"Obedience to commandments is not the occupation of adults. Obedience to commandments is primarily a children’s issue, when the devil beats us up with the law. Whereas our Spirit unction now is to leave the elementary things--there are plenty of teachers for those--and go on to the deeper things of God, where the only 'obedience' that concerns us is the 'obedience of faith' (Rom 1:5; 16:26). But we will have to take a moment to mention this view of 'obedience.'
"It’s pretty much a given, that when many people mention obedience, 'personal behavior,' is usually in the forefront of their minds. And Paul does say quite a bit about that, so it’s no wonder so many people major on themselves, instead of God. Because when one’s focus is on one’s behavior, one’s focus is on oneself. The only way to focus on oneself is to be as if apart from God. 'Self-occupation' is what the law breaks, because it finally 'kills us' with our inability to live it. 'I was alive once, without the law, then the commandment came, sin revived, and I died . . .' (Rom 7:9).
"There is for many of us a time of settling in the Lord and taking a stand that we belong to Him, that we are His person. In our early days, because perhaps these were the things the Spirit overcame in us, we might take stands on personal moral issues, habits, the 'outer things' we most often think of when somebody mentions 'sin.'
"For many, in the beginning it is about being 'delivered' from things we used to do, and making a 'clean break' with 'the world.' There is nothing wrong with that. Praise God!!!
"Another corresponding thought that accompanies the pre-occupation with our behavior, is that if we are God’s, then who we are to others matters, because we are supposed to be in some way representative of Him. So for quite a number that begins a serious effort on our part to do our best for God, and to obey Him, rely on Him, trust Him, do good, love others, help others, keep down the flesh, listen to the Spirit, learn His word, etc. Always with us 'down here' seeking divine approval and blessing, with God 'up there' sending down blessings and tribulations and like the big giant Hall Monitor In the Sky, always frowning and disapproving and meting out punishments for our many mistakes.
"Praise God, it is often the case that that very struggle for God leads to a downfall, because this committed self, which knows it loves God with all its heart, finds out through living life that it falls far short. The evidence is plain. We haven’t done all we said we would do. We haven’t been all we thought we would be.
"That is the struggle that takes us through, not doctrinally or theologically, but by the reality of which Paul is speaking, the bondage of Romans 7 into the Spirit liberty of Romans 8. Where in Romans 7 he finds himself doing what he strives not to do, and visa versa. He wants to OBEY--to keep the commandment that said, 'Thou shalt not covet.' He has the will to obey, he says further down, but he can’t make it happen. 'For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.' (Rom 7:18). Though he willed to do it, still he could not keep the commandment!
"He finds that Another must do it. That is the message of Romans 8. Another does it in us, top to bottom, a-z. Christ our all in all. No parts sticking out of Christ. Baptism. Drenched.
"So in the New Testament the commandment of 'obedience' is fulfilled by the One giving the commandment. Not the party which cannot ever fulfill its part because it is 'weak, through the flesh.' (Rom 8:3).
"Jesus in Gethsemane shows that in the hour of temptation, the Father continues to do the works, and in this awful temptation to become separate from God by entering into His own ('separate' Jesus’) will, which pulled Him to the breaking point, in that agonizing scene God prevails.
"Gethsemane may have been the darkest, most dangerous hour the universe ever had. It is an hour when God is tempted to oppose Himself, and possibly pull apart the fabric of the Godhead, by means of the Son who has been overcome by a separate will. This would only serve to prove Satan’s claim, that the infection reached into the Godhead itself, that even God Himself could not help Himself to prevent His Only Begotten from separating into the strong delusion that He must, in the end, be for Himself.
"Jesus had said continually during His years of ministry that He had only one will--the will of His Father. That was all He was. Yet here in Gethsemane this separate Jesus shows up, one who is tempted to think that maybe there’s another way, even though in Spirit He already knew.
"So yes, it was the truly human humanity of Jesus of Nazareth that was pulled into such great stress in His temptation that he perspired blood. And what would we expect but such a great tension in the creation that night? He was about to take on the power that had enslaved the world since Adam, and remove him from his place, and to set up His Eternal Kingdom. This is far beyond our comprehension.
"This is not just a doctrine of the Christian faith, but rather an event that actually takes place in all of us, when we see, as the scripture says, like lightning lighting the entire landscape from east to west all at once, that this reality is that the Christ has sent light into all the world, and that He has changed all the darkness we formerly knew into light, so that we live in universe of light, and this light goes farther than the eye can see or the brain can comprehend, penetrating every single nook and cranny of creation and self, and this is only a little of it. But everything was at stake here. Humanity and the whole creation. He must succeed.
"We do not, cannot really, understand His place I think. I can only say that He was trusting to the point of death--which is a complete giving up of all, everything, throwing in the towel, the whole enchilada--believing that in His death the Father would do two things: first, redeem humanity and all creation, and second, bring Him OUT, after He had fully taken on all the sin into Himself to overcome it, so that He was raised The Victor over sin, in each of us, and in all the creation as well.
"No one, not even Jesus, could do such a thing. Jesus lived, died and was raised again by the Holy Spirit just as we experience. The Spirit of the power of the Father!
"That is because out of His struggle, He walked in rest. To wrestle in the Spirit is where we settle matters in Christ and God, but out of those wrestlings we learn that He is upholding our steps. 'Behold my servant, whom I uphold.' (Is 42:1). This was written for the Messiah, who was then forthcoming, but Who now has moved into and lives in us, and as us!
"Then, having that victory, having moved from double-mindedness, where one minute I’m walking in the flesh, the next I’m walking in the spirit--'WHO SHALL DELIVER ME [FROM THIS MADNESS]?' (Rom 7:24 – brackets mine)--the deliverance, contrary to what many are taught and believe, comes. So many are camped in the last part of Romans 7:25, believing that life is an endless un-winable struggle between the flesh and the spirit. But that 'belief' is a bill of goods. It is incorrect. It comes as the pure water of life when we see and come to know by the Spirit (Rom 8:2,3):
"From then on, we live in the obedience of faith, rather than precepts. There is only one obedience in the obedience of faith. Just one.
'For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.' (John 3:17,18).
'For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?' (1 John 5:4,5).
"The obedience of faith. And before I move to this next issue, one more personal comment about this faith issue.
"Remember --'the Son does nothing of Himself.' Do you see it yet?
"One day I said to the Lord, 'Lord, you’re even going to have to do the believing here, because I can’t do that, either!' Made all the difference in the world."
No comments:
Post a Comment