year ago. The ecclesiastical world seems stuck and stale. But, God intends that His people "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). And let's be clear that what God looks for isn't necessarily 'bigness' and hype (the world would have us think so), but rather, like the mustard seed, that which may be imperceptible but nevertheless significant. Furthermore, God's kind of growth is not just corporately engendered (the local church), but, also personally wrought (daily with God). In fact, the corporate church is far too elevated in Christian experience, as if all we need to do to advance in Christian maturity is to go to church more often. At best, this results in very few hours at services. A personal walk with God can entail hours and hours, if so engaged. The corporate approach (ordered by the Lord and valuable in its own right), as a single means of Christian maturity, is more than refuted by mere observation. Anemic Christians abound, and often they are the ones 'at Church' the most. Christians must be encouraged to "walk and talk" with the Lord continually.
POSITIONALLY, when a sinner believes in Jesus Christ, he is at once perfect "IN Christ Jesus." The Bible clearly states, "But by His doing you are IN Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." God the Father always sees the believer "in Christ Jesus." What we are "in" is what we are surrounded by. If I'm in a pool of water I'm surrounded by that water. If I'm "in Christ" He is my perfect righteousness. Jesus IS 'righteousness' imputed (or charged) to the believer's account, thereby rendering every Christian positionally perfect IN Him. Hereby the thrice-holy God is rendered fully satisfied. God the Father always sees the believer "in Christ." If I look at something through rose-colored glasses, everything comes up rosey. God ever seeing us through Christ, everything comes up perfect.. Theologically, we say, God is thereby propitiated. John says, "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world" (1 John 2:1-2).
Now, PRACTICALLY speaking, the saved person, positionally made perfect IN Jesus, must then day by day grow BY Christ Jesus, by His enabling grace. Like the caterpillar becoming a beautiful butterfly, an arduous process is involved requiring the believer to utilize all the provisions of grace designed for such change. It takes a lifetime of effort, patience and learning the ways of the Lord. Really it takes all the Biblical concepts of wrestling, running the race, fighting the good fight of faith, disciplining self, and even buffeting (beating) self (Ephesians 6; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27) to see it happen. But God is vitally interested in any such determined endeavor and supplies all that is needed to carry it out. We call these "all things" (see below) His means of sanctifying grace. The Apostle Paul reasons, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). Are not these "things" that whereby we fight the good fight of faith?
Therefore, let us rejoice being IN Christ Jesus but with a patient spirit proceed to "work out (our) salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in (us), both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). Paul instructs us: "Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of (seize hold of what you have, hang on to it, prize it, hold it close) the eternal life to which you were called..." (1 Timothy 6:12). In other words, in order to grow into Christ-likeness, get off the rocking horse and climb on the walking/working horse. Or, to press the initial figure, see yourself in a cocoon becoming more and more in the likeness of Jesus. The grace that saves us is completely unmerited. It is all of God, through and through. But, it seems to me that sanctifying grace, or that whereby we grow in Jesus, meshes His enabling grace with our diligent upward desires and efforts. We can't live the Christ-life without Him; He can't do what He wants in us unless we strive by His grace to intently perfect holiness for Him. Of course, at the same time, He is ever at work to bring us to the point(s) of desiring to so strive. And so "we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18). Yes, it takes a life time of endeavor, moment by moment, day by day, year by year. This is Christian living! He is at work; we are at work. Praise God, that at the very moment of the new birth IN Jesus we are rendered justified before God (and positionally sanctified, redeemed, etc.) and fully accepted IN the Beloved (Jesus), and all this by His grace plus nothing of ourselves. But in the daily sense, we are being sanctified BY Christ and by His "freely given" means of grace, namely, the Bible, the Church, the Holy Spirit, the preaching and teaching of the Word and the daily consumption of the Word by reading and meditation. It is right at this juncture that we often fail because we somehow think that all this will somehow add up to a 'Christ-like life' in some kind of an automatic way. We become well-versed in the Bible but fail to put it into practice. This is where the "will" must become involved. The above list of "means" will be merely intellectual unless we take what we've learned and put it into practice. The struggle of which Paul often talks now comes into view.
In dietary matters, if I'm obese and am offered a second piece of strawberry pie, it takes enormous "won't" power to refuse. "I know I should refuse but, oh, how I want it!" Here is where what I know about the dangers of over-eating must be put into practice and the tough decision of saying "no" made. And so the inward battle begins. I say, "I just can't refuse that luscious piece of pie." But if I want to get at a healthier weight, I JUST SIMPLY MUST! I won't die if I don't have that extra pie. It'll be for my greater good if I refuse. And so the process of becoming healthier proves an excruciating process to make the tough choice. It's agony! It IS and Paul says the same when it comes to the Christian life. Listen to him: "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified." (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). And Peter adds: "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. (1 Peter 4:1-2). Further, the writer of Hebrews intensifies all this by saying "let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus... You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin..." It is most fashionable these days to extol "unmerited grace" and to apply it to Christian living. God's marvelous "unmerited grace" saves us. It completely saves us from the guilt and penalty of sin. It guarantees eternal life. All this is gloriously true! But when we proceed to think that we engage in daily Christian living merely by pleading the "unmerited grace" that saved us, we set ourselves up to easily confess our daily sins (no big deal), seemingly making everything right with God (after all we're saved all by grace and eternally safe), and then go back to living the same old way. After all, we're saved and safe. In this belief there are no "works" requirement for the daily life of living for Jesus. But Scripture says, yes there are! "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" The apostle Paul, after extolling a salvation which is by grace alone, plus nothing, proceeds to challenge all of us with these words: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10). We're not saved BY good works but we are saved UNTO them.
I think that the Scriptures teach that the unmerited grace that saves us from sin and hell, and makes us perfect in Christ, continues with us for the battle of the Christian life but is coupled with our efforts to do the wrestling, running, the putting on of the armor and engaging in the fight so clearly presented in many places in the New Testament. In other words, we must distinguish between salvation's unmerited grace and a merited grace, or cooperative grace whereby we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. In a sense, Christian living is one-hundred per cent God, but 100 per cent the Christian. And so, Paul enjoins us with these words: "work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13).
If we do not believe in a merited kind of grace for Christian living and assume that the free and unmerited grace of salvation will somehow carry us through, how will we explain the following passage that predicates God's favors upon our behavior?
"The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His ordinances were before me, and I did not put away His statutes from me. I was also blameless with Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes. With the kind You show Yourself kind; With the blameless You show Yourself blameless; With the pure You show Yourself pure, and with the crooked You show Yourself astute" Psalm 18:20-26).
This seems to say that there is indeed a merited grace God bestows on those who diligently pursue His ways.
And so I think it must be concluded that while initially saved by unmerited grace alone, there exists for Christian living an interplay between His enabling provisions of grace and our obedient responses thereunto. "If you love me, keep my commands." The unmerited grace of salvation is bestowed once for all when a sinner believes in Jesus Christ while the unmerited/merited grace of the daily Christian walk continues until the believer sees Christ. Therefore, the worm waits while the chrysalis with time emerges with exquisite beauty, even that of Christ Himself.
dick d. christen
When God chooses to use people for His purposes, He also divinely enables them. A key agent with which He does this is the person and power of the Holy Spirit.
And so it was when He selected Saul to be the first king of Israel. When Saul's kingship failed it wasn't God's fault, it was Saul who disregarded the Spirit and walked willfully and disobediently in his own way. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ but can be quenched and grieved whereby the divine enablement, so graciously given, is ineffectual. The 'new person' may quickly revert to the old self.
The prophet Samuel uniquely appointed Saul to be the king, sent him on his way, and among other supernatural indicators, he promised that at a certain location the prophets of God would be present and a most miraculous thing would take place. Here is what Samuel prophesied:
"Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man" (1 Samuel
210:6).
Here are a few observations:
1. Doing God's bidding necessitates God's enabling grace. Mere humans, in and of themselves, can't do what God orders. Christians can't live 'the life' on their own. And so, He freely gives His servants all things pertaining to life and godliness. In faith and obedience we must avail ourselves of them. And, talk about the extraordinary! He even gives the presence of the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit Himself. How meager and foolish ever to attempt to live for and serve God in our own strength.
2. God in no way skimps when giving His servants what they need. The Spirit came "mightily" upon Saul. When Saul failed, he could never blame God. It was his own rebellious heart that led him away. He listened to his inner voice (as many advise today) and failed to hearken to God's. Are we not also prone in the same way?
3. What happened to Saul happened publicly. Others were present and immediately recognized the divine nature of the occasion. Ponder the 'public' nature of being a Christian. We confess Jesus before others, go to a public house of worship, are publicly baptized and obediently participate in the church administered ordinances, and, among other such visible activities, are instructed not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
4. The work of God must always be in concert with the Word of God. Saul would prophecy. He would handle the very words of the Almighty. He would be communicated to by God Himself and would share those messages with others. Love must always rejoice in the truth. The purposes of God and His daily guidance are communicated through His words of truth. Today, the Bible is God's authoritative Book for all faith and practice. It is replete in and of itself.
5. Saul would be changed into another man. He would become a new creature. He now was divinely indwelt and enabled. His entire being was sanctified for God's service. The man from a lowly family in Benjamin now was the leader of God's nation on earth. He was transformed from chasing animals to leading God's chosen ones.
In each of these observations Saul undoubtedly marveled. He sensed how special was his appointment and so proceeded to do the work.
But chapter 15 of 1 Samuel spells out his downfall. He pitted his will against the will of God. God expects attention to the details of His plan. Every word is important. Saul, in a seemingly insignificant way disobeyed. All he did was leave out the word "all." When he went against the enemy, God said "utterly destroy all." He failed due to his own human reasoning. Great was his fall and disgrace. In his own strength he faltered, became murderous, turned to a witch for answers and proceeded down and down to a ignominious death.
Lesson: Get serious about God's purposes and determine to do God's work in God's enabling grace. Beware of the inbred obstinacy of the fallen human will and its foolish disregard for God's will and enabling grace to live for Him. How are the mighty fallen! The paths of history are strewn with the wrecks of such failures. No one of us is above such disaster and therefore need to submit fully to God, do this moment by moment, to put on the whole armor of God and ever watch and pray that we will not enter into temptation.
The evidence of saving faith is not how much you believe but how well we behave. The key to the Christian life is OBEDIENCE. Hereby the world sees Jesus in us, the new you!
rc
My all-time favorite non-Biblical quote is: THE EXCELLENCE OF A CIRCLE LIES IN ITS ROUNDNESS, NOT ITS BIGNESS.
This insightful statement counters America's obsessive notion that to be "the best" it must be full of hype, bigness, unlimited upsurge and growth, higher numbers, noisy crowds and even bigger plans for the future. I’ve read of large multi-billion dollar corporations that lose a few million and panic. And the Church follows suit. Big is always better and spells success. And so, dissatisfaction is subtly implanted in the soul if the institution isn't booming. We begin to always feel sub this or that. But, strange as it may seem, sometimes smaller means better. Back door revivals often have very positive effects. It's refreshing when quality trumps quantity.
Think about this: If the Lord said He had 'much' people in Corinth ("I have much people in this city" - Acts 18:10), might this possibly mean that in another place He may have just a few? And if so, for the most part, do not 'results' expectations need to be adjusted accordingly? This may comfort small church pastors who are always bombarded with the notion that 'big is always better.'
Read the parables again. Matthew 13 extols the relatively poor yield of LITTLE seed sown (only one-fourth of the seed sown succeeds), the surprising outcome of the TINY mustard seed and the all-permeating effect of SILENT yeast. Reading these stories cause us to ask: do we really believe that little is much if God is in it? At the same time we acknowledge that big is great too IF God is in it and it is not mere worldly hype or the result to employing crowd psychology methodology. Jesus did minister to great crowds.
Now, let me remind us of four 'LITTLE', but significant things in Proverbs (Proverbs 30:24-28). They all teach us wisdom:
“There be four things which are little creatures upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise”:
"The ANTS are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer" (THE WISDOM OF PREPARATION)
The CONIES (small rabbit like creatures) are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks" (THE WISDOM OF ASSOCIATION)
"The LOCUSTS have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands"(THE WISDOM OF COOPERATION)
"The SPIDER taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces."(THE WISDOM OF DETERMINATION)
- dick christen
In HANNAH'S PRAYER she insightfully says, "For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, And He set the world on them" (1 Samuel 2:8c). All things are upheld by the Word of His power! His supernatural pillars can not be seen by the human eye, rather, only by the eyes of faith. He's got the whole world in His hands. He says so! It is so! The same with a believing life, any life. The next phrase in her prayer says, "He keeps the feet of His godly ones" (v9a). Walk with God and be comforted, feel safe and secure! 😀
dc
CHRISTIANS, when contemplating marriage, should not look around for a partner, but should intently look up, asking God Himself for his or her partner.
Marriage is of God! It is His idea. Remember, He said it is not good for a man to be alone. And so, He performed the world's first surgery, took a rib from the man and made for him a wife. Doesn't it make sense therefore that before all other callings, a man is first of all called to be a husband. This, of course, if in any given life, it is God's will for marriage. It makes all the sense in the world to ardently ask God, the inventor of marriage, for His choice of a mate. We often have not, or discover we have the wrong partner, because we failed to seek God's will and earnestly wait on Him! If this is the case, it is no reason, in and of itself, to terminate such a union. Two have become one! We just have to 'make do' with second best, otherwise the ripping and agonies of divorce will be experienced. God specializes in bringing beauty out of ashes, victory out of defeat and our foolish 'second best' choices.
To bring out the full meaning of God's mandate for marriage, it was Matthew Henry who first said, "The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, not out of his feet to be trampled on by him; but out of his side to be equal to him, under his arm to be protected, and hear his heart to be loved."
Ephesians 5:24-33 serves as a key marital passage in God's Word. Married folks need to read it regularly and discover again and again God's key watchwords for the husband and for the wife. They should ponder them and put them into practice. They do work!
Love is the man's key word, a love that selflessly gives and gives. God's kind of husband lovingly and faithfully tends to his partner through thick and thin (no pun intended). Unfortunately too many men possess a macho, 'I'm the boss,' 'serve me, I'm the king around here' attitude that tragically counters God's way. Such a man and his marriage will falter.
Submission, is the wife's term. This denotes a humble heart that respects, as much as is possible, even a flawed husband.
Locked in these words are the secrets for a successful relationship. For the man it is a love like that of Christ Himself for the Church (ponder that!). Much sacrifice is required.
For the woman, it is a submission that is a 'built-in carry-over' from Genesis where, after the fall, God said, "Yet your desire (Hb. teshuqah meaning 'longing.') will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). Even a very strong woman, while not curtailing her God-given abilities, must maintain a spirit of acquiescence toward 'her man.'
Husband sir, don't mistakenly define love! It's a real nitty-gritty, giving, serving quality that comes from the heart but expresses itself even in the most menial matters of life. A man who thinks love is just romance and sex will struggle with what God mandates.
And, madam wife, don't fight what God has ingrained in the very DNA of every woman. You need men. You may be superior in many ways but they are physically stronger and have abilities you will never possess, let alone God's mandate as 'head chief.' Frustratingly today's women lib groups try ever so hard to bypass what God has decreed domestically, not that abuse and unfair advantage shouldn't be opposed in all areas of life. It is always amusing that some women who are very vocal about equal pay and perks nevertheless still want men to open the door for them, treat them like queens and bow to their every wish and fancy. If you insist upon absolute equality, open your own door, fix your own coffee, paint your own house, mow your own lawn and repair your own car engine.
The Amplified version brings out the deep meaning in the concluding verse of the above mentioned passage (Ephesians 5:24-33): "However, let each man of you [without exception] love his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly]" (Ephesians 5:33). The word in the Greek for the wife respecting and reverencing her husband is isphobeo, meaning "to put to flight, to terrify, frighten or to fear." Smile! I didn't write that, God did. It's the same fear enjoined upon us toward God. We fear Him in the sense of being awestruck and respecting him. Toward a spouse, a woman is to do this even though every man is obviously full of shortcomings and worse. Surely, there are no perfect men. But, even as God wants us to respect a political leader, even though in disagreement, so a godly wife will honor a husband, at the very least for the God-given authority place in him. At the same time a Christian husband will ever attempt to earn that submission.
The husband's word in the Greek is agapao which pertains more to an action than a feeling. It is a noble word describing Christ's love that caused Him to suffer and die for sinners. The husband is to love like that? This is the epitome of a selfless, giving, sacrificing and serving kind of love, a love supremely attentive no matter the circumstances. If a woman has a man like this, she will die to love, honor and obey him.
Both requirements for the wife and husband are carried out in day by day experience only by the power of the Holy Spirit. For Christians a supernatural enabling grace is absolutely essential to carry out these ideals. Therefore, walking closely with God or "in the Spirit" must precede expected success. God has provided the resources needed; Christians must diligently pursue them. When the spouses fall short they must humbly acknowledge such, confess the same to each other and to God, and beseech the Lord for strength to behave as He has ordered. If they do, then it won't be reported that divorce is as common in the Church as it is in the world. This is why every successful marriage is always a triangle: a man, a woman and God.
dick christen
