07/18/2023
When I came to know Jesus it was in full submission to Him, but have I served Him over all else in my life? Have I been the servant He expected me to be, or has my commitment to Him become a much sought after convenience on my part? These are my thoughts this morning, and they convict me.
The greatest conversion in the Bible was that of Saul of Tarsus. He was a powerful man and a strong persecutor of Christians, but in an instant he became a disciple, and a dedicated servant of our Lord Jesus Christ. The moment he asked "Who are you, Lord?" He humbled himself in servitude, and left his old ways behind. Was our conversion this powerful? Was it as complete, and without stipulation?
“And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."”
Acts 9:4-6 ESV
I work at my relationship with Jesus every day, but I find it hard to stay focused on Him when my old self keeps stepping forward at every moment of decision. This might sound odd, but even though we are told that our old self was crucified with Jesus we look back at the cross only to see that he is either attempting to get down, or has pulled the nails completely from his hands. Is the person you once were securely nailed to the cross? Did you leave him there completely, or does he struggle against the nails?
“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
Romans 6:6-8 ESV
Saul left himself on the cross, and became Paul. He became a new man and left the old one crucified with Christ, but even with this great servant of Jesus, there was a struggle going on. Paul's old self kept trying to reclaim his dominance, just as ours does. The old Saul kept trying to get down from the cross and reassume his position as master of his life. Our lives are a struggle, and so was Paul's. Listen to him as he writes of it…
“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”
Romans 7:14-15 ESV
As we fight and win these battles of faith and righteousness, the nails that secured Jesus begin to hold our old selves more firmly to the cross. We stop finding a conflict at every decision point, and begin walking with the risen Christ with much greater ease. Our servitude becomes more established and the way easier to walk, but lest we get too comfortable, we must stay on guard, because even our own religion can attempt to free the captive of the cross we left behind. Oswald Chambers spoke of this when he wrote these words concerning our religion, and the danger of placing it before Jesus...
"Many a soul begins to come to God when he flings off being religious, because there is only one Master of the human heart, and that is not religion but Jesus Christ. But woe is me if when I see Him I say - I will not. He will never insist that I do, but I have begun to sign the death warrant of the Son of God in my soul." - Oswald Chambers
One of the most dangerous challenges to a good earthly marriage is routine. A couple gets settled into a way of doing things... the kids become a focus, going to work and coming home turns into complacency, taking a vacation to the same place every year is comfortable, and knowing how the other will react turns into taking one another for granted; there are so many snares in our daily lives. Suddenly we realize that our focus is no longer on each other, but elsewhere... it happens so subtly that we don't even recognize the enemy until he is among us. The excitement, joy, and really seeing one another has faded away and is replaced by the very things we do in the process of building the life we thought was together... about us... but became more about the things. Our faith is in danger of such "things", the same prayers, the place on the pew that no one else will sit in because that is our seat, the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, or a creed, without thinking, all of these things and hundreds more that over time have stolen the focus from Jesus. Religion, church, serving communion, all of these things can become our focus to the detriment of the very relationship they are meant to lift up and reinforce in us.
Yes, even those things we have put into place as aids to keep the old man on the cross can work against us if we are not careful. The wall we build, the fortress we establish, the strong towers we erect, in our attempt to shield us from sin, can become the very things we place our faith in, and when that happens we look back on an empty cross at Calvary, and wonder how that could possibly be.
Jesus is indeed new every morning, and if we seek the newness of Him as we go into our day we will never lose our focus. Just as we are instructed to do in our marital relationship, look at Him with the same eyes that saw Him when we first believed. Put the excitement of loving Him before all else, meet Him in places that you never saw Him before, or cast off the fears that keep you from doing something different. Jesus is not routine, He is constantly changing the scenery in our walk with Him... He is freedom, not a set of chains... so let’s serve Him with abandon. Let’s not let our religion become like the law to us, and take away the freedom we once meant it to be?
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Galatians 5:1 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the new covenant of freedom that Jesus has brought into my life. I thank you for the sin and self I left on the cross, and the new found excitement that I have claimed in serving Your Son. Father, your grace has freed me from bondage, and allows me to serve you willfully and with personal abandon. Take away those things that prohibit me from seeing your glory and the glory of your Son. Don't let my own fear of sin shield me from you, because in Christ my sin has been defeated, and in you I find peace and joy for all eternity. In you, Father, I hear the rushing wind, and the clap of thunder as the excitement of living for you thrills me and keeps me from wandering back into who I once was, or into the stoic tedium of a dead religion. Thrill me Lord as I was thrilled on the first day we met! Let me praise you in a shout... each day, and every moment.
“But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.”
Philippians 3: 7-11 CSB
Rich Forbes